Illinois state senators were warned last week that they could expect violence if they voted to pass legislation that would permit businesses to install multi-occupancy bathrooms open to all genders, The Hill reported on Tuesday.
While speaking during last Thursday's Illinois Senate floor debate on House Bill 1286, GOP state Sen. Neil Anderson said that seeing "a guy" enter the same restroom as his 10-year-old daughter would drive him to physicality.
"I'm telling you right now, if a guy walks in there, I'm going to beat the living piss out of him," Anderson said. "So, this is going to cause violence, and it's going to cause violence from dads like me."
House Bill 1286 — which would require that mixed-gender, multiple-occupancy restrooms have specified signage and be equipped with floor-to-ceiling stall dividers, locks, partitions for urinals, baby changing tables, and at least one vending machine for menstrual products — seeks to expand an existing state law that requires single-occupancy restrooms be open to all genders.
The legislation passed the Senate largely along party lines in a 35-20 vote last Thursday, and it was given final approval by the Democrat-controlled House on Friday. The measure now awaits Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker's signature before it goes into effect.
The Hill reports that even though Anderson's remarks during the floor debate elicited cheers from supporters, Democratic Sen. Mike Simmons suggested that his comments be stricken from the record.
"I wouldn't want a single person in the state to read that record and think that anybody here would come after them if they would do something so mundane as to use the bathroom," said Simmons, who is Illinois' first openly gay state senator.
He also took to Twitter last Thursday and pointed out that Anderson's comments target those within the LGBTQ community.
"I refuse to accept dog-whistling against LGBTQ+ communities," Simmons wrote, "and today's floor debate on gender neutral restrooms legislation was no exception."
On Friday, LGBTQ rights groups Equality Illinois, Pride Action Tank, and AIDS Foundation Chicago issued a joint statement denouncing the "violent language" used during Thursday's debate. The statement also condemned the advocating of "transphobic violence" that was made by a "state senator" during Thursday's floor debate — a clear reference to Anderson and his comments.
"This violent language is appalling and emblematic of what trans and gender-expansive people experience in their daily lives," the groups wrote in their statement. They also referenced data from a 2015 survey that found 58% of transgender people in Illinois avoided public restrooms because they were fearful of confrontation.
"The violent language like that used by the state senator gives license to transphobic actors to harm trans people," the statement said. "Enough is enough."
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