CHICAGO – State Senator Heather Steans issued the following statement on news the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of extending Title VII employment protections to LGBT workers:

“This decision represents long-overdue acknowledgment that LGBT people deserve protection against arbitrary discrimination on the job,” Steans said. “I hope this decision also serves as the basis to undercut the president’s cruel move last week to deny trans Americans the right to medical care. This decision is justice for the LGBT community.”

The Supreme Court’s decision applies to two sets of cases. One involved a pair of lawsuits from gay men alleging they were fired because of their sexual orientation, and the other involved a suit from a transgender woman, Aimee Stephens, who alleged she was fired when she revealed her gender identity to her employers.

The ruling explicitly establishes that workplace discrimination against LGBT people violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a conclusion first drawn by federal courts in Chicago and New York.

“In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee's sex when deciding to fire that employee,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his ruling for the majority. “We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.”

CHICAGO –State Senator Heather Steans encouraged residents of the 7th Senate District to fill out the 2020 Census, protecting their representation in government and share of federal funding.

“Reporting rates are still below where they were in the 2010 census, and that means a less clear picture of how many people live here and what their needs are,” Steans said. “The census is more important than ever in determining what resources we get from the federal government, and filling it out has never been easier.”

Portions of Edgewater and Ravenswood lagged behind state averages in reporting in 2010 and continue to as the 2020 Census progresses so far this year.

Although filling out the questionnaire online is the quickest way to complete it, respondents can also submit their questionnaires by phone or by mail. Higher self-response rates mean fewer individuals are likely to receive visits from census surveyors to be counted in-person, something particularly important this year, Steans said.

“Census workers are doing everything they can to count everyone, and the more of us respond electronically or by mail, the fewer places those workers will need to go in person,” Steans said. “Let’s help them while we’re making sure we all count.”

Those who haven’t filled out the census questionnaire yet can visit 2020census.gov to find the online questionnaire and additional information about the census. To see local response rates across Illinois and the entire nation, visit www.censushardtocountmaps2020.us.

“We should not have needed a court order to tell us to do this.”

SPRINGFIELD — Responding to a 2017 court order that ruled Illinois has not fulfilled its end of an agreement to better care for the developmentally disabled, State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) passed legislation out of the Illinois Senate today to give the people who take care of their day-to-day needs a raise.

“Direct care workers in these facilities are feeding, clothing, bathing, monitoring, diagnosing and treating people with developmental disabilities and complicated medical conditions, and they’re currently doing that for less pay than the average receptionist,” Steans said. “They make less than Chicago’s minimum wage. It is a source of burnout, of turnover, of resentment. The situation has to change – both for the workers and the people they care for.”

CHICAGO – State Senator Heather Steans issued the following statement on news that Virginia today became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment:

“Virginia’s historic action today, a century after the ERA was introduced and women gained the vote, should tell us that the time is long overdue for this to become the law,” Steans said. “The idea that our government should not have the power to discriminate against on the basis of sex should not be controversial. Because of the time that has passed, there remains work to be done, but the American people have spoken loud and clear: It’s time for the Equal Rights Amendment.”

Thousands of people started lining up outside Illinois’ 37 dispensaries in the early hours of Jan. 1 to take advantage of the state’s newly legal recreational cannabis market. By the end of the day, those businesses had sold more than $3 million in cannabis and cannabis products to more than 70,000 customers, according to estimates from the governor’s office.

Last year, Illinois become the first state in the nation to legalize adult-use cannabis via a state law, joining the 10 other states that have legalized recreational sales. It also is the second state in the Midwest and the only among its immediate neighbors that allows sales, which could help draw in tourists.

State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago), the Senate sponsor of the measure, reflected that legalizing adult use via law rather than referendum has allowed Illinois to craft the fairest recreational cannabis rules in the country.