FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17th, 2023
Equality Illinois endorses Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot; urges bold equity agenda for second term
The state’s LGBTQ+ civil rights organization endorses Mayor Lori Lightfoot for re-election as Chicago’s Mayor.
In a field full of candidates committed to LGBTQ+ equality, Mayor Lori Lightfoot represents the strongest champion for LGBTQ+ identity. In her first term, Lightfoot has kept LGBTQ+ identity at the center of her administration’s priorities. She re-launched the Mayor’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Council, introduced a resolution to drive more city contracts to LGBTQ+ owned businesses, and created one of the first housing programs for Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men who are HIV-negative and use PrEP. During her first term in office, many LGBTQ+ serving organizations, particularly those serving residents with and at risk of HIV, saw an increase in city funding. Recently, her administration supported the Hire Trans Now initiative in partnership with the Chicago Therapy Collective to drive $75,000 toward the effort to increase trans employment in the Mayor’s Office and get 250 businesses throughout the city (5 in each ward) to commit to hiring trans workers.
In addition to her support of LGBTQ+ identity, she has been a stalwart for reproductive freedoms, freedoms that serve as the legal basis for many LGBTQ+ legal protections. In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s disastrous Dobbs decision, she prohibited city agencies from aiding out-of-state criminal proceedings against people seeking abortion care in Chicago and has directed $500,000 to front-line abortion care agencies such as the Chicago Abortion Fund and Planned Parenthood.
While Equality Illinois unequivocally endorses Mayor Lightfoot, we echo the sentiments of many of our valued partners that the Mayor should accelerate her administration’s response to many of our city’s most daunting challenges, particularly those challenges like health care and housing access which disproportionately impact our city’s BIPOC residents, including LGBTQ+ BIPOC residents. At the top of this list, we hope to see a bolder, more proactive agenda to redress the inequities perpetuated by the current state of policing in the city. The city must more boldly redress the harmful over-policing of Black and Brown communities and more aggressively root out harmful police actors, including those who affiliate with anti-LGBTQ+ organizations. We call on the Mayor to lead a re-envisioning of public safety in our city; one that centers equity in its approach and keeps its residents safe.
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