FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement from Illinois General Assembly LGBTQ Caucus & Equality Illinois:

This week in response to an outcry from a hateful few, Illinois-based insurer State Farm dropped their support for The GenderCool Project, which provides LGBTQ-affirming books to schools across the country on a voluntary basis. We are disappointed State Farm chose to make a knee- jerk concession to bigotry rather than stand in solidarity with our LGBTQ community and our allies who support inclusion. Given the rise of hate crimes and discrimination, decisions like this embolden those peddling hatred and make our society a more dangerous place.

While other states push intolerance and try to roll back the clock on our hard-fought rights, Illinois has been a champion in affirming the dignity our LGBTQ community. We have taken active steps to ensure Illinois schools teach students about the struggles and history of the LGBTQ community, as well as Black history and the history of communities of color broadly. In fact, Illinois recently became the first state to mandate teaching Asian American history.

State Farm promotes itself as 'standing in collaboration with LGBTQ organizations' to 'ensure all communities are valued and treated with respect and dignity.' This latest action to rescind support for GenderCool and the teaching of gender identity to families that want it is in direct contradiction to State Farm's purported values. Unless State Farm reverses its course of action, we will be compelled to call out State Farm's hypocrisy, including, but not limited to, any LGBTQ marketing State Farm plans on doing during Pride month.

Senator Mike Simmons

Majority Leader Greg Harris

Representative Kelly Cassidy

Representative Lamont Robinson

Representative Sam Yingling

Brian Johnson, CEO, Equality Illinois