Springfield – The following is a statement by Illinois State Senator Mike Simmons (D-Chicago), the first openly gay member of the Illinois State Senate and chair of the Senate Human Rights Committee, on the Supreme Court Decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis.

"The Supreme Court decision greenlights discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community and further puts our rights, our freedom, and our lives at risk. This is not the Supreme Court immigrants like my father envisioned as a beacon of justice for all Americans. This is not the Court that ended segregation or that just a few years ago granted the right to marry to anyone, regardless of sexual orientation.”

“This current Court is as unhinged and as disconnected with everyday Americans as the President who created it. I know this because my district is the most ethnically and economically diverse district in Illinois. Unlike the Supreme Court Justices, several of whom have jaw-dropping ethics issues, my colleagues and I actually talk to our constituents and craft policy as the peoples' representatives. The heinous part in this is that we have privileged men who hide behind their robes and legalese trying to legislate away our rights while millions of everyday people suffer.”

"This decision doesn't represent the will of the people. It reflects the prejudice of a minority of Americans who seek to exploit religious exemptions as tools of oppression, homophobia, and transphobia.

"We cannot stand by and allow an arch-conservative Court to trample on our rights and continue to turn back the hands of time by stripping away hard-won rights secured by my grandparents' generation. On the last day of Pride Month, we should have been celebrating LGBTQIA+ joy. Instead, we were forced to mobilize, once again, to demand that our rights are protected and to insist that we shouldn't have to put ourselves in jeopardy merely by asking a business to design a wedding website."

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