Bathroom monitors with flashlights?

Illinois lawmakers are in no hurry to pass a state budget after 287 days, but they certainly are in a rush to be the second state in the nation to try to legislate bigotry regarding transgender teens. Those who fail to be effective leaders on the big picture items always seem to busy themselves micromanaging.

House Bill 4474 would require schools to designate student restrooms and locker rooms as either male or female. Chromosomes and anatomy at birth would be used to determine which child passes the sign for “men” or “women.”

So are we planning to have gender police at the restroom doors? Will shower monitors kick out the Sneetches with stars upon their bellies?

Those worried about their children being uncomfortable around a transgender teen can talk about acceptance of those who are different. If their child cannot get past the issue, the simple solution is the one that we’ve all used during awkward or menacing bathroom enounters: Just leave.

The U.S. Department of Education has already spoken on this issue, saying Title IX makes it a violation of federal law for schools to discriminate by essentially pushing teens into a bathroom marked “other” that is separate but equal. The Illinois Human Rights Act also prohibits discrimination. For those who worry about “federal overreach,” how about state overreach of our local schools?

State Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton, said he’s elected to represent the values of his district. True, but enlightened values as opposed to the voices of bigotry, hatred and ignorance should win out as they did with race, sexual orientation and other gender issues.

School districts are responsive to their communities’ will and some have done a good job handling this issue when it surfaced. There are professional standards and school lawyers to advise them, so a state lawmaker from Belleville doesn’t need to tell the school district in Palatine how to run its high school. Same for some lawmaker from Rockford imposing her will on the Waterloo school district.

Nearly 75 percent of transgender kids feel unsafe at school. Do state lawmakers really want to add to the stigma, or tell other students that some politician is in charge of classifying and categorizing who they are as people and defining their body image?

The nation’s pediatricians, social workers, child welfare advocates, school counselors, mental health experts and the National Education Association are all coming out against H.B. 4474 and similar bills.

The Land of Lincoln, our nation’s cradle of human dignity and human rights, has no business legislating which bathrooms our children should use.

This story was originally published April 11, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Bathroom monitors with flashlights?."