Illinois state lawmakers get hostile during debates on trans athletes in girls' sports

Fox News

22-05-2025

As Illinois faces a growing political divide over the issue of trans athletes in girls' sports, the state's lawmakers addressed the topic in a heated back-and-forth on the floor of the state capital on Wednesday.
The state's General Assembly members broke out into aggressive arguments over the issue during the session. One Democrat member even made the unsubstantiated argument that laws to keep trans athletes out of girls' sports would result in genital inspections of children. That argument was initially used by U.S. House Democrats who voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act in January.
The Illinois lawmaker to repeat the unsubstantiated claim was Rep. Kelly Cassidy of Chicago, who accused GOP colleagues of being "obsessed with children's genitalia."
"My colleagues on the other side of the aisle feel the need to share their obsession with children's genitalia once again," Cassidy said. "We are grown adults, and we are picking on kids because you are obsessed with children's genitalia."
Cassidy's statement was then pushed back upon by Republican Rep. Blaine Wilhour of Southern Illinois. Wilhour called out the state's Democrats as a whole for supporting gender transitions for minors and pointed out a recent track meet in Naperville, Illinois, that sparked national outrage after a biological male won a girls' race.
"These folks up here accuse people of being obsessed with kids' genitalia because they have the audacity to believe that boys should not be competing in girls' sports. But I just want to point out here that there is only one party, the Democrat Party, that is supporting and encouraging minor children to use life-altering and often unreversable hormone blockers," Wilhour said.
"What we've seen in Naperville, that's not fair competition. Not only that, it's abusive to these young girls and it's a clear violation of Title IX."
The recent Naperville incident has put the community and state under a national microscope in recent days. The controversy even prompted a series of heated debates, which went viral on social media, at the Naperville 203 Community School District Board meeting on Monday.
Democrat state Rep. Anna Stava-Murray, who represents Naperville, defended the trans student who won the race.
"I find it disgusting when adults try to bully children, and that's what's happening right now," Stava-Murray said.
"We have adults, including adults on the House floor, who want to take a moment that that child trained for and use it as a political talking point, that's disgusting, you should be ashamed of yourselves. That child did not ask to be in national media. That child's parents didn't consent to that."
Republican state Rep. Adam Niemerg then chimed in to condemn the Democrats for allowing the issue to continue in Illinois, warning of potential cuts to federal funding by President Donald Trump's administration for defying an executive order to keep trans athletes out of girls' sports.
"To think parents and kids still have to be dealing with this astounds me, after all, there is an executive order banning this kind of thing from happening. Folks, this nonsense has to stop. This insanity is leaving a trail of tears heartache and oppression of girls and women everywhere," Niemberg said.
"You want federal dollars? Then stop embracing policies that 90 or 95% of the people oppose! Stop letting boys compete in girls' sports! What is so hard about that to understand? I will not stay silent on this issue and neither will parents."
Niemerg also called out the mainstream media over coverage of the issue.
"The media needs to do their job and stop acting like this is not happening. Ask the governor directly, press him on this issue, do your jobs, and stop lying about what is going on here in Illinois," he said.
Tension over the issue in Illinois has mounted in recent months before coming to a head in the aftermath of the Naperville incident over the last week.
There is already one federal Title IX probe in Illinois regarding transgenders impeding on female spaces, but it is only against one school, that was launched back in March.
Deerfield Public Schools District 109 is facing a probe by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights after middle school girls were allegedly forced by school administrators to change in front of a trans student in the girls' locker room.
Back in April, the the Illinois High School Association announced in a public letter that Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Illinois Department of Human Rights have declared that state law requires that transgender athletes be allowed to participate based on gender identity. So it is continuing to allow biological males to compete with girls, as it has since 2006.
U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., has addressed two letters to the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Justice asking for federal intervention into the issue. Miller previously sent a letter in April and is now doubling-down on her pleas for the Trump administration to step in.
Miller's latest letter asks U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Education Secretary Linda McMahon to specifically look into the Naperville incident and consider pulling federal funding from the state, as seen in a copy obtained by Fox News Digital.
Even Chicago Bears legend Brian Urlacher has spoken out on the issue while his home state is ravaged by controversy.
"It's just different because we are men, there are certain things we do better than women, and it's just, number one, it's not fair, and if I had a daughter who had to be forced to play against a man, I would not be okay with it and I would raise hell about it," Urlacher said during an interview on the "Global View" podcast on May 9. "I just don't get it, it's a common sense thing, I just don't see how you can push this and make someone thing they're a different sex."
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