As we kickoff Pride Month, Illinois Legal Aid Online highlights resources for the LGBTQIA+ community. They may be helpful in exercising your legal rights.

First, Rights of LGBTQ+ persons provides an overview of laws that may impact the LGBTQIA+ community. Our Transgender law video by Chicago Volunteer Legal Services provides an overview of legal issues facing the transgender community.

Housing

The video My rights and fair housing for LGBTQ is part of a series of fair housing videos. It explains your right to not be discriminated against and what to do if you are.

Family & safety

A few resources we think can be helpful to the LGBTQIA+ community are:

• Short-term Guardianship. Use this Easy Form to appoint short-term guardianship of your child. 
• Gender violence victim’s rights. Anyone who faces gender-based violence has rights under the law.

School & the workplace

• The Civil Rights Act extends to gender identity and sexual orientation. Learn more about reporting discrimination at work.
• If you’ve been discriminated against at work, file an IDHR Employment discrimination complaint. 
• Learn more about rights to bathroom facilities that match gender identity in the workplace and school.
• Bullying and cyberbulling in school are against the law. Learn more about preventing and reporting bullying. 

Name changes & identification

• Use our Adult name change Easy Form to fill out the forms to change your name.
• Use our Name change for a child to change the name of a child.
• Our Can I change the gender on my ID and other records explains the process for changing your:
  • IL state ID or driver’s license,
  • US passport,
  • Social Security, and
  • Illinois birth certificate.
• Changing the gender marker on a birth certificate provides instructions for updating your sex designation on a birth certificate. It includes a [no-lexicon]link[/no-lexicon] to the required medical declaration.

When dealing with the police

This video by First Defense Legal Aid provides information on interacting with the Chicago Police Department for individuals who are transgender, intersex, or gender nonconforming.

Immigration

Our colleagues at the National Immigrant Justice Center have a dedicated initiative to provide legal help to immigrants who identify as LGBTQIA+. Learn more about their help if you are facing deporation.

What are we missing? How can we better [no-lexicon]serve[/no-lexicon] you?

Here at Illinois Legal Aid Online, we are continually working towards greater diversity, inclusion, and [no-lexicon]equity[/no-lexicon]. What are we missing in terms of legal information? What can we do to improve our services? Please let us know using the feedback link.