Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker stood up for trans kids and called Donald Trump a “cruel bully” at a recent Human Rights Campaign event.
Pritzker has a reputation for backing LGBTQ+ rights and other civil liberties. In 2019, he signed an executive order to protect trans youth in 2019, and in 2023 he introduced legislation to prevent book bans. He spoke at the Human Rights Campaign dinner last month in L.A. about the Trump Administration’s agenda, which becomes more and more threatening with every executive order signed by Trump.
“Right now it’s drag queens reading books and transgender people serving in the military. Tomorrow, it’s your marriage license and your job they want to take.”
Pritzker went on to say” “Bending to the whims of a bully will not end his cruelty. It will only embolden him. The response to authoritarianism isn’t acquiescence. Bullies respond to one thing, and one thing only, a punch in the face.”
Pritzker also spoke directly to trans youth saying “in the midst of this existential fight, this battle that seems to consume everything, well, let’s not take the soul-sucking path of sacrificing the most persecuted for that which we deem to be most popular.”
“I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am. We are. We will,” he said.
According to Pink News, actor, singer and activist Janelle Monae also spoke at the HRC dinner and echoed Pritzker’s sentiments saying “Bullies only win when we let them think they can. Here’s the truth: bullying doesn’t stop when we grow up. It doesn’t end when we leave school. It just gets bigger, it rebrands itself. The bully gets elected president.”
