Dupage Policy Journal

Rep. Jeanne Ives, (R-Wheaton) has accused the Chicago Tribune of false reporting and political bias based on a recent article originally titled "Lawmaker compares teachers who support transgender rights to ‘dirty old men.’"

“The headline is absolutely false," Ives told Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson on "Chicago’s Morning Answer" radio show. "I never said those words.  I never wrote those words, and I never made that comparison.” 

Proft is a principal of Local Government Information Services, which owns this publication.

The Tribune later changed the headline to "Lawmaker shares op-ed comparing teachers supporting transgender rights to 'dirty old men.'"

Ives said she had shared an article written by Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute that dealt with transgender issues in Illinois schools.

In her op-ed response, Ives said the Tribune described her views as being far right but didn’t call the ACLU or the Southern Poverty Law Center, both of which were cited in the article, as far left.

Ives said she believes people in Wheaton might not know what their children are being exposed to in school.

Months ago she went to the school board in her area and asked about the transgender bathroom policy.

“I knew for at least two years they had been allowing girls in the boys' locker room to change but not telling anybody about it,” Ives said.

Ives said her re-post of Higgins’ article is not newsworthy, but she did share her views about House Bill 1785, which passed the Legislator and would make it easier for transgender individuals to change the sex on their birth certificates without having sex reassignment surgery.

“The idea that you can change your birth certificate without having done any sort of sex reassignment surgery is ludicrous,” Ives said. “I don’t even like the idea that you can change who you were at birth based on having gone through the surgical process.”

Ives also gave her opinion on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's lawsuit against the U.S. Justice Department, which seeks to stop the agency from withholding grant money from sanctuary cities.

“The idea that the state of Illinois should just rewrite federal law is ridiculous,” Ives said.    

When asked whether she thinks Gov. Bruce Rauner’s amendatory veto of Senate Bill 1, the state's public school funding bill, will hold up, Ives said she hopes so.

“I really hope that my colleagues hold together,” Ives said.  “They need four Republicans to join the Democrats to override Gov. Rauner’s very surgical amendatory veto of this horrible legislation, which I don’t support in any form.”