Dear friends,

On Wednesday, the governor offered up a new plan to help address future COVID-19 outbreaks. This plan does three things:

• Establishes concrete, measurable criteria to determine when extra steps are needed to control outbreaks.
• Breaks Illinois down from four regions to 11, allowing more targeted responses.
• Establishes a clear plan for addressing outbreaks that is less restrictive than immediately returning to an earlier phase of our reopening schedule.

I want to thank you for continuing to provide feedback to me and other elected officials. We have all been conveying your questions and concerns to the governor and the Illinois Department of Public Health, and this new, more targeted strategy is largely due to the people of Illinois’ willingness to work together to address this crisis.

I also want to urge you to continue to wear masks, practice social distancing, and follow other guidelines from health experts. Taking these safety precautions will help ensure no region needs to move backward and our local small businesses continue to recover.

To read more about the plan, click here.

Please continue to wear masks, practice social distancing, and follow other guidelines from health experts. These safety precautions will help keep our neighbors safe, and ensure no region needs to move backward and that our local small businesses continue to recover.

Sincerely,

Heather A. Steans
State Senator, 7th Illinois Senate District

CHICAGO – Under a new law in effect today, Illinois schools will be required to include in their curriculum history about the contributions of LGBT people.

“As we move forward from a Pride Month marked by protests against injustice, it’s as fitting a time as ever to remind everyone that LGBT people must not be erased,” said State Senator Heather Steans, who sponsored the legislation in the Senate. “LGBT people have fought for our country, crafted enduring works of art, and produced great inventions. We need to honor their lives, their works, and their identities.”

Under the new law, Illinois public schools would be required to include the relevant curriculum in U.S. history courses.

The measure was House Bill 246, which passed the General Assembly last August.

Dear friend,

Thanks to the many Illinoisans who maintained social distancing measures, wore masks in public, and took care to watch out for neighbors, Illinois’ COVID-19 positivity rate continues to fall.  While we are not done fighting this virus, Illinois continues to see less infection, suffering and deaths as a result of it.

With Phase 4 of the state’s reopening plan set to take effect June 26, including Chicago’s Phase IV, we will see gyms, movie theaters, museums, zoos and restaurants reopen under cautious public health guidelines that will include continued social distancing and face covering requirements. Gatherings of up to 50 people will be allowed under these same guidelines.

Here are some activities you can expect to resume in these new reopening phases in the City of Chicago and statewide:

• As child care centers continue to reopen, health screenings will be required for children before entry into classrooms, and children are required to wear face coverings while not in classrooms.
• Customers are still required to wear face coverings in retail and all other public settings while indoors. In indoor dining venues, customers must wear masks when not seated.
• Venues, meeting spaces and select indoor facilities (including bowling alleys, skating rinks and clubhouses) can reopen with occupancy restrictions.
• Restaurants can resume indoor dining for parties of up to 10 people, as long as tables are 6 feet apart and standing areas are limited to 25% capacity. Outdoor dining is allowed with proper social distancing between tables.
• Museums, zoos, theaters and other cultural attractions can reopen with 50-person occupancy restrictions and staggered entrance and exit times to prevent crowding at checkpoints.
• Outdoor spectator sports can resume with certain safety measures.
• Splashpads remain closed.

If progress continues to be made and Chicago reaches fewer than 100 new cases per day, capacity restrictions will be loosened further during Phase IV. A full list of guidelines by industry is available at the City of Chicago’s website here, and for the status of COVID-19 statewide visit coronavirus.illinois.gov—the site is updated continually to ensure you have access to the latest and most accurate statistics.

Please continue to use face coverings in public and respect social distancing requirements. These measures will ensure we don’t see a spike in cases that could cause us to move back to previous phases.

With questions about the state’s Phase 4 or the city’s Phase IV or other issues facing our state, please reach out to my office via email here, and we will do our best to assist you.

Sincerely,

Heather A. Steans
State Senator, 7th Illinois Senate District

CHICAGO – State Senator Heather Steans issued the following statement on news the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of extending Title VII employment protections to LGBT workers:

“This decision represents long-overdue acknowledgment that LGBT people deserve protection against arbitrary discrimination on the job,” Steans said. “I hope this decision also serves as the basis to undercut the president’s cruel move last week to deny trans Americans the right to medical care. This decision is justice for the LGBT community.”

The Supreme Court’s decision applies to two sets of cases. One involved a pair of lawsuits from gay men alleging they were fired because of their sexual orientation, and the other involved a suit from a transgender woman, Aimee Stephens, who alleged she was fired when she revealed her gender identity to her employers.

The ruling explicitly establishes that workplace discrimination against LGBT people violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a conclusion first drawn by federal courts in Chicago and New York.

“In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee's sex when deciding to fire that employee,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his ruling for the majority. “We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.”