In a blistering address at the Human Rights Campaign’s Los Angeles dinner this past weekend, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a staunch Democrat and vocal critic of Donald Trump, passionately defended the LGBTQ+ community, with a particular focus on transgender rights.
“The Trump administration and their Republican cronies in Congress are hellbent on dismantling every hard-won victory this community has achieved over the last 50 years,” Pritzker declared at the Fairmont Century Plaza. “First, they come for drag queens reading stories and transgender individuals serving their country. Next, they’ll target your marriage licenses and your livelihoods. Appeasement is not a strategy against tyranny. It only fuels the fire. Bullies understand one language: a swift and decisive counterpunch.”
“In this all-consuming battle for our very existence, we cannot, we must not, sacrifice the most vulnerable among us for the sake of political expediency,” Pritzker continued. “Right now, transgender children are looking to us, wondering if anyone will stand up for their fundamental right to exist. I say, we will. We are. We will not back down.”
This fiery stance comes as some Democrats, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, appear to be softening their support for transgender rights.
Pritzker provided a historical backdrop, referencing the short-lived Society for Human Rights in 1920s Chicago and the pioneering Mattachine Society, founded by Harry Hay in 1950s California. “Harry Hay was warned that the Chicago group was a dangerous folly, a path no one should dare to tread,” the governor recounted. “Thank heavens he ignored them.”
“History doesn’t merely repeat; it echoes. The faces of evil may change, but the fight remains the same,” he asserted. “It’s always the power-hungry, scapegoating those who are different. The triumph of good over evil rests on the shoulders of those who dare to champion empathy and kindness, even when it leaves them exposed. This community knows that struggle intimately. Our hope, our salvation, lies within these walls.”
Since his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, Pritzker has been a fierce adversary of Trump. “From the very beginning, I warned that everything we hold dear was under attack by a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic Donald Trump,” Pritzker stated. He closed his speech with a call to arms:
“Take to the streets, protest, flood those town halls,” he urged. “Jam the phone lines in Congress, (202) 224-3121, and deny any peace to those elected officials who enable the power grab of [Elon] Musk and Trump.”
“Our actions, or our inaction, will define this moment,” he concluded. “When my grandchildren look back, I want them to know that my voice roared for justice and stood unyielding against tyranny.”
