Representative's motives criticized unfairly

State Rep. Katie Stuart is wrong to label Rep. Tom Morrison as someone who has an irrational fear or discrimination against transgender people. That is an untrue statement about Tom, and it saddens me that in our culture today we can't disagree on issues and still respect one another. Tom Morrison is trying to protect the rights of women by keeping men out of woman's restrooms. There are bad people out there that will take advantage of the bathroom issue and Tom mentioned several examples of that happening. He should not be bullied or called names for taking a stand to protect his constituents. He is representing us well by looking at the whole picture and not just catering to what culture is currently dictating.

Let's also examine the comments made by a representative of Equality Illinois, Mike Ziri. Of course they pushed the passage of the bill; it clearly gives them the all-gender bathrooms they want. But did they look at the whole picture? Their representative said that Tom "wants a license to discriminate in state law." He also said "what he (Tom) doesn't understand is that in Illinois our state values are justice, equality, inclusion and the freedom to be who you are without discrimination. "

Seriously? Tom is one of the few people in government today who has the courage and the conviction to fight for answers that provide justice, equality, inclusion and freedom for everyone, not just one group. It's obvious by their words against Tom that Katie Stuart, Mike Ziri and Equality Illinois need to reread the definitions to the words justice, equality, inclusion and freedom.

They violated the spirit behind each of those great words by their own words attacking Tom and what he is working to accomplish.

Linda Melder

Hoffman Estates