On Sunday Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed an anti-bullying bill that included protection for LGBT students. The bill specifically mentions a list of attributes that are protected that includes gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. The bill passed both the Illinois House and the Illinois Senate overwhelmingly. In addition to Illinois, New York also passed a similar bill last week and will become the tenth state to enact this kind of law when Governor David Paterson signs the bill. These bills are similar to the bill currently in the Pennsylvania House, HB 2569. In this bill's definition of harassment, bullying, cyber bullying, and intimidation, students will be protected from "any written, verbal, or physical act, or any electronic communication including, but not limited to, one shown to be motivated by a student's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry or ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical, mental, emotional or learning disability, gender, gender identity and expression or other distinguishing personal characteristic or based on association with any such characteristic."
Source:
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=27081
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