the fascists can’t have our school boards—and they won’t.

Anti-trans hate groups are failing in their push to infiltrate Chicago-area districts.

Apr 15, 2025

Queering the Burbs is a distillation of pop culture, politics and queerness published twice weekly by Joe Erbentraut. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing (many posts are free!), liking or sharing this piece, or buying Joe a coffee. Order Joe’s zine, Issue #01, here.

Pro-trans community members packed the Valley View 365U district’s school board meeting in Romeoville on Monday night. (Photo: Paul Goyette/Flickr)

I was so twisted into knots by that White Lotus finale that I failed to acknowledge what I think was the biggest takeaway from the municipal elections held earlier this month in Wisconsin and many parts of Illinois: Voters simply do not want fascism gaining a foothold in their backyards.

We saw this in Wisconsin, where progressive state Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford handily defeated her Republican challenger despite Elon Musk hastily dumping $20 million into the race on behalf of the losing candidate. This result also reflected an 11-point swing in the performance of Crawford compared to Kamala Harris, who lost the state to Donald Trump by 0.8 percentage points.

We also witnessed this same effect closer to home. The Illinois Democratic Party won 80 percent of their elections statewide, including in somewhat unexpected places including Lake and DuPage counties. Trump-backing incumbent mayors were unseated in Aurora and Orland Park and many of the candidates who expressed anti-trans views in surveys prior to the election also lost, even in somewhat conservative areas. Where I live, in Batavia, an openly MAGA school board candidate backed by the designated hate group Awake Illinois lost overwhelmingly to the other, more progressive candidates in that race.

The writing is, as they say, on the wall and yet organizations like Awake and fellow hate group Moms for Liberty are continuing to try and rile up their followers in a coordinated effort to target suburban school districts who are following state laws in allowing students to use bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms on their school grounds that align with their gender identity.

Awake and Moms for Liberty have been posting endlessly about the situation at a middle school in north suburban Deerfield, where parents allege that their daughters were forced to change in front of a trans classmate in a girls’ locker room. The school district has stated that those allegations are false, but the topic came up for discussion at a school board meeting last week. The meeting was packed with community members who came to express their support for trans students at the school and in the district. The photo below by Paul Goyette shows just how much the community turned out.

Awake is also bringing its circus to the southwest suburban Valley View School District 365U and is lodging a federal complaint related to an alleged incident of a trans student at Bolingbrook High School being allowed to use a girls’ bathroom in November 2024. The group rallied its supporters to attend a Monday evening school board meeting—but, yet again, community members showed up in droves in support of trans youth.

In the video below (starting at 54:13), you can watch the powerful testimony of pro-trans community members, beginning with Bolingbrook Pride founder Allaina Humphreys who pointed out that state laws protecting trans and nonbinary students “save lives.”

The speakers that followed included parents of trans students inside the district, alumni of the district, and local queer and trans residents applauding the district for its support of its trans and nonbinary students. The number of speakers speaking in favor of pro-trans policies in the district outnumbered those opposed more than six to one.

These groups will continue to fail in their efforts to fearmonger and spread misinformation about trans youth—but their efforts can’t be ignored. They do have some victories under their belt, including in the Peoria-area town of Morton, where four conservatives won school board seats after vilifying their opponent for supporting a trans child’s wish to join a volleyball team that aligned with their gender. The battle will almost certainly continue beyond Deerfield and Bolingbrook, and beyond Illinois as well.

So what do we do? Stay informed about where groups like Awake and Moms for Liberty are picking their latest battles, and how you can support those who are countering their harmful attacks. If you’re in Illinois, follow the grassroots group Trans Up Front Illinois to stay up to date on meetings and other events where you can show up and speak out against hatred. You can also donate to Trans Up Front Illinois to support their advocacy work.

No matter where you are, keep an ear out for anti-trans rhetoric wherever it is rearing its grotesque head. Speak out to your local school board, contact your local elected officials, and don’t put up with transphobia whenever you encounter it—at work, at your kid’s soccer game, out at your local watering hole, or anywhere else.

We are living in truly unprecedented times in this country—at a time when this administration is openly discussing wishes to deport “homegrown” citizens it deems as a threat to El Salvador with no due process, many of the trans friends I know are contemplating leaving the U.S. altogether. We cannot stand idly by while this hatred continues to foment. The more we ignore it, the more lives will be lost.

But we also can’t forget that, even if it doesn’t feel that way every day, we are winning. The more that we show up, get together, and speak our truths, the more we will continue to win. Because we have love on our side—and love will always be more powerful than fear.

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SONG OF THE RIGHT-NOW

My friend Britt shared this song—Dionne Farris’s “I Know”— on her Instagram Story the other day and it stopped my day in its tracks. I immediately had to listen to the whole thing, track down the music video, and go down a rabbit hole of what happened to the artist.

This song, to me, represents the best of mid-‘90s adult contemporary/R&B optimism. It reminds me of hula-hooping in my driveway. It reminds me of picking a toy out of the prize box at my family dentist’s office. It reminds me of pizza night Friday nights. Simpler times where we didn’t have a smartphone strapped to our side blaring an endless stream of bad news.

It’s also just a perfect song. A windows-down tune for the next sunny day.