MOLINE, Ill. — The Project of the Quad Cities is seeking donations to help LGBTQ+ people access their services. As an organization in western Illinois, they're one of the first locations transgender and nonbinary Iowans can turn to for assistance with gender-affirming health care.
"The Project is uniquely positioned to provide this type of care because of our experience serving the LGBTQ+ community and our geographical location along the Mississippi River in Illinois,” Caitlin Wells, CEO of The Project QC, said.
According to The Project QC website, the services offered are non-exclusive to LGBTQ+ treatment, meaning patients can be treated for flu or reproductive health care, but takes the patient's sexual orientation and gender identity into consideration.
“The Project believes that gender-affirming care is essential to the health and well-being of TGD youth,” Wells said. “The science does not lie: gender-affirming care saves lives. It’s for that reason we are seeking public donations and support for our very own program here in western Illinois.”
The Project QC currently has a link on their site for people interested in donating to this cause.
LGBTQ+ communities around the United States have been seeking public equality for decades, from the Stonewall Riots to Obama's administration starting the process of creating nationwide laws to protect LGBTQ+ communities.
“We are big and vast and diverse; a nation of people with different backgrounds and beliefs, different experiences and stories, but bound by our shared ideal that no matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny,” President Obama said in 2015.
In more recent history, states across the nation have been repealing those initial protections, particularly towards transgender people and nonbinary individuals. Florida and Texas started this movement with legislation blocking education about gender identities and sexual orientations in elementary schools.
Iowa's Governor Reynolds has proposed and enacted similar legislation this year, signing expansions to Title XI that restrict high school transgender females from participating in sports. She's also signed her version of Florida's LGBTQ+ legislation called the 'Don't Say Gay, Don't Say Transgender,' and a law restricting gender-affirming health care for kids under 18.
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