Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender opposes the Democratic Party's general elevation of gender identity over sex in public policy, especially subjecting gender-confused people to the lifelong consequences of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical interventions so they more closely resemble the opposite sex.

The nonprofit's leaders could allegedly be fined or go to prison in Illinois if they register as "Democrats" without the state party's permission.

The Land of Lincoln's bespoke "party name provision" in its 40-year-old General Not for Profit Corporation Act, which Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias repeatedly invoked to deny DIAG's applications to solicit charitable contributions in the state, is the target of a First Amendment lawsuit on DIAG's behalf by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

"Not only would they likely face an uphill battle in getting approval from the Illinois Democratic Party, they refuse on principle to seek permission from the very party they plan to criticize," a flagrantly unconstitutional condition on protected speech, said FIRE, which also filed a motion for preliminary injunction.

While the state party officially supports so-called gender affirming care as "health care," without age or other restrictions, DIAG opposes throwing "gay, lesbian, and gender non-conforming/gender-distressed children and vulnerable adults under the wheels of a regressive ideological bus" through "predatory medical harm."

It portrays the standard Democratic position on medicalized gender transitions as pseudoscientific and harmful to both physical and mental health.

The Illinois Democratic Party told Capitol News Illinois it hadn't received a request from DIAG, but "the fact that they’re proudly anti-transgender does not align with the Democratic Party of Illinois’s values" of "progress and inclusivity."

FIRE noted the Colorado Democratic Party threatened "additional action" against DIAG in the Centennial State nearly two years ago if it didn't change its name, without specifying what law DIAG was supposedly violating. "DIAG confirms that nothing ever came of it all," a FIRE spokesperson told Just the News.

The state party also demanded in 2018 the Colorado chapter of Democrats for Education Reform change its name.

"Illinois can’t get around the First Amendment by outsourcing censorship to party bosses," FIRE attorney Daniel Zahn said. Civil libertarians including FIRE made similar allegations against the Biden administration's jawboning of social media to censor disfavored narratives on COVID-19, elections and Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop.

"DIAG was founded on our belief in open inquiry, challenging ideological conformity, and above all, the freedom to speak out," DIAG Board Secretary Jenny Poyer Ackerman said. "Backing down would go against everything we believe in."

FIRE told Just the News that Illinois is the first state to give DIAG a problem and that it's aware of no similar law anywhere else in America. The law gives any "established political party" veto power over other nonprofits' generic use of their nouns and adjectives, including "regular democrat," "regular democratic," "regular republican," "democrat," "democratic" or "republican."

It also gives Republicans power to censor groups such as the Log Cabin Republicans, which calls itself the "oldest and largest organization for LGBT conservatives," and "absurdly" gives the Democratic Party a veto over the Democratic Socialists of America and even the Federation for a Democratic China, FIRE said.

The Log Cabin Republicans were long outliers in the GOP on social issues but now closely resemble GOP orthodoxy on some. Like DIAG, the GOP group celebrated the Supreme Court's ruling upholding state bans on medicalized gender transitions for minors, which are pushed by a "zealous cabal that views children as pawns in their gender ideology crusade."

Massive interest in Illinois based on who's visiting donation page

DIAG can solicit in 14 states without a registration requirement, has registered its name in 14 others and with the federal government, is exempt in six states, only recently crossed "revenue-based registration thresholds" in three states and has pending registration in six, the lawsuit says.

Donations fund the group's "advocacy campaigns, meetings, testimony, educational materials" and communications with supporters about "relevant legislation," it says. 

The group has a waiting donor base in Illinois if it were allowed to solicit contributions there, "with more Illinois residents signing up to receive updates than those in 42 other states," according to the suit. Instead, it's blocking IP addresses from Illinois, which represent 6% of all users attempting to visit its donation page.

The party name provision is the only impediment left to registration after Giannoulias, the secretary of state, twice cited "procedural deficiencies" that DIAG has since resolved, the suit says. Though Giannoulias didn't mention the party name provision in his first rejection last summer, he has twice mentioned it since.

The secretary of state doesn't seem to know the law he's enforcing, however, by falsely claiming DIAG needs permission from "the National Democratic Party," the suit says.

The constitutional issue is not a close call, with SCOTUS deeming charitable solicitations "a category of speech close to the heart of the First Amendment" because they involve "communication of information, the dissemination and propagation of views and ideas, and the advocacy of causes," the suit says, quoting an 8-1 precedent from 1979.

DIAG is asking for a declaration that the party name provision violates the First Amendment facially and as applied to the group and preliminary and permanent injunctions against Giannoulias denying registration to DIAG and enforcing the provision at all.

Giannoulias has yet to respond to the suit filed Tuesday, though U.S. District Judge Steve Seeger, nominated by President Trump, issued him a summons on Thursday. His office did not respond to a query from Just the News or reportedly from other media outlets.