A transgender student who was at the forefront of a fight for equal access to gender-appropriate facilities at a central Illinois high school is being remembered as a quiet but fierce trailblazer.

Alex McCray, 22, who was majoring in social work at Fontbonne University, died Jan. 4 in St. Louis.

Denise Bentele, a Fontbonne spokeswoman, said the school’s interim chief operating officer had informed the campus community Friay of McCray’s death. Students were offered counseling.

Bentele did not disclose the cause of McCray’s death.

McCray, who was identified as female at birth but identified as a male, filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights in October 2015 over equal access to the gender-appropriate bathroom and locker rooms at Williamsville High School. McCray, then a senior, enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago to reach a settlement with the school allowing him and other students to use facilities that match their gender.

McCray won the ACLU’s John R. Hammell Award for his contribution to fight for equal rights for LGBTQ Americans in 2017. The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance named him activist of the year in 2016.

McCray was assigned a female identity at birth but transitioned to male his sophomore year in high school.

He said he initially went along with the high school’s decision that he use a separate bathroom because he felt more comfortable. But as he got older and more mature, he decided he wanted to use the boys bathroom because that’s what he used in public.

McCray eventually protested and refused to use the designated bathroom saying it stigmatized him. That’s also when he decided to file the complaint to force a change, he said.

“I don’t know if Alex saw himself as a pioneer, but he became a pioneer,” said Tonia Faloon-Sullivan, a U.S. history teacher at Williamsville High School, who stayed in touch with McCray.

Faloon-Sullivan said she felt the school district “wanted a safe place for Alex, but it was uncharted territory, perhaps, at that time.”

In 2016, what bathroom transgender students should use at school had become a hot-button issue, with several state legislatures around the U.S. weighing in on the matter.

The year before, the U.S. Department of Education found that a suburban Chicago school district was in violation of federal law for denying a student who was transgender access to a gender-appropriate locker room.

Faloon-Sullivan said that while a majority of staff members were accepting of McCray, “I’m sure he was hassled by some of the kids, but he was going to be who he was going to be.”

Ed Yohnka, ACLU Illinois director of communications and public policy, said then-Williamsville Sherman superintendent David Root was “someone who wanted to do the right thing.

“I like to think he was moved by Alex’s courage,” Yohnka added. “It was the confluence of the right people at the right time. (Superintendent) Root and Alex were probably well paired in that regard.”

Yohnka said McCray was the first transgender student willing to go public and speak out about his efforts and advocacy.

“That made a huge difference in creating an environment for other students who have been willing to come forward and speak on these issues,” Yohnka said.

McCray admitted to Yohnka that he didn’t know “what would happen” when he returned to school the day after a State Journal-Register article appeared recounting his story, but “he had students high-fiving him in the hallway,” Yohnka recalled.

“He was able to articulate why this mattered and why it mattered to students beyond his own school time,” Yohnka said. “He realized he was blazing a path. His courage and his ability to be a fierce advocate is something no one is going to soon forget.”

A Facebook post by the Phoenix Center, which serves central Illinois’ LGBTQ community, remembered McCray as “a very talented, intelligent young person gone way too soon. Let’s all continue Alex’s fight to make sure all LGBTQ individuals have resources and support.”

Faloon-Sullivan said McCray inspired her to ask her students what pronouns they prefer to go by.

“Transgender rights issues were always at the forefront of what he was interested in,” she said. “He was a brave young man. He will not be forgotten by those who knew him well.”

House Democrats are preparing to ask the Department of Homeland Security to release all transgender immigrants being held at long-term federal immigration facilities.

“We write to demand the release of all transgender people currently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” according to a draft copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Examiner. The letter cites a report by the liberal organization Center for American Progress that states, "LGBT people in ICE custody are 97 times more likely to be sexually victimized than non-LGBT people in detention.

"Transgender migrants and asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment, solitary confinement, physical assault, and medical neglect," the letter says. "These inhumane conditions and systematic abuses are evidenced in countless reports and accounts by formally detained people."

ICE told the Washington Examiner it could not respond to the development at this time. According to data released by the agency last year to Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York, transgender people make up 0.1% of the detainee population, yet 12% of sexual assault reports to the agency come from transgender detainees,

Quigley's office is working to get lawmakers' signatures on the letter and expects to send it to acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and ICE Director Matt Albence later this week. Quigley hopes to make a legal case for the request on the basis that the fiscal 2020 spending report created care standards that the DHS agency has not met. These include the quality of medical care; training personnel to be more sensitive to transgender patients; and the creation of safe units where detainees can be held without fear of being targeted by others in detention. Because they have not honored the standard, ICE is “legally obligated to immediately release all transgender individuals currently in its custody," the letter states. Quigley's office did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

The National Center for Transgender Equality pointed to a 2019 incident in which a young transgender woman from El Salvador died in ICE custody.

“Johana Medina Leon, a transgender woman from El Salvador, was only 25 years old when she died in ICE custody last June. ICE has proven incapable of protecting transgender people in custody," Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, deputy executive director for policy and action at NCTE, wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner Monday. “Transgender migrants and asylum seekers come to the U.S. for many reasons, including seeking safety from persecution in their countries of origin and for a chance at a better life. They are often fleeing dangerous places where they were attacked for who they are."

ICE's Health Services Corps oversees medical care of all detainees, including a $250 million annual budget in fiscal 2019 for detainees' healthcare needs. Those transferred to ICE from U.S. Customs and Border Protection or arrested within the country receive medical, dental, and mental health intake screenings within 12 hours of arriving at a facility and a full health assessment within 14 days.

Two transgender women filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida on Monday over its ban on transgender-related health care for state workers, arguing it violates the U.S. Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

“We brought this lawsuit because all people need access to medical care. This is not about special treatment; this is about equal treatment,” said lead counsel Simone Chriss. “Transgender state employees are singled out and explicitly denied coverage for one reason: They are transgender. That is discrimination, and it cannot stand.”

The suit, which was brought by Southern Legal Counsel, the ACLU of Florida and Eric Lindstrom, an attorney, seeks to end Florida’s State Plan Exclusion, a rule that prohibits state employer-provided health plans from covering “gender reassignment or modification services or supplies.”

n LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum in the Garden State is coming to fruition.

This week, 12 schools in New Jersey have begun teaching "a robust set of lesson plans that will teach the next generation of youth about the political, social, and economic contributions of LGBTQ people," according to Garden State Equality, the state's most prominent LGBTQ advocacy group.

This small set of schools is a part of Garden State Equality's pilot program for a curriculum that will be implemented in public schools across the state this fall. The lessons are not only related to history — all relevant subjects will include an LGBTQ component.

Over the next six months, Garden State Equality will also provide each school in the pilot program with training in professional development, workshops to educate parents, and a curriculum coach to help incorporate the lessons.

"Our youth deserve to see themselves reflected in the classroom, and we know the work we’re doing is going to change the lives of LGBTQ students for the better," said Ashley Chiappano, Safe Schools and Community Education manager for Garden State Equality. 

Make It Better for Youth partnered with Garden State Equality on the initiative, which will be provided free to New Jersey's public high schools and middle schools due to funding from the Braitmayer Foundation and PSEG Foundation.

Thanks in part to the lobbying of these organizations — and youth activists like the 12-year-old trans advocate Rebekah, who was recently profiled by Marvel's Hero Project — New Jersey became the second state in the nation to require LGBTQ-inclusive lessons to be taught in public schools when Gov. Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill 1335 last February.

The bill, modeled after a 2012 California law, requires public schools to teach "the political, economic, and social contributions of persons with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, where appropriate." The new law does not apply to private schools.

See below for the full list of schools in the pilot program: