Transgender rights advocates — who have seen their momentum slow with the election of a Republican president and amid concerns about transgender bathroom and locker room use — cheered the vote as a validation of their view that people by and large support the right of transgender people to use the facilities where they feel most comfortable.

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“What Tuesday’s election results have shown us … is that standing up for the LGBTQ community is not just the right thing to do, it is also good politics,” Brian C. Johnson, head of Equality Illinois, said in a statement.

Critics of the policy, including a local group called Parents for Privacy, had said it gave the transgender student preferential status, disregarding the needs of peers who might feel uncomfortable or unsafe changing in the same locker room as a person they consider a member of the opposite sex. They filed suit over the policy and threw their support behind the challengers: Ralph Bonatz, Katherine David and Jean Forrest.

In an interview with the Daily Herald, Bonatz said he was optimistic despite the defeat. “As a team, we think we did everything we could,” he told the publication.