The City of Worcester Is the Latest To Defy Trump by Becoming a Transgender Sanctuary City

With the Trump administration reversing several transgender rights policies, a small number of cities are responding to the new executive orders by declaring themselves “Sanctuary Cities” for those changing genders.The most recent municipality to join the fray is Worcester, Massachusetts, where the city council held a 9-2 vote to declare themselves as a sanctuary city for gender-diverse individuals. The move came during a recent city council meeting packed to capacity with more than 200 people in attendance to throw their support behind the measure, which was drafted a month after Councilor-at-Large Thu Nguyen, who is the first non-binary member of the city’s board, claimed to be harassed and misgendered by other city officials, according to CBS News.The meeting had lasted for nearly five hours as dozens of residents spoke in the standing-room-only council chambers, according to a report from NBC10 Boston.“You have an incredible opportunity as a community to support our children. You have an opportunity to decrease the rates of depression and suicide by showing our children that their safety and dignity are a priority,” one attendee said before the council.“It is your responsibility to stand up and fight for our people, for your people, for the people,” another added.Thu Nguyen thanked the supporters in attendance.“I want to really share my gratitude and indebtedness to the community that came out,” they said.The councilor-at-large had returned after taking a hiatus from their role after they alleged that other council members were creating a “discriminatory and toxic” culture, including be referred to as “it.”“Under your leadership, I have felt unsafe around this council body,” Thu Nguyen said, according to a report from Spectrum News. “I have faced transphobia with being misgendered and recently learned that I’ve been dehumanized to a point where I am being referred to as ‘it’ by my colleagues on this council.”The resolution declares that Worcester, the second biggest city in Massachusetts, will not use municipal resources to detain people seeking gender-affirming care, nor will they provide their information to agencies from out of state.“I don’t care what your beliefs are, but to take the word ‘transgender’ out of the vocabulary in the federal government is just plain wrong,” Mayor Joseph Petty said.The two councilmembers who voted against the measure said they were concerned that Worcester would lose funding from the Trump administration for going against executive orders.“There are no new rights that this resolution gives that don’t already exist. However, there’s a potential for federal dollars to be taken away from the City of Worcester,” Councilor-at-Large Morris Bergman said.The New England city joins numerous cities in America that have recently declared themselves sanctuary cities for transgender individuals, including Ithaca, New York, Kansas City, Missouri, and the Californian cities of West Hollywood, San Francisco, and Sacramento.Dozens of states have also enacted shield laws that protect access to transgender health care.

The City of Worcester Is the Latest To Defy Trump by Becoming a Transgender Sanctuary City

The City of Worcester Is the Latest To Defy Trump by Becoming a Transgender Sanctuary City

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