This past Friday, the Salem City Council unanimously passed a resolution to make the City of Salem a sanctuary city for transgender and nonbinary individuals. In its proclamation, the council notes this status in necessary because “the federal government’s continued actions have encouraged discrimination towards transgender persons by state and local governments, schools, hospitals, businesses, other public and private institutions.”
“The City Council of the City of Salem hereby reiterates its commitment to uphold transgender rights and equal protections for transgender community members under the Constitutions, Laws, Ordinances and Regulations of the United States, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the City of Salem and declares itself a sanctuary city and a place of safety for transgender and gender non-conforming people,” states the proclamation in part.
The proclamation goes on to affirm:
“that the City of Salem recognizes the importance of gender-affirming healthcare as a matter of health, privacy, and equality, and to ensure that those rights are upheld for all residents and visitors within the City of Salem.
“that the City of Salem will ensure a safe and supportive environment for all students regardless of gender identity or expression in the Salem Public Schools, including the protection of teachers and other city employees who help to foster such an environment,” and
“that the City of Salem shall endeavor to work with the Salem Human Rights Coalition; to further identify equity shortcomings for the city’s transgender and gender non-conforming community within municipal government, operations, and practices, to ensure the full protection of said community’s residents and visitors.”
Allentown City Council passed a resolution at its Wednesday night meeting to protect and grant refuge to the LGBTQ+ community in Allentown by proclaiming the city a “safe and welcoming haven.”
Resolution “R48” was initially discussed at City Council’s Human Resources, Administration, and Appointments committee meeting on April 9, where it received a favorable vote to move forward to the full council.
The resolution responds to a “record number of discriminatory anti-trans legislative bills and executive orders being proposed and enacted throughout the country,” according to council documents.
“As attacks against transgender and gender non-binary adults and youth across the United States continue, it is the responsibility of Allentown to ensure transgender and non-binary people, particularly youth, continue to be protected and welcomed,” the resolution states.
It emphasizes the importance of treating all individuals with fairness, respect, dignity, and full human rights, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.
Not a single seat was empty at the council’s Wednesday night meeting in anticipation of the resolution’s passage, which had full council sponsorship.
Multiple public commenters — including members of the LGBTQ+ community, psychologists specializing in transgender affirming care and state representatives — spoke in support of the resolution before council’s vote.
Amelia, a transgender woman, shared her personal experience receiving gender-affirming care in the city of Allentown and what she described as its life-changing impact.
“Access to this treatment quite literally made my life as one worth living,” Amelia said. “It was the antidote for my dysphoria or gender misalignment that had plagued me since puberty.”
Christine Hartigan, a licensed psychologist in Allentown specializing in transgender affirming care, also voiced her support for the resolution.
“We have a lot of research backing up what we do, and we know that limiting access to this care is incredibly detrimental to individuals, especially transgender individuals,” Hartigan said.
“They can lead to increased rates of anxiety, depression, substance use, and as several people have already mentioned, even suicide,” she continued. “So this is lifesaving care, and we know it works.”
State Rep. Josh Siegel, a Democrat representing Lehigh County, commended council’s efforts and emphasized the need for state-level protections.
“I’ve introduced legislation at the state level to create a shield law around gender and affirming care in Pennsylvania and protect our prosecutors,” Siegel said. “Those bills will never see the light of day because our Republican Senate won’t move them.”
“It is more important than ever now that our local bodies, our counties and our cities speak with one voice to push back on this hateful narrative that the reason for people’s hardship in life is that trans kids wants to belong and play sports with their friends,” he continued.
Mayor Matt Tuerk, also present at the meeting, acknowledged the thousands of transgender people in Allentown and outlined policy changes underway.
“Estimates across the country are that anywhere between 1 and 2% of the population identifies as transgender, which would make the number here in Allentown in the thousands,” Tuerk said. “There are thousands of people that you and I represent who are looking for safety, and that’s our fundamental duty as city leaders.”
“We looked at the five bullet points that you put out there as policy that you’ve started to craft now at the city of Allentown that would prohibit criminal prosecution or administration penalty against individuals who are seeking gender affirming health care” he continued.
City Council unanimously voted to pass the resolution.
“We might not be able to change the world, but maybe we can change Allentown,” said Councilmember Ce-Ce Gerlach.
City councilors in Boston voted 12-1 Wednesday to make Boston a sanctuary city for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Councilor-at-Large Julia Mejia and District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon called on Boston to adopt the measure supporting transgender people, pointing to what they see as harmful rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump and the White House.
“Boston is not going to back down,” Mejia said Wednesday. “We’re seeing attacks on our trans loved ones, and here on the local level, a lot of folks are feeling helpless.”
City Councilor Ed Flynn was the only member of the body to vote against the measure.
“I would like to learn more about what this resolution does as it relates to sanctuary cities, the Trust Act, what impact it has on city services, what role the city departments will play,” Flynn said, according to The Boston Herald. “I don’t want to be disrespectful to anybody, but it’s just something I would like to have before I vote.”
Sam Whiting of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a group that describes itself as recognizing “the male and female sexes as a real and enduring part of a person’s created nature, not an imaginary social construct,” pushed back on the councilors’ framing of the Trump administration’s actions.
“We think it misrepresents the executive orders, and we do support these orders and the efforts to protect children from the harms of gender ideology,” Whiting told NBC10 Boston.
Mejia said the measure is critical.
“It’s really a love letter and an opportunity to set the groundwork for the legislation,” she said.
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