Mass. community may become ‘sanctuary city’ for transgender people

“The timing of this is not lost on us, with the elections right around the corner.”

With November’s election looming and hundreds of bills threatening LGBTQ+ rights all over the U.S., one Massachusetts community is hoping to model itself as a safe haven for transgender people.

A resolution pending before Northampton’s City Council would declare the Western Massachusetts community a sanctuary city for people who are transgender and gender diverse, encompassing individuals with identities beyond male or female. Read aloud during the council’s Sept. 19 meeting, the resolution from Councilors Deborah L. Klemer and Rachel Maiore emphasizes trans rights, equal protections, and access to gender-affirming health care.

First reported by the Daily Hampshire Gazzette, the resolution would have Northampton commit to never using its resources to detain someone for seeking or providing gender-affirming care, including surgery or hormone therapy. Another component would keep Northampton from using city resources to cooperate with or provide information to any individual or out-of-state agency regarding lawful gender-affirming care performed in Massachusetts.

“The timing of this is not lost on us, with the elections right around the corner,” Maiore said during last week’s meeting. “And I think we need to do all we can and we need to really speak very proactively to our community and let them know that … we’ve heard you, we see you, and we will do everything we can to protect your basic rights and to be a welcoming place for you and your family.”

Klemer drew on her own experience coming out as gay in the early 1980s.

“The first thing I was told was, ‘Nobody needs to know. Don’t tell anybody,’” she recalled. “It’s a lousy way to live, and I think we should all be able to come out and be who we are and not have to hide.”

Several members of the local LGBTQ+ community spoke in favor of the resolution, including a transgender child and two parents of trans children.

Mariel Addis said she began her transition in 2016, shortly before former president Donald Trump won that year’s election. While she said Trump’s presidency didn’t impact her much personally, she noted the same couldn’t be said for transgender people in the military.

“At this current point, I’m very concerned about the status of trans people in this country, and as such, I support this resolution for the sanctuary city for gender diverse people in Northampton,” Addis told the City Council. “I think it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.”

Margo Anderson noted the outsized impact Northampton’s resolution could have.

“I think it’s important that we recognize that although this is a small town, it can make a very big statement,” Anderson said. “And it is up to sometimes small governments to make these kinds of big statements.”

Other speakers suggested declaring Northampton a sanctuary city is just one of several necessary steps. Mareatha Wallace, for example, applauded the resolution but asserted the schools’ curriculum and resources do not currently reflect the spirit of the proposal. Likewise, James Shultis — who serves as co-director of the local nonprofit Translate Gender — urged councilors to consider additional support Northampton could extend to trans community members.

Addressing concerns that the resolution doesn’t go far enough, Maiore said she sees the proposal as a jumping-off point, a way of “declaring our aspiration to the community and our expectation of our city government and our employees.”

Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra also said she’d be happy to work with the councilors on an executive policy order to go hand-in-hand with the sanctuary city resolution.

Northampton’s City Council will vote on the resolution Oct. 1. Several other U.S. cities have passed similar resolutions, including San Francisco, Sacramento, and West Hollywood in California.