Worcester passes sanctuary city resolution for transgender community

Every Tuesday for the past month, dozens of members of the LGBTQ+ community have shown up to Worcester City Council meetings and told elected officials how scared they are. For themselves. For their families. For their communities.

On Tuesday night the city council responded to the community’s petition and voted in favor of becoming a sanctuary city for transgender and gender-diverse people.

”This is my home,” said Brynn Cotter, a trans woman. “And I love this city, because in this city, I find my sanctuary. My relationship with my family is complicated. I imagine a lot of grown queer people here can relate to that. So many of us, we've built a home here. We've forged relationships and found community here.”

In the small chamber, the wooden seating areas on the third and fourth levels were full. A pale blue, pink and white transgender pride flag hung above council members' heads. The line for public comment went out the door for hours. For nearly three hours community members spoke out, crying, and angry for the fourth week in a row. One after another, Worcester residents asked council members to protect them.

“Once again, like all of us, I’m standing before you, demanding — no longer asking — for my humanity to be recognized,” said Cayden Davis. “The uncomfortable reality is that under this administration, under this moment in history, like so many others, we are required to do things that will put targets on our backs if we want to do what is right.”

The resolution affirms the city’s support for the queer and trans community after President Trump signed an executive action recognizing only two genders.

Data about transgender healthcare has been removed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. Trump also signed an executive action seeking to end gender-affirming medical treatment for children and teenagers under the age of 19.

The city council voted 9 to 2, with two council members expressing concern that the measure puts Worcester organizations and nonprofits at risk of losing funding.

Community activists were also speaking in defense of Thu Nguyen, a nonbinary council member, back after a month-long hiatus. Nguyen accused council members of transphobic behaviors including misgendering and calling them “it.”

On the agenda was a request by councilor member Etel Haxhiaj that the city council hire a third-party investigator with LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC expertise to investigate concerns regarding “transphobia, discrimination, and toxic council culture.” This was voted down.

However Mayor Joseph Petty and several council members, such as vice-chair Khrystian King, spoke in favor of the sanctuary resolution calling it an opportunity to do what’s right.

“ It comes down to constitutional rights, humanity, civil rights,” King said. “And yes, there's an attack by executive order coming out of Washington, D.C. … we know that our grant money is based on the condition of law. It's based on the condition of law. To remove that from us is illegal. We heard last week that in no court has that been upheld.”

King said after hearing powerful testimony about life experiences from the community, this simple vote should be unanimous.

“There should be no hesitation for us as a city to ensure that we’re not providing – and I’m reading from the resolution — any information to any individual or out-of-state agency or department regarding the provision of gender-affirming healthcare,” he said.

Before the meeting was called to order, more than 100 members of the coalition Queer Residents of Worcester & Our Allies gathered outside council chambers to hear poetry, watch a drag performance and listen to a rendition of Chappell Roan’s song “Hot To Go.” Ms. Lady Sabrina, who has performed in drag since 1986, said she’s consistently advocated for the LGBTQ+ community.

“Fear should never be acted on,” she said. “[Council members] were elected to project all of the members of the community, all. Not cherry pick. It depresses me to be back here having to advocate again for just basic human rights.”

Joshua Croke is one of the co-organizers of Tuesday’s event they called “Queer Ball at City Hall” and founder of the organization “Love your Labels.”

“Our cities need to be organizing to say, ‘Absolutely not,’ and, ‘We will fight, we don’t care what legal battles we have to push for, what funding might be compromised, we are going to stand firm in support of our trans folks,’” they said.