Sacramento is a sanctuary city for transgender people following the City Council’s unanimous vote Tuesday night. While California was already a sanctuary state, the city’s resolution, which takes effect immediately, specifically ensures that local funds are not used to aid law enforcement from other jurisdictions in their attempts to prosecute the families of minors receiving gender-affirming care or their healthcare providers. Photo: Leo Visions/Unsplash
Sacramento is a sanctuary city for transgender people following the City Council’s unanimous vote Tuesday night.
While California was already a sanctuary state, the city’s resolution, which takes effect immediately, specifically ensures that local funds are not used to aid law enforcement from other jurisdictions in their attempts to prosecute the families of minors receiving gender-affirming care or their healthcare providers.
‘More than symbolic’
Council member Katie Valenzuela, who sponsored the resolution, said during the council meeting that it’s “more than symbolic” and “we see this as a strengthening measure.”
“This is more than just protecting the people who live here,” Valenzuela said. “This is also about protecting people who come here from other communities to ensure that we’re not aiding law enforcement activities in their home jurisdiction who may seek to criminalize their quest for healthcare.”
Valenzuela added that city officials who violate the resolution will face “corrective action,” but didn’t say what that would be.
“This is the sort of thing that you hope is never necessary,” she said. “You hope it never gets triggered. That there’s never anyone coming to Sacramento who is potentially fleeing law enforcement for the sole reason of looking for health care.”
Extremist officials target trans people
The resolution was approved as extremist lawmakers across the country have enacted laws in the past few years to limit both surgical and nonsurgical forms of gender-affirming care for minors — including puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy.
At least 24 states limit gender-affirming care for trans youths, according to LGBTQ think tank Movement Advancement Project.
“California has been a leader in protecting the rights of transgender individuals to access care, but many states across the nation are moving in the opposite direction,” the resolution reads. “In preparation of future legislation that may criminalize those providing or seeking gender-affirming care and given the Council’s stated values of equity and inclusion, it is important for the City of Sacramento to be proactive in reiterating our commitment to transgender rights and equal protections for transgender people by declaring ourselves a sanctuary city and a place of safety for transgender people.”
Extremist groups, of course, slammed the vote with the usual false information they have spewed for years.
As extremist groups and officials in state legislatures continue to push that this health care should be outlawed by the government, major U.S. medical associations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association — have repeatedly supported transition-related care, including for some minors.
Support for trans health care
The AMA and APA have both deemed it medically necessary.
The Sacramento City Council is not the first governmental body to pass such a measure aimed at safeguarding trans rights and gender-affirming care in particular.
In recent years, 14 states and Washington, D.C., have passed legislation to protect access to gender-affirming care, commonly referred to as “shield laws,” according to MAP.
California became a sanctuary state for gender-affirming care following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signing of SB 107 in 2022. The law prohibits states that have banned the life-saving treatment from punishing those who travel to California to receive it by preventing the release of information or the arrest and extradition of someone based on another state’s court orders.
