Councilors declare Boston a trans sanctuary city

Boston city councilors today declared Boston a sanctuary city for transgender people - but said that's only the start of drafting specific ordinances to back that up. 

The 12-1 vote was for a non-binding resolution sponsored by Councilors Julia Mejia (at large) and Liz Breadon (Allston/Brighton) that also includes other LGBTQ people, but councilors emphasized that now comes the hard work of developing specific protections, similar to the way the city's existing Trust Act prohibits Boston Police from cooperating with ICE raids of immigrants not facing criminal charges. 

As always, Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) cast the lone no vote. Flynn, who has long supported LGBTQ-related efforts, said he was not opposed to the basic idea, but, as always, he wants to do his "due diligence" and have a hearing to learn what impact the non-binding resolution would have on other city ordinances and efforts such as the Trust Act.

Councilor Henry Santana (at large), who has been active in LGBTQ affairs, voted for the resolution, but said he was hesitant at first, also not because he opposes the basic idea, but because he thought the better idea would be to draft and pass a local law with specific protections, rather than a non-binding resolution.

But Chastity Bowick, head of a new group fighting for trans rights in Boston, said, "as taxpayers, as people who are paying this high rent in Boston, who are going over these potholes in Boston," the community needed to hear from its elected officials - who had not publicly spoken since the current regime was inaugurated in January. 

The resolution came after Cambridge and Worcester passed similar measures. Mejia said she originally planned to introduce her proposal on Feb. 12, but withdrew it in part because of concerns from other councilors about "the heat Boston was already taking" over the Trust Act. 

Mejia,  Breadon and other councilors, including Gabriela Coletta Zapata (North End, Charlestown, East Boston), however, said they agreed it was time for Boston to take a stand -  both in general because of increasingly bitter efforts to deny trans people in particular their humanity, one the day after a Republican committee chairperson in Congress referred to Sarah McBride, Delaware's representative, as "Mr. McBride."

"We are losing, actively, our morality, to not respect the dignity and humanity of others," Coletta Zapata said.

 "We are up against what seems like Goliath in this fight," she said, but added the council has done hard things before - such as enacting the Trust Act - and she's ready to get to work.

Councilor Sharon Durkan (Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway, Mission Hill) said the resolution doesn't go nearly far enough and that she's not sure Boston is really a sanctuary city: "I don't feel like we are a sanctuary city when our rent is high, when you can't afford your groceries, when you can't get a PCP when your health-care research funding is being stripped by the federal government."