The city council of Worchester, Massachusetts, passed a resolution to declare the city a “sanctuary” for transgender people.
The resolution, which passed 9-2, claims that “trans, nonbinary and LGBTQIA+ community in Worcester and nationally are being attacked by President Trump’s executive action on January 22, 2025 stating that the U.S. government will now recognize only two sexes – male and female.”
According to the resolution, Worchester “reiterates its commitment to transgender rights and equal protections for transgender community members and declares itself a sanctuary city and a place of safety for transgender and gender diverse people” and therefore “recognizes the importance of gender-affirming healthcare as a matter of health, privacy, and equality, and to ensure, to the greatest extent permitted by law, that those rights are upheld for all residents and visitors within the City of Worcester.”
“The City of Worcester as a sanctuary city will not cooperate with Federal and State on policies aimed to harm transgender and gender diverse people and ensure transgender and gender diverse people have access to healthcare, housing, education, and employment without fear or discrimination,” it states.
“I need this city to protect me because the federal government won’t,” said one individual. “And if you think you’re afraid of Trump, you should see how afraid of Trump I am.”
President Donald Trump’s order on gender ideology declares: “Invalidating the true and biological category of ‘woman’ improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.”
“Accordingly, my Administration will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male,” the order says.
