Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas (US Air Force photo by Major Shelley Ecklebe via Wikipedia)
The day after the Missouri Legislature voted to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors and restrict such care for some trans adults, officials in Kansas City, the state’s largest city, approved a resolution declaring KC to be a sanctuary city for trans folks of all ages seeking healthcare.
City officials approved the resolution last Thursday, May 11, on a 12-1 vote, basically telling the homophobes in the legislature to … well, you know. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said his city is committed to being a “welcoming, inclusive and safe place for everyone, including our transgender and LGBTQ+ community, according to NBC news.
The resolution says the city won’t prosecute or fine any person or organization that seeks, provides, receives or helps someone get gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers, hormones on transition surgery. It also says if the state passes a law imposing criminal or civil punishments or professional sanctions of any sort related to gender-affirming, enforcing such a law will be the city’s “lowest priority.”
Republicans across the country who are passing and trying to prohibit gender-affirming care — including here in Texas where a homophobic legislature just passed SB 14 — claim they are just trying to protect children. Medical professionals, transgender advocate, trans allies and trans people, however, say what these bans actually do is cause extensive harm to trans people and that the bans are really just another way for homophobes to target and attack and harm LGBTQ people.
— Tammye Nash
