Officials in Kansas City, Missouri voted to approve a resolution become a “sanctuary city” for youth who identify as transgender and who are seeking puberty blockers, hormones, and sex change surgeries.
The move sets the city at odds with state officials who just a day prior passed legislation banning gender-altering medical procedures for minors.
Under the new resolution, the city will not criminally prosecute or fine any person or organization “for providing, seeking, receiving, or assisting another individual who is seeking or receiving gender-affirming healthcare.”
The Kansas City Council added that in the event that the state of Missouri passes a law banning such medical procedures, city authorities would make enforcement of the state law “their lowest priority.”
The resolution also vows not to enforce similar laws of other states or jurisdictions.
A second Missouri state law that was passed on May 10 prohibits biological boys and men who identify as women and girls from competing on female sports teams, kindergarten through college, at both public and private schools. Any school in violation of the law would lose state funding.
“When you have kids being surgically and or chemically altered for life for no good reason, yes, it’s time for the government to get involved,” Republican Rep. Brad Hudson told colleagues on the House floor the day of the vote.
The Missouri chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the laws erase transgender people.
“Both bans attempt to erase transness from Missouri. Every person in the state should be alarmed by this weaponization of the government to intimidate people through the denial of basic health care and exclusion from extracurricular activities,” the ACLU said in a statement.
“The Attorney General has already shown that erasing trans youth is just the start of the despot tactics politicians will utilize to eliminate vulnerable Missourians from public if it will further their personal political pursuits,” the ACLU added. “The ACLU of Missouri will continue to explore all options to fight these bans and to expand the rights of trans Missourians.”
