California’s Capital Declares Itself a Transgender Sanctuary City

This article originally appeared on The Epoch Times and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Brad Jones

Dozens of transgender activists clashed with several parental rights protesters outside Sacramento City Hall on March 26 preceding public debate over a trans sanctuary city resolution, which the council unanimously passed.

The resolution declaring Sacramento “a sanctuary city for transgender people,” effective immediately, supports Senate Bill 107, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2022, making California a trans sanctuary state for transgender youth and their parents avoiding prosecution for child abuse in other states.

The city’s new policy shelters doctors and other health care professionals from “criminal punishment, civil liability, administrative penalties, or professional sanctions based on the laws of other states.”

The resolution also states that no city resources shall be used to detain anyone “seeking or providing gender-affirming care, nor the aiding of it,” including “gender affirmation surgery or gender hormone therapy.”

Additionally, it states no city resources are to be used for “cooperating with or providing information to any individual or out-of-state agency or department regarding the provision of lawful gender-affirming healthcare or gender-affirming mental healthcare performed in the state of California.”

The resolution cites the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, better known as WPATH, and the Trevor Project—activist organizations that have both come under fire from conservative lawmakers and parental rights groups for advocating gender transitions for children—among other organizations.

City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, who sponsored the resolution, said the trans sanctuary city policy isn’t a symbolic gesture but a binding resolution.

“I’m proud of our state legislature for how they have stepped up to pass laws to protect many communities including and particularly tonight, our LGBTQ plus community, but it isn’t enough,” she said at the Tuesday meeting. “So, I am honored tonight to be bringing forward this resolution.”

Ms. Valenzuela’s city council term will end in December after she lost her reelection bid in California’s top-two jungle primary and will not move forward to the Nov. 5 general election ballot. She conceded the race on March 26.

Socialist Influence

Emily Smet, an organizer for the Sacramento Democratic Socialists of America, which drafted the resolution, told the council it will protect trans people and doctors from “unjust out-of-state investigations.”

The activist, who identifies as a transgender woman, said the resolution is important for the health and safety of the trans community “given the increasingly hostile political climate for transgender, intersex and non-binary people,” leading to “what you could call transgender refugees” in the United States.

“As a trans person, I have watched with increasing concern as year after year states across the nation introduced increasingly restrictive laws targeting transgender life,” Smet said.

What started as “bathroom bills and sports bans” in states across the country has escalated to full bans on medical treatment for transgender youth and the criminalization of doctors who assist them, the activist said.

“This resolution prepares us for the rising tide of transphobic hate in our country—a hate that manifests itself in the groups opposing this resolution here today,” Smet said.

…

‘Humans Cannot Change Sex’

Beth Bourne, chair of parental rights group Moms for Liberty in Yolo County, told the council that her daughter, now 18, thought she was transgender when she was in junior high school, but five years later has become more accepting of her “healthy, young female body.”

However, her Kaiser Permanente doctor, she said, recommended that her daughter go to the Kaiser Proud Clinic the first time he heard she was using male pronouns “to have puberty blockers and testosterone injected in her body.”

“I said to her, ‘No, you will not be a guinea pig. This is an experiment, and children are having their bodies permanently harmed,’” Ms. Bourne said.

She told the council girls 13 to 17 years old in her hometown are having their breasts removed.

“I’m here because I want you to know that humans cannot change sex. Sex is binary and immutable. It is every single cell of your body,” Ms. Bourne said. “Taking testosterone to grow a beard or having your breasts removed does not make you a man. Testosterone takes five to 10 years off of your life. It leads to liver cancer and it causes vaginal atrophy.”

Read the full story in The Epoch Times.