PITTSFIELD, Mass. — City councilors on Tuesday assured members of the LGBTQIA-plus community  "We're on your side."

"To any young people in the LGBTQ-plus community or anyone else who I guess is still figuring it out, wherever you fall in the spectrum, whoever you are, there is nothing wrong with you and I'm sorry that our society tries to make you feel like there is," Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey said.

"It's completely ridiculous."

The City Council backed a resolution declaring Pittsfield a sanctuary city for transgender and gender-diverse people. This is in response to executive orders made by President Donald Trump declaring only two sexes and targeting gender-affirming care.

"I was moved to submit this resolution because I've heard from so many trans and gender non-conforming individuals in our community who don't feel safe right now. They're literally asking for friends to walk with them and go places with them and I don't intend to comply, in advance, to federal injustices that encourage harassment of our community members," Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said.

"Tonight, I want to affirm a simple but powerful truth: Pittsfield is a place where all people deserve to live with dignity, safety, and respect no matter their gender identity or expression."

It saddens Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso that they have to do this to protect people in 2025.

"And it saddens me that it's worse in 2025 than it was in 2024, 2023. It's getting worse," she said.

"We shouldn't have to do this for anybody. We all want to be loved. We all want to have a family. We all want to work. We all want to be members of our society."

Ward 2 Councilor Brittany Noto explained that she and her husband moved to the city four years ago and "what quickly became one of our favorite things about Pittsfield is that people here show up for each other."

"They show up for their neighbors, they show up for their community, they show up for their colleagues, and right now our trans neighbors are hurting, our trans community is hurting, and our trans colleagues are hurting," she said.

"If this is just one way that we can show up for them, we would be crazy not to do it.

Several community members came to council chambers in support.

"I don't walk down public roads at night because I'm a woman but I fear being out after dark at all because I'm a trans woman," resident Gwen Morgan said.

"While Canada and Europe are affirming the existence of transgender adults and children, the U.S. is codifying hatred against one of its smallest and most vulnerable minorities. There have always been transgender people and there always will be but we should not have to live in fear."

Similarly, resident Corey Walker feels this will send a message to the rest of the state and country.

"I think that we are a community currently under attack and pressure unlike any other community in the United States. We are very small. We make up 4.3 percent of the population and if they have it their way, we make up 0 percent of the population but we can only survive with helping legislators, helping people that will keep us safe," Walker said.

"We look to the police, we look to our lawmakers, and to our politicians to keep the residents of our state safe, to keep our children safe, to keep myself safe and it starts in places like this. It starts with unity, and it starts with us coming to you and asking for help."

The resolution states that the trans, nonbinary, and LGBTQIA-plus community in Pittsfield and nationally are being attacked by Trump's executive action on January 22 stating that the U.S. government will now recognize only two sexes — male and female.

It also calls attention to Trump's executive order seeking to end gender-affirming medical treatments for children and teenagers under the age of 19 and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's memo to all federal agencies ending legal recognition of trans people by replacing all forms that request information about gender to information about sex.

The cities of Worcester and Cambridge have passed similar resolutions.

In 2019, Director of Human Resources Michael Taylor helped draft the city's transgender and gender-diverse rights policy to foster an inclusive and respectful workplace where employees can live authentically without stigma and discrimination. He is also the president of Berkshire Pride.

"While this is a great step for us, policies alone just aren't enough and our community also needs to take a stand," he said.

Taylor pointed out that these community members are rightfully scared "But here in the city, we have the power to say 'not here' and 'not in this community.'"

School Committee member William Garrity pointed out that the committee recently passed a resolution declaring the Pittsfield Public Schools a safe space for all students regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation and a safe space to explore gender identity and/or sexual orientation.

"I firmly believe the attacks and hate we are seeing against the transgender community is not going to stop," he said. "These bills are much more than sports teams and bathrooms."

He believes it is the state's duty to say that it will not engage in this "hate-fueled oppression" by the federal government.

"It is our duty to make sure this community is protected from discrimination and should be able to continue to have access to gender-affirming care and ensure that their existence will not be wiped away and outlawed by the city," Garrity said.

"Will we end up on Fox News for passing this? Maybe. Will we lose federal dollars because of this resolution? Quite possibly though I would argue we're going to lose that funding no matter what we do."

Pittsfield Resolution for Trans Sanctuary City by Brittany Polito

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