Last month, the Sacramento City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring the city a “sanctuary” for transgender identified individuals.
The newly enacted city policy protects physicians and healthcare practitioners from “criminal punishment, civil liability, administrative penalties, or professional sanctions based on the laws of other states.” It further mandates that city resources will not be allocated to apprehend individuals involved in obtaining or administering transgender body-modifying drugs and surgeries labeled “gender-affirming healthcare.”
Furthermore, the policy makes clear that city resources cannot be used in any way to collaborate or share information with out-of-state individuals or agencies about legally provided “transgender-affirming” medical or mental health care in California. These treatments include sterilizing puberty blocker and cross-sex hormones, as well as removing health breasts from females as young as 13. This decision not only disrupts the usual inter-state cooperation but also brings up issues regarding how accountable and transparent the city is in areas with significant ethical and medical impacts.
To make matters worse, the resolution references the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and The Trevor Project, two activist groups that have faced criticism from conservative legislators and parental rights groups, for their support of sterilizing trans-treatments for minors.
“California Family Council is vehemently opposed to Sacramento City Council’s new resolution,” said California Family Council Vice President Greg Burt. “The resolution protects healthcare workers who destroy the bodies of gender-confused youth; sterilizing them with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, and mutilating healthy body parts to make them look like a different sex. While cloaked in the language of inclusivity, this resolution fundamentally undermines parental rights, medical ethics, and the city’s obligation to protect children from harm.”
The resolution’s author, Emily Smet, is an organizer with the Sacramento Democratic Socialists of America. She informed the council that the resolution would safeguard transgender-identified individuals and physicians from “improper investigations by other states.” Smet, who “identifies” as a transgender woman, argued that the resolution would improve the well-being and security of the transgender community due to the “growing antagonistic political environment towards transgender, intersex, and non-binary individuals,” which has resulted in the emergence of “transgender refugees” within the United States.
Smet noted that what initially began as “bathroom bills and sports bans” has now expanded into comprehensive prohibitions on medical care for transgender-identified minors and the legal persecution of medical professionals who assist them. Multiple attendees affiliated with the Democratic Socialists also expressed their support for the resolution at the meeting.
Beth Bourne, the leader of the parental rights organization Moms for Liberty in Yolo County, shared with the council that her daughter, who is now 18, believed she was transgender during her junior high years. Five years later, she has embraced her “healthy, young female body.” Bourne recounted an instance where her daughter’s doctor at Kaiser Permanente advised a visit to the Kaiser Proud Clinic for puberty blockers and testosterone treatment upon learning she was using male pronouns. Bourne objected, saying, “I said to her, ‘No, you will not be a guinea pig. This is an experiment, and children are having their bodies permanently harmed.’”
“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.”
Bourne is right. Sex is a gift from God that cannot be changed. This resolution is all part of the push towards an ideology that prioritizes subjective personal “identity” over biological reality, often at the expense of sound medical practices and societal norms. This ideology, increasingly propagated without sufficient debate or consideration of dissenting views, represents a direct affront to the preservation of the nuclear family, the protection of minors, and the importance of grounded scientific and medical standards.
