Commentary: We are under threat. Not just transgender people: WE are under threat. Our entire way of life is under threat.
The essays, analyses and opinions presented as Community Voices express the perspectives of their authors on topics of interest and importance to the community, and are not intended to reflect perspectives on behalf of the Salish Current.
Ed.: The Bellingham City Council is scheduled today to consider at its 1 p.m. Committee of the Whole meeting a draft resolution “Reaffirming the City of Bellingham as a Welcoming City Where People Have a Right to Live Free of Discrimination, Violence and Systemic Barriers that Threaten Their Safety, Well-Being and Human Rights.”
The Bellingham city council and its mayor are currently discussing proposals to declare the city a transgender sanctuary. If passed, a sanctuary ordinance would protect our most vulnerable community members and decrease the influence of oppressive federal policies nationwide. As LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly threatened, the urgency and necessity for sanctuary protections grow.
In the first half of 2025, more anti-trans bills have been proposed than ever before in history. We are at 920 bills and counting with 112 passed. These bills refer to rights of receiving healthcare, to use the bathroom, play sports, be in the military, teach, work, a person’s right to exist as a gender different from the one assigned at birth. Anti-trans laws have tripled in frequency since 2022, and if we stay on our current track it could triple again by the end of this year.
These bills strip families of protection, making it acceptable to discriminate against parents of trans children. These bills strip protection from schools, making it acceptable to discriminate against teachers of trans students. These bills strip protections from human beings, making it a criminal offense to identify as transgender. In some states, this is the law. Human beings, who were legal contributing members of our nation, are now criminals because of their gender. They can be imprisoned, and because of the revocation of identification, many can be deported.
We are under threat. Not just transgender people: WE are under threat. Many can tell you that the wave of domination will not stop with seizing transgender rights. They continue to reach for reproductive rights, immigrant rights (no matter the generation), environmental rights, union rights, due process, for social security, for democracy. Our entire way of life is under threat.
Out of the 920 bills proposed, 8 have been introduced in Washington; and even though some failed to pass, Washington healthcare providers have already started ramping down treatment for transgender individuals. Even though executive orders lacks legal standing, Trump’s orders directly influence our public systems. In Bellingham, Unity Care has reportedly succumbed to federal pressure and has begun retracting life-saving care from transgender patients. School districts like Lynden and Tumwater are suing the state to keep trans kids out of sports, local courts are confiscating transgender individuals driver’s license/passports, transgender servicemen and women have been dismissed without any benefits (most having already served), and now HR 1 threatens removing all gender-affirming care from Medicaid. These bills do not need to pass to have a profound and echoed effect on our state and on our community. These bills do not need to be Washington specific to affect our legislation and enactment of care.
Yet, we are not without power. There exists a tool of defense. We, as a community, can stand against the growing oppression. We can resist the dismantling of our rights, the systematic erasure of our history. We can protect our access to life, what generations of queer advocates fought for. Our tool is sanctuary status.
Sanctuary status is the ultimate advocacy: A permanent dedication to the defense of a people in need. No government order or entity can undo a city’s claim of sanctuary. It highlights the resistance to the federal administration for all people in all the world. Right now, the world watches with fear to see how we will act in America. Other nations, like the U.K. have ruled against trans people as America’s voice grows louder. We do not have the privilege of time. Human lives are in the balance. Families, teachers, friends, lovers, and leaders everywhere are in true danger: legal, physical, and mental. The actions of our government have emboldened hate groups and bigots across the nation. Harassment and hate-crimes are on the rise.
The Trevor Project reports that 49% of queer youth experience bullying that makes them consider suicide. (In addition, 46% transgender/nonbinary individuals seriously considered taking their own lives. This will not get better on its own, it will get worse. We cannot wait while this cancer grows and strangles our community.
That is why we must declare Bellingham a transgender sanctuary and, in turn, form a coalition of sanctuary cities across Washington and the United States. There is no option. This is what is necessary. This is how we can help, this is one of the only things we can do, and there is only so much time to do it. So please, before the words are taken from us, speak out for the rights of trans people, and by extension all people. Write to the mayor and city council in support of sanctuary status, join an advocacy group like Trans Survival, and fight for tomorrow, today.
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