Officials in Missouri’s largest city passed a resolution on Thursday designed to protect anyone seeking or providing gender-affirming care in the state. The vote came in defiance of Missouri’s record-breaking number of new bills targeting the rights of LGBTQ people — particularly transgender youth.
Kansas City councilmembers voted to make the city of 510,000 a “sanctuary city for gender-affirming care,” just one day after the state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed two wide-ranging anti-LGBTQ bills “that persecute and vilify transgender children,” according to the Missouri House Democratic Caucus.
Resolution No. 230385, which declares Kansas City “a safe haven for gender-affirming healthcare through [the] adoption of a gender-affirming healthcare policy” was approved by the city council in an 11-1 vote on Thursday afternoon.
The resolution states the city will not criminally prosecute or fine “an individual or organization for providing, seeking, receiving, or assisting another individual who is seeking or receiving gender-affirming healthcare.”
The rule also says that if Missouri passes laws or resolutions imposing any type of punishment in such cases, city personnel should make the enforcement of such laws “their lowest priority.”
On Wednesday, the Missouri House of Representatives passed SB 49, which prohibits healthcare providers to prescribe or administer therapy or puberty-blocking drugs to any minors in the state unless that minor was receiving such care prior to Aug. 28, 2023. It also bans gender-transition surgeries on anyone under 18, though such cases are extremely rare.
The bill — which passed in a 108-50 vote with only three Republicans voting against it — was one of 48 pieces of legislation attacking the rights of LGBTQ Missourians this year alone, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
It was also the second anti-trans piece of legislation that passed with overwhelming GOP support on Wednesday. SB 39, which was approved in a 109-49 vote, seeks to ban trans women and girls from competing in women’s sports in both public and private schools, including colleges.
Republican Gov. Mike Parson has given no indication he would veto either bill.
The Kansas City resolution also comes as a St. Louis County judge considers emergency regulation proposed by the state’s Republican attorney general that would severely restrict gender-affirming care for Missourians of all ages.
Under the rule — which was set to take effect April 27 but was put on hold by Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo — trans people in the state would no longer be able to access gender-affirming care unless they have exhibited three years of a “medically documented, long-lasting, persistent and intense pattern of gender dysphoria.”
As of May 9, more than 520 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in statehouses across the country, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Over 220 of those specifically restrict the rights of transgender and nonbinary people. At least 16 states have enacted laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors.