During its June 11 meeting, the city’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously (11-0) in favor of a resolution declaring, “San Francisco a sanctuary city and a place of safety for TGNCI2S people and providers of gender affirming care.” The acronym TGNCI2S stands for “Transgender, Gender Non-conforming, Intersex, and 2-spirit.” “We are reaffirming that our city has been and will continue to be a sanctuary and a beacon for our transgender and gender nonconforming siblings,” Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who introduced the resolution, said in a statement. The board’s vote come just over a month after San Francisco appointed Honey Mahogany as the city’s new Director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives (OTI). Mahogany, an LGBTQ activist and founder of Drag Queen Story Hour, organized the city’s transgender community members in the creation of San Francisco’s Transgender District, the first legally recognized district of its kind in the world. “We have seen an influx of refugees, not just from other countries, but from other states who are seeking care and seeking sanctuary," Mahogany said. “With the unprecedented level of attacks we are experiencing on trans rights and bodily autonomy, more and more people will be flocking to places like San Francisco,” Mahogany explained. “We are already seeing the impact of these policies lead to an increase in demands for services.” LGBTQ advocates and community leaders welcomed this week’s resolution codifying sanctuary status for the city. “Though the work is far from over, this declaration sends a clear message to the rest of the country that transgender, non-binary, gender-non-conforming and two-spirit people are welcomed and valued in San Francisco,” said Dani Siragusa, the director of communications and development at the San Francisco LGBT Center. California is one of 13 states, along with the District of Columbia, that have “shield” or “refuge” laws, which aim to protect people’s access to sex change medical procedures. In recent years, there have been a flurry of bills passed in Republican states limiting or banning such procedures. Among 28 states with a GOP-majority legislature, 24 now prohibit or restrict sex change therapies for minors; 24 bar transgender students from participating in sports that do not align with their biological sex; and 12 prohibit students from using school bathrooms that do not match their biological sex, according to The New York Times. If an individual travels from a state where transgender medical procedures are banned, shield laws can protect them and their medical provider against civil and criminal charges that could arise from the state where the procedures are banned.San Francisco lawmakers have voted to declare the city a sanctuary for transgender people.
