Agenda Text
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Proposing an Ordinance securing the rights of individuals seeking gender-affirming care.
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Official Text
CITY OF SOMERVILLE
ORDINANCE NO. 2022-
IN CITY COUNCIL: ________, 2022
An Ordinance Securing the Rights of Individuals Seeking Gender Affirming Care
Be it ordained by the Somerville City Council in session assembled, that Chapter 2, Article I of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Somerville is hereby amended by adding the following section:
Sec. 2-9 - Securing the rights of individuals seeking gender affirming care.
(a) Purpose. The purpose of this ordinance is to reaffirm our city as a welcoming community, to declare again that all are welcome here, and to continue to increase public confidence in Somerville’s government by clearly stating guiding values and standards associated with our city’s involvement in any civil or criminal action originating in another jurisdiction related to attempts to obtain gender affirming care for transgender individuals.
(b) Preamble. In recent years, a rising number of states are threatening the lives of transgender and non-binary people by criminalizing and restricting access to gender affirming care, even going so far as to attempt to criminalize traveling out of state to seek such care. It is not within the purview nor mandate of the City of Somerville to enforce another state’s civil or criminal law seeking to curb an individual’s right to bodily autonomy and to engage with gender affirming care. Further, it is contrary to the City of Somerville’s public policy to criminalize a person’s efforts to live as their full, authentic self, and thus the City’s resources should not be expended toward that end.
(c) Definitions.
(1) Gender affirming care means a range of social, psychological, behavioral, and medical interventions designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity when it conflicts with the gender they were assigned at birth
(2) Gender expression means the representation of g...
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