Pointing to what they see as harmful rhetoric against LBTQ+ people coming from the White House, city councilors voted 12-1 Wednesday on a measure supporting the community.
City councilors in Boston voted 12-1 Wednesday to make Boston a sanctuary city for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Councilor-at-Large Julia Mejia and District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon called on Boston to adopt the measure supporting transgender people, pointing to what they see as harmful rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump and the White House.
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"Boston is not going to back down," Mejia said Wednesday. "We're seeing attacks on our trans loved ones, and here on the local level, a lot of folks are feeling helpless."
It comes one month after Worcester city councilors approved a similar resolution.
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City Councilor Ed Flynn was the only member of the body to vote against the measure.
"I would like to learn more about what this resolution does as it relates to sanctuary cities, the Trust Act, what impact it has on city services, what role the city departments will play," Flynn said, according to The Boston Herald. "I don't want to be disrespectful to anybody, but it's just something I would like to have before I vote."
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Sam Whiting of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a group that describes itself as recognizing "the male and female sexes as a real and enduring part of a person's created nature, not an imaginary social construct," pushed back on the councilors' framing of the Trump administration's actions.
"We think it misrepresents the executive orders, and we do support these orders and the efforts to protect children from the harms of gender ideology," Whiting told NBC10 Boston.
Mejia said the measure is critical.
"It's really a love letter and an opportunity to set the groundwork for the legislation," she said.
