What does pro-active support look like to you?
The city council in Denver is considering a proposal that would curtail the city’s right to retain volunteered information about its citizens, particularly with regard to gender identity. The proposed ordnance, championed by Bread and Roses Legal Center director Z Williams, would “[reduce] unnecessary sex/gender documentation and record keeping,” prevent city resources from being “weaponized” against transgender people, and prohibit the city from sharing information that would “advance investigations which target trans and gender expansive people.”
In essence, the ordinance would keep city government from collecting or sharing data regarding citizens’ potential queerness, except where explicitly required by federal law. Councilwoman Shontel Lewis indicated to Denver 7 that the ordinance was a direct response to the “regressive and biased policies” being adopted by other municipalities and states across the nation, where trans Americans’ rights are being stripped away every single day.
“This bill was made to protect trans people specifically,” Z Williams told Denver 7’s Colette Bordelon. “There are states, for example, that have banned all forms of gender-affirming care. This bill could protect their information from the city of Denver.”
Williams also specifically singled out their support of trans youth, saying, “I want every trans kid to know that they are fought for. They are not just cared for. They are not just loved. They are not just important, but they are fought for. We will do whatever it takes to keep them safe, and this moment will pass.”
The bill is scheduled for its first reading next Monday, and a second reading on October 5. If it’s approved by the city council, it will go into effect in January of 2027.
This is the sort of pro-active support that I have longed to see nationwide. In the face of so much vitriol, hatred, and targeted attacks on our right to exist peacefully, seeing people and bodies with some measure of power and authority go out of their way to protect trans people is incredibly heartening.
We’ve seen plenty of so-called allies abandon us at the most politically expedient moment they could find. We’ve also seen actual allies put in hard work to our community’s benefit. It goes without saying, I’d very much like to see more of the latter, and none of the former. Obviously I want to see my community safe and happy, but on a pragmatic level… betraying us simply isn’t accomplishing anything.
Trans Coloradans deserve better than to be thrown under the bus because they worked with or for the city government, or used programs the city offered to help them, and identified themselves as trans in the process. Trans people everywhere deserve better than that, actually, so I applaud the activists who worked to see this ordinance proposed, and its supporters, like Lambda Legal and the Colorado LGBTQ+ Bar Association.
Fingers crossed that the Denver City Council does the right thing and adopts this proposal in full next month.
