President Donald Trump rode into the White House in January after a campaign that traded liberally in transphobia, and immediately began issuing executive orders to curtail the civil rights and protections for the minority group. The Republican spoke about his effort to eliminate trans Americans from public life before signing an order to ban trans athletes from women’s sports in early February.
“We've gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we're very importantly, getting it out of women's sports,” said Trump. “That's taken place very strongly. So, in recent years, the radical left has waged an all-out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology.”
Along with scapegoating a population that amounts to less than 1% of residents over 13, Trump included a nationwide threat to American schools willing to protect trans rights.
“With my action this afternoon, we are putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that if you let men take over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding,” the president continued. “There will be no federal funding.”
Tuesday night, Pittsfield took a stand.
Following the example of fellow Massachusetts communities – first Worcester and most recently Cambridge – at-large city councilor Alisa Costa brought forward a resolution affirming the city’s recognition and protection of trans and gender diverse community members.
“Pittsfield is a place where all people deserve to live with dignity, safety and respect, no matter their gender identity or expression," she said. "Across the country, we are witnessing an alarming wave of attacks on transgender and gender diverse individuals, policies that seek to erase their identities, deny them lifesaving health care and push them to the margins of our society. But not here, not in Pittsfield. We will not sit idly by while our neighbors have their rights stripped away.”
Members of Pittsfield’s trans community braved the hostile national environment to speak out for their rights at the meeting.
“I'm a transgender woman, and I am terrified. The current federal administration and their Project 2025 agenda have made it their goal to erase and eradicate my kind. They are erasing us from history- For example, removing references to transgender people from the online description of the Stonewall movement, which was dedicated to the LGBTQ people who fought back against opposition in 1969, and also removing transgender information from the CDC and other government websites," said Gwen Morgan. “While Canada and Europe are affirming the existence of transgender adults and children, the US is codifying hatred against one of its smallest and most vulnerable minorities. There have always been transgender people, and there always will be, but we should not have to live in fear.”
Many speakers shared fears that the accelerating decay of civil liberties among apparent White House enemies will only intensify in the years ahead.
“I think especially something that's been very chilling for me is seeing the Trump administration attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil, who is a Palestinian activist, who is a legal green card holder, but led many of the protests against the war in Gaza, and is now attempting to be illegally removed from the country. I think we are seeing very clearly that this administration may attempt to incarcerate or remove people whose existence or opinions they disagree with, and I think that I'll echo everyone else in saying there are few communities higher up on that list than those of us in the trans community," said Pittsfielder Jeff Lowenstein. “One thing that I can tell you that people have been worried about in the Berkshires as long as I've been alive is the fact that our population is declining and our young people are fleeing. I can tell you, just based on experience, that there are far, far higher rates of LGBTQ+ identifying folks and of transgender identifying folks in our youth population, and I think that this is a really important step for the city to take if you want some of the young people who are growing up here, who love the Berkshires, to choose to make it their home, just as I did.”
School committee member William Garrity successfully led that body to unanimously approve a similar resolution backing the LGBTQIA+ community earlier this year. He told the city council the fight against tyranny on the federal level must begin locally.
“I firmly believe it is our duty as a city to say clearly that we will not engage in this hate-filled oppression being conducted by the federal government against transgender community," said Garrity. "It is our duty to make sure this community is protected from discrimination, ensure they will continue to have access to gender affirming care, and ensure that their existence will not be wiped away and outlawed in this city.”
“We shouldn't have to do this for anybody," said At-large city councilor Kathy Amuso. "We all want to be loved, we all want to have a family, we all want to work, we all want to be members of our society.”
She noted the resolution had drawn one of the highest attendances for a city council meeting in the last year.
“It saddens me that we have to do this to protect people in 2025 and it saddens me that it's worse in 2025 than it was in ‘24, ’23," sighed Amuso. "It's getting worse.”
In a roll call vote, the nine present members of the Pittsfield city council unanimously accepted the sanctuary city resolution.
