Seattle Mayor signs bill to protect sex change, abortion providers from prosecution in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility

On Monday, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, accompanied by city leaders and LGBTQ+ community advocates, signed new legislation to strengthen protections for people seeking gender reassignment procedures and abortions in response to recent actions by the Trump administration.

Harrell signed the legislation into law to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility. He said, “Seattle is a city where diversity is celebrated, and the LGBTQ+ community is not just accepted but embraced. The egregious attempts by the Trump administration to target, discriminate, and dehumanize LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender individuals, and strip them of their rights goes directly against our city’s values. This legislation shows our commitment to a Seattle where everyone – regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation – can live openly and be treated with dignity and respect.”

The legislation was unanimously approved by the City Council last week after being proposed by Harrell in collaboration with LGBTQ+ City employees and the Seattle LGBTQ Commission. The bill extends Washington State’s “Shield Law” into the municipal code to protect people seeking or providing abortions or gender-altering procedures in Seattle from arrest or prosecution. The ordinance extends the requirement to protect the provision of protected health care services to City employees and creates a local cause of action enforceable by the City.

The Trump administration has been combating gender ideology, including the president signing an executive order, "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports," which prohibits educational institutions that receive federal funds from allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports.

Trump also signed an executive order titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," making it the official policy of the US government to recognize only two genders: male and female.

Additionally, the US Department of Education recently launched an investigation into the California Department of Education over alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) after a new California law went into effect that banned schools from disclosing a child's "gender identity" to their parents. 

FOX 13 asked the mayor if the ordinance puts a target on Seattle’s back with the Trump administration, to which Harrell responded, "With this community, we’re prepared to fight in an unprecedented way, We are already a target, people here, they’ve been a target their whole life….we’re not going to run, we’re not going to stand still like a target, we’re going to fight." 

In 2022, Mayor Harrell signed a suite of legislation supporting reproductive rights and access to health care, including a bill that made encroaching on individuals seeking reproductive and gender-affirming care a misdemeanor offense.