The city of Atlanta and City Council members are looking to pour dollars into LGBTQ support programs as a response to state lawmakers’ anti-transgender policies.
This legislative session was the second year that Georgia’s Republican-held legislature targeted transgender rights.
Lawmakers passed a bill that bans health care providers from providing certain hormones or surgical treatment to children to align with their gender identity. The year prior the legislature approved a law that allowed high schools to ban transgender girls from competing in women’s sports.
The trend is being seen not only in Georgia but across the country as GOP leaders focus on divisive culture war issues.
“Atlanta is proudly the LGBTQ capital of the south,” said Malik Brown, director of LGBTQ affairs for the mayor’s office. “...We have seen record levels of anti-trans legislation across the United States. Our own backyard has not been exempt from that.”
Council members on the Community Development and Human Services Committee OK’d a series of resolutions on Tuesday that allow the city to donate $55,000 to LGBTQ programs — much of it aiding LGBTQ youth who face a heightened risk of mental health challenges.
Studies have found that transgender youth, and adults, consider suicide at a rate exponentially higher than those who are not transgender.
“As a former teacher and school board member, I am especially excited about the investments in our young people. I hope this reinforces to them that we see them and love them,” said Council member Matt Westmoreland who sponsored the resolutions on behalf of the mayor.
The donation will be the city’s largest investment in the transgender community ever, according to the mayor’s office.
“Everyone has the right to live their life with dignity and freedom from fear, and our Administration wants the transgender community to know we stand with them,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said.
Council member Liliana Bakhtiari said that she suspects the state legislature will continue the pattern of targeting transgender policies next year.
“(I) also wanted to make my colleagues aware that we are looking at increased attacks on trans people and our gender expansive community next legislative cycle,” she said, noting the potential of legislation like a ban on gender neutral bathrooms.
The proposals will go through a full council vote on Monday.
Where the money would go
- $25,000 to Destination Tomorrow — an LGBTQ community center — to fund an LGBTQ mentoring pilot
- $20,000 to Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective
- $10,000 to Atlanta Legal Aid Society to expand its gender-affirming name change project
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