The ordinance, which updates language in the city’s Human Rights code, defines “gender-affirming care” in the government glossary and mandates that the city’s healthcare program cover such procedures.

While Washington has a “shield” law, H.B. 1469, in place protecting access to “sex-change” procedures, the ordinance specifically bars the city from collecting or disseminating information about anyone’s biological sex unless it concerns a criminal investigation.

Title 18 of the municipal code will now be revised to “acknowledge the inherent risks faced by the LGBTQIA2S+ community in Spokane, particularly due to federal policies and interjurisdictional legal processes from states that do not recognize LGBTQIA2S+ rights or are working to deny such individuals access to essential medical care, including gender-affirming care,” according to a city press release.

Several liberal cities have declared themselves LGBT “sanctuaries” following Trump’s flurry of Day One executive orders, including one recognizing that there are only “two sexes, male and female.”

TRUMP TO DEFINE SEX AS BASED ON BIOLOGY, AFFECTING FEDERAL PRISONS AND SHELTERS

At the end of January, Olympia became Washington state’s first “sanctuary city” for LGBT-identifying residents. The Olympia City Council voted unanimously on Jan. 28 to declare the state capital a sanctuary for the LGBT community.

Similar to Spokane’s resolution, Olympia’s ordinance forbids the city from sharing information about an individual’s “sex assigned at birth” in any law enforcement investigation, except for criminal inquiries.

“The City will actively oppose legislation or actions at the state or federal level that threaten the rights, safety, or dignity of LGBTQIA2S+ individuals,” the resolution reads.

On the East Coast, Worcester, Massachusetts, declared itself a transgender safe haven in February. The Worcester City Council voted 9-2 to make the state’s second-largest city a sanctuary for “transgender and gender diverse people.”

WORCESTER LGBT ACTIVISTS DECLARE A SANCTUARY CITY IN AN ALREADY SANCTUARY STATE

The resolution ensures that city resources will not be “utilized for cooperating with or providing information to any individual or out-of-state agency or department regarding the provision of gender-affirming healthcare or gender-affirming mental healthcare performed in Worcester and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

Councilors-at-Large Donna Colorio and Morris Bergman, the only two dissenting votes opposing the city’s sanctuary status, raised concerns that the resolution would put Worcester at risk of losing federal funding.

Bergman argued that transgender-identifying people already have equal protection under existing laws.

“There are no new rights that this resolution gives that don’t already exist,” Bergman said during discussion in the council chamber. “However, there’s a potential for federal dollars to be taken away from the city of Worcester.”

The measure mentions Trump’s executive order on “Protecting Children From Clinical and Surgical Mutilation,” which directed federal agencies to withdraw funding for institutions that perform “gender-transitioning” treatments on minors.

At a press briefing Thursday morning, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said the administration is “using every single legal and financial tool we have, at President Trump’s direction, to make it clear that schools and universities will lose federal funds, as you’ve seen in Maine.”

TRUMP SEEKS TO CURTAIL TRANS PROCEDURES FOR MINORS WITH NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER

Miller noted that the Justice Department is coordinating with state and local law enforcement to combat the “gender-transitioning” of children in the country’s K-12 school systems.

It is abusive to “change a child’s gender,” the top Trump aide declared, particularly if the parents are not informed of their child’s transitioning. For example, if a teacher tries to turn a biological boy into a girl, or vice versa, “that is child abuse, and this administration is treating that as child abuse,” Miller said. “It is a gross violation of parental rights.”