Spokane City Council approves law mirroring state LGBT+ protections after heated meeting

After a marathon meeting that occasionally grew fraught, Spokane’s City Council has codified a number of protections for the LGBT+ community.

While many are enshrined in state law or already in practice, advocates argue they signaled support amid a national firestorm, particularly over trans rights.

There was a small taste of that cultural battleground during the Monday city council meeting, with dozens of supporters testifying that their right to exist is increasingly under question and political attack, while a few opponents argued that further protections were unnecessary or that gender-affirming treatments are harmful.

In all, 67 people signed up to testify, and even with their testimony limited from the normal three minutes to two, the single agenda item dominated almost the entire meeting.

The ordinance, sponsored by Council members Paul Dillon, Lili Navarrete and Zack Zappone, covers a lot of ground, including adding anti-discrimination language in city code and preventing city resources from being used to investigate or detain an individual for seeking gender-affirming care. It also protects against the release of information about a person’s sex assigned at birth, which largely reflects current state law.

The ordinance also would ask the Spokane Police Department to designate officers to act as dedicated liaisons for the LGBT+ community and event organizers to act as points of contact, advocate for community members, and ensure public safety at events such as the annual Pride parade.

Finally, it would enshrine in code that the city’s insurance policy must provide access to gender-affirming care. The city’s current insurance policy for its employees, negotiated under former Mayor Nadine Woodward, provides this coverage.

Emotions flared both from the ordinance itself and a series of amendments submitted by Councilman Jonathan Bingle and supported by Councilman Michael Cathcart, but rejected by the rest of the city council. Bingle and Cathcart also were the only “no” votes on the ordinance that passed 5-2. Those amendments would have restricted the access of trans people from the bathrooms of their choice, from women’s sports and from accessing gender-affirming treatments if they are under the age of 18, among other restrictions.

Rebecca Edwards testified that she moved to Spokane from southern Idaho two years ago alongside her trans son and his wife due to increasing hostility, stating her son was refused medical treatment, not for gender-affirming care, but for a life-threatening condition.

“More than one doctor told him, I’m not going to help you,” Edwards said.

But they no longer feel like they escaped that hostility, she added.

“With things like ongoing vandalism of inclusive crosswalks, a proposed amended version of this very ordinance that effectively did the exact opposite of its intention, and rising threats from the highest office in our nation, we are feeling the fear and strife we thought we left behind,” Edwards said.

Caya Berndt and several others argued that ordinances like this help assure queer people that Spokane continues to be a welcoming place to live.

“A lot of queer people feel like they have to leave for Seattle, but a lot of us don’t want to, because Spokane is our home,” Berndt said.

The vast majority of those who testified Monday were in support of the ordinance, but there were exceptions who made various arguments in support of Bingle’s amendments or in opposition to the ordinance itself. Several argued that Monday’s protections granted extraordinary rights for the LGBT+ community, stating it was itself a form of bigotry.

“Will you continue to define what sexual practices are favored in Spokane, including those currently illegal in our state?” asked Cynthia Zapotocky, former chairman of the Spokane County GOP and co-president of the 2017 Spokane Lilac Festival. “Bestiality, or sex with animals, incest with close family members, adult sex with minor children? This remains to be seen, and I am concerned.”

Dr. Alfonso Oliva is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon whose listed specialties include breast augmentation and reconstruction, and announced himself as a member of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which lost a U.S. Supreme Court case in 2024 that attempted to challenge the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, commonly known as the abortion pill.

Oliva argued against the ordinance’s provision ensuring that the city’s health insurance for its employees include coverage for gender-affirming treatment, arguing that those treatments harm children and adolescents.

“In brief, gender-confused youth truly and greatly suffer,” Oliva said. “But their suffering can only be relieved by treating the underlying psychological problems. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that puberty blockers and trans sex hormones do not improve the dysphoria, but actually make it worse.”

Several trans speakers at the meeting argued that the research cited was flawed and pointed to their own experiences, noting the difficulties they experienced earlier in life exacerbated by their gender dysphoria and relieved by gender-affirming treatment. Those who had undergone a gender transition repeatedly called it lifesaving.

“I am a gay man who was assigned female at birth,” said Colton Gerard. “For 30 years, I suffered the many consequences that come with self-hatred. Today, I stand in front of you seven years sober and in the best health of my life, surrounded by a community that loves me and working toward becoming a commercial electrician.”

“The basis of my success is simple gender-affirming care and a city that, for the most part, has made me feel safe throughout my whole life,” Gerard added.

Dr. Pam Kohlmeier, an emergency room physician who ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature in 2024, voiced support for the ordinance.

“I’m very committed to saving lives, largely because I lost one of my own kids who was transgender nonbinary to suicide two years ago,” Kohlmeier said. “I will tell you, gender-affirming care saves lives. Privacy of their medical records saves lives. Letting them compete in the sports that fit with their identity saves lives.”

Others disputed that the protections afforded by Monday’s ordinance granted them special rights.

“We’re not asking for special treatment, like some people here are claiming,” said Evee Polanski, operations director for Spokane Community Against Racism. “We’re just simply asking to be able to access the same types of care that the rest of you do.”

A similar argument has been made by lawyers in the case U.S. v. Skrmetti currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, which involves a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming treatments for transgender youth. Lawyers have argued that many of those same treatments are used by cisgender people, both for medical and aesthetic reasons.

“I’d like to start by saying that Elon Musk has received gender-affirming care,” said Courtney Anderson, the former diversity, equity, access and inclusion program manager for The Arc of Spokane. “If you’ve seen the two pictures of him side by side, one with a receding hairline, and the other in which he clearly had jaw reconstruction and hairline surgery, that is considered gender-affirming care.”

Navarrete teared up as she argued that these protections are necessary as the Trump administration continues to target the trans community.

“Church-state separation means that Christian nationalists and their lawmaker allies cannot use our country’s laws to improve their narrow beliefs on others, or we use misuse religious freedom to deny LGBTQIA2S+ people equal rights,” she said. “But that is exactly what is happening now.”

Bingle invited anyone in the audience to join him for a coffee or lunch, arguing that he had been painted with a broad brush by some testifiers. He said he and others like him are acting in good faith and added he has  sincerely held reservations about taxpayer dollars going to support gender-affirming treatments for minors. He largely did not address the other provisions of his amendments.