all right good evening it is 6:04 and I'm calling the community relations meeting of the Greenfield City Council to order um this meeting is being recorded by the community relations committee if any other persons present are doing the same
you must notify the chairperson at this time okay so welcome everybody the first order of business is a roll call um and do I see any counselors
remote um if if no one is remote then we can just do it as voice so Are you allowed to post about I'm all set i'm here i'm just kind of
letting people into the room i'll come up there when we can i'm here we don't have four so we don't we don't have quorum wait let me just five is not a quorum
why did I think four was a quorum i'm going with three for now um because because it's out of five so that's more than half so that is going to be forum all right so
um roll call of members uh councelor Brown here councelor Gilmore not here councelor Minhos councelor Perry here
i am here okay um All right and then I'm just All right so um I don't see minutes so if we don't have minutes then um we will not go to minutes so or no we do have I do have
minutes okay last month yeah thank you um next order of business is approval of the minutes um all in favor say I i anyone opposed abstain okay so the minutes are
approved so um I'm gonna move to public comment um so thank you everybody for showing up both online and in person um we have a sign-in sheet going around so if you
want to make public comment please um sign up and if you are in Zoomland um just put your name in the chat and that way we'll call on you um as as we can as
a reminder um each person is going to have three minutes and you just have to state your name and address um for the public record and Wade could you turn on the camera can they see us
it's on behind you there's a Oh okay I can see we can see you okay great i don't think chat is operative so people will have to put a raise a hand on the screen if they want to speak okay I don't see chat here oh wait here it is got it this is
our first rodeo at the fire station so learning out i went to the wrong location sorry so I'm just trying to decide where's the best place for public to also see um so I think coming up to just this front row of chairs if that's
comfortable with folks to come up I'm um and don't be anxious about it so I'm going to grab the public comments signin sheet and then just call folks when they're ready thank you so much all right so the first person up I have
on the list is Robin can I see my uh full name and Yes please address yep hi my name is Robin Witcom i use she her pronouns and I live on Country Club Road in Greenfield i was
born and raised in this great city of Greenfield i left for a few years but decided to move back to raise a family and join my parents' business here in town which I now own one of the most important factors to making the move
back to my hometown was that I knew that Greenfield was a place of inclusivity a place where all people belong and can feel safe making Greenfield a sanctuary city for transgender and gender diverse persons would fortify that sense of
belonging and safety for our neighbors friends and loved ones as a business owner and longtime resident of Greenfield I fully support this resolution thank you for your time thank you so much time to spare
all right so next person on my list is Sarah i do not have anything written um as I was unsure if I was going to speak my name is Sarah Damarado i live on Silver Street um and a lot of the personal stories
that I could share I am refraining from because they are personal and shared with other people um without compromising their identity or what they feel comfortable with but speaking of being comfortable you might notice I have a strong Rhode Island accent i have
lived in Rhode Island for 47 years and two years ago when I had a household member cry saying "I can't live here anymore in our town where can we go that's safe for um a couple of years we
explored from Holio to Sunderland to Amherst to Northampton to Greenfield staying in Airbnbs and short-term rentals and um the Hampton in was one of our favorite hotels and we wanted to find that right spot for our household
to live be attended your June 2023 Pride parade and to see preschoolers and elementary schools march with happiness and without judgment and just feeling um joyful and inclusive i was burning down
the banks that walked by and I couldn't keep up like which bank would have my business i became a homeowner on Silver Street in 2024 February 2024 so you became my sanctuary place before you became my sanctuary place before
this i will say that for a year almost we walked around with our shoulders back and very comfortable and happy and taken in my accountant is 10 minutes walk away from me my dentist is a 9-minute walk from me i bought my car on Federal Street since
November my household is staying inside more they're uncertain they're questioning is this the right place that we chose to be and be comfortable i feel like we are i know that there are some people that are going to disagree but I just ask of you to please be that place
that my family really saw i left my mother my sister my spouse to move here for safety of my household so I just ask you guys to uphold that um no matter how strong some of the other voices will be
thank you i have a list of maps okay um hi my name is Max Webb i live on Elm Street in Greenfield um the reason we're here today is because there is a threat to trans rights in this country in the big
picture this means there is a threat to human rights my name is Max and I'm a trans person from Texas i'm a child care provider and someone who cares about community and social justice i know what it's like to have to jump through hoops to be myself and while there are a whole lot less hoops living in Greenfield they
still exist in January I made an appointment to update my gender marker on my license i changed it from X back to F for female to match my birth certificate passport and legal documents my suspicions were proven correct when I learned that conservative
states are using mismatching gender markers and photos to dehumanize and subsequently question the citizenship of said non-persons unrelated Trump wants to send citizens who he deems criminal to El Salvador i was unaware I would have to
update my picture when I updated my gender marker which now shows me with facial hair i have had many heated debates with friends on whether it is safe for me to have facial hair in my legal ID i have chosen not to legally change my name because I fear it will complicate my rights and flag me as a
target as we have seen happen to so many folks already as a trans Texas native I fear that I won't ever really be able to escape surveillance this means that I have to out myself multiple times a week when I use my debit card at Big Y when I
go to the doctor when I talk to my bank when I pick up my prescriptions when I call my senators or when I call Sandre to get an oil refill the list doesn't end my legal name is Meline my legal bathroom is the women's i come to you knowing that my community needs more
protections despite the protections Massachusetts already provides us if we are to rely on the judicial system to check the executive I want as many roadblocks as possible i want protection from my doctor who prescribes my gender affirming care and parents who invest in their child's gender affirming care
medical or not this past winter I took my license to carry class because I'm interested in hunting i want to feel at ease going into the police department to have my interview despite my gender presentation not matching my documents i have that right i want to know that the police understand our fear and the
choices we have to make daily to keep ourselves safe i want them to understand that while our relationship to each other is complicated it is you who society expects us to uphold the law and so it is our right to be able to trust you i support this resolution as a starting point for Greenfield's
residents and officials to discuss what protections our community wants and needs out of this upcoming ordinance i think it is imperative to have trans and gender diverse people sitting at the table as you discuss these measures and that you listen to their fears and ideas
this is an ordinance for our safety and we need to have a hand and a voice and that it is heard and respected or else this is just optics thank you thank you thank you next someone else was showing to speak to it
did you want to speak if you did respond to fires at 134 Street oh sorry that's my street um uh my name is Casey Dean uh I've been a Greenfield
resident since 2019 and I live on Well Street and I've been engaged in LGBTQ community events uh since that year i found incredible community and support here while growing for while growing comfortable um with myself even just as
a bisexual woman i've watched the city's support grow for Pride number of people who turn out for Pride events move here and look for community grow each year i support this because we are seeing transgender and gender diverse people being targeted by federal and state actors in an inhumane way and standing
aside and not taking a stance is not an option i see Greenfield supporting pride and this is an obvious and necessary additional stance to pro and protection to take to protect its residents thank you councelor Perry do we have anybody
in the zoom i'll take Yes emily Borick and Indigo Goodri let's um Emily if you want to unmute yourself uh and you've got three minutes uh name and where you live okay thank you hello
my name is Emily Bourke i live on Franklin Street here in Greenfield i want to express my full support of designating our city as a sanctuary for transgendered folks transgender people are part of our community they're members of our
community some of the best people in my life are trans and have changed my life for the better um sorry they belong here they deserve to live with the assurance that they are seen valued and protected in today's political climate
transgender folks are being unfairly targeted and used as scapegoats which is horrifying considering the fact that they make up 1% of the population it makes it even more crucial for us to step up and take a stand for inclusion
dignity and safety by becoming a sanctuary city Greenfield has the opportunity to lead with compassion and courage and I urge everyone to do the right thing thank you so much you
too all right next I have Indigo so you can unmute yourself um Indigo Gidri um they them pronouns i'm at 92 Peabody Lane Greenfield
Massachusetts um and I am in deep support of this resolution and furthermore would like it to progress to um an
ordinance in order to enshrine trans and gender queer rights uh in Greenfield where I live um the people I love most in this world are trans including myself and I didn't
choose that and neither did they it's just something that is deeply true about us despite the fact that it makes us targets in the USA at this time in many other countries we
um some people get killed executed in other countries for being trans and luckily that's not the case in the USA and as y'all know the current regime
Trump Vance Musk regime has trans people as one of their chosen scapegoats and um so I think it's really important to be outwardly visible in this time where there's so much visible
violence and uh attacking of trans people's right to simply exist and be ourselves i think it's of utmost importance to project a different energy a different message and to show that
there are some of us some some places where trans people are still fully human and we where we can still be safe uh so yes please pass the resolution and move it forward to an
ordinance thank you thank you there's two more councils all right river Matos and Hannah Wangi great uh River um you're up next you can unmute yourself
hello uh my name is River i use they them pronouns and I live on Prey Drive in Greenfield um I'm here to speak in support of the resolution to make Greenfield a sanctuary city for trans and gender diverse people um Greenfield has already shown its commitment to
justice in 2017 we passed a resolution supporting immigrants and refugees our schools have adopted gender-inclusive policies and Franklin County Pride and Trans Day of Visibility events show that this community cares these are not just symbolic gestures or events they are the
cornerstones of a community that refuses to be silent in the face of hate or discrimination across the country we're seeing a flood of anti-trans legislation over 500 bills have been introduced nationwide trying to erase our rights our dignity and in some cases our very
existence these attacks aren't abstract and the message being sent is chilling that we don't belong that we're not valid human beings and that we shouldn't exist but Greenfield has the power to send a different message one of safety inclusion and belonging by becoming a
sanctuary city we can affirm that trans and gender diverse people are welcome protected and valued here we can tell our gender diverse youth that they are not alone we can tell our trans adults that they can live and thrive here without fear and we can tell those who
seek to harm us whether through violence or policy that Greenfield stands with its people not against them i was heartbroken to hear someone speak earlier about how they had to change their gender marker on their documentation i currently have X on my license and I can't tell you how many
times I've cried with my partner while discussing whether it's safe for me to keep it or if I need to change it back to my assigned gender at birth declaring Greenfield a sanctuary city for trans and gender diverse people shouldn't be about politics and it shouldn't be about optics it should be about people our
neighbors our co-workers our family members are all people who deserve to feel safe thank you for allowing us to speak on this and I hope our city does the right thing thank
you next is Hannah uh hello are you able to hear me okay yes thank you very much for confirming uh my name is Hannah Longi i am a resident of Greenfield i live on Hope Street um and not only am I a gender
non-conforming or transgender person living in Greenfield but I am also a member of the uh medical establishment here in town and I work with the public and I can say from the perspective myself as a trans person and from the
perspective of the people that I'm talking to about these things every day that uh it's a very very scary world out there for all of us right now and I know personally that Greenfield has been my home for the better part of
the last 30 years and I have felt safer here than in many places that I have been and having a sanctuary city status would mean so much to those of us who live here who already feel more at home in
our community and know that our community is safer here than it is in most of the United States and as other people said here most of the world right now and I think it's really important that we move forward and we would I know I personally would appreciate your votes
to move this forward to an ordinance thank you that seems to be it council thank you so we'll we'll move back to the in room folks um I've got Devin next hi
my name is Devin Castillo i live on Union Street um I have to say that in the current political climate it feels scary just to put my name on the record i grew up in the South at a time and place where being different was not just
difficult but could be downright dangerous while I was in high school two of my friends were physically assaulted just for being gay and nothing was done about it regardless of what you believe about the end goals of the Trump
administration and Project 2025 their words and actions are absolutely emboldening to bigots stripping away trans rights and pardoning criminals who hurt people they don't agree with tells them that we aren't on equal footing and that they can get away with hurting us
i support passing the sanctuary city measure especially if it can be implemented not just as a resolution but as an ordinance with legal teeth taking an official stance to support our rights is important and it does make a
difference thank you uh say Ron Garuna um so yes Arjuna Bryce um you got it right on Solar Way i uh helped to sort of edit and format the uh um resolution
that we sent in um and I most people here have already said most of the reasons um I just I feel it's really important in the current culture with um the national you know things being
the way they are that really we need to protect each other on a local level and that you know knowing our neighbors seeing our neighbors seeing people for who they are and saying yes everyone is
welcome everyone is valued And the messages coming from the top are not the messages that we want to project and the more towns and cities that do this um the the more that ripple effect
goes out and so we would be joining um many uh towns and cities across and we'd be inspiring more so the more people act the more they we say this is important we want to protect everyone um healthc care is important trans kids in school
rights are important and um then another town can say oh look Greenfield did it right Tristan next well everyone has said pretty much everything I wanted to say um so ditto everyone um you repeat your name and I'm
Tristan G and I live on Solar Way number 73 um and what I wanted to talk about is what it means to be a sanctuary city because it's more than just keeping the people already here safe which is incredibly important but it also puts
the message out on the national and international level level that we are a safe refuge refuge where people can home and right now people are running from incredibly dangerous states there is talk that Texas may actually create
trans concentration camps and that there's already a bill in the Texas legislature to make the fact of being trans illegal and they're creating a register for trans people 25 states have made it impossible for trans young
people to access transgender affirming medical care this is a problem and people are running i am part My family goes to a camp in New Hampshire I can't disclose the name every summer for trans children and we hear other trans families raising trans children talking
about how desperately hard it is in their states and how they want to move and how they're looking for a refuge so they can raise their children in safety and I am hoping that Greenfield can be one of those places of refuge because it in truth it truly is i came out as trans
and transitioned when I was 44 i'm 60 now um my workplace was very scary i honestly thought I would lose my life i was being persecuted by my co-workers and my boss the upper echelon fired
everyone but me and protected me and made sure I had a safe workplace while I transitioned that is Greenfield when I went to Bay State Franklin and told them that I was transitioning doctors and medical technicians I didn't even know came into the room to congratulate me
and w and wish me luck that is Greenfield my child is gender non-conforming they have been completely supported throughout all the steps of their changes by all of their teachers they have many friends that is Greenfield and that is the environment
that trans families trans children deserve now in terms of the ordinance now I read the draft ordinance it seems to be an ordinance to protect our access to gender affirming care and that is crucial young people who do not have
access I'm sorry young people who who do have access to gender affirming care when they need it have a 73% reduction in suicide ideiation that is so important that is why Greenfield needs this and that's why I hope you pass this
resolution and later on this summer I hope you pass at least one ordinance thank you you too the last person I have on the list is Zimry zimry wants to pass or do you want to speak sim wants to pass fine did was there
anybody else who isn't on the list who wants to speak right so um uh it's 6:32 and I'm closing the public comment period uh unless there's anybody online but I
think we got everybody councelor Perry do you want to come back up you don't have to be back in the corner relegated just let us know if you see someone saying waiting so we can go in but
all right um so on the official part of it uh and and then we'll comment um is there a motion to approve the resol the trans safe city resolution i think Oh you No you make it
i'll second okay i'll second great so now we can have discussion so first I just want to thank everybody for coming and telling your stories um they're both like heart-wrenching and
hopeful you know I'm proud that this is a a place where people do feel safe and comfortable and that we can be that community um I think that you know I the organization I work for in my day job
has been running a drag bingo for the last three years and I was just talking to one of my co-workers today and it's the first time that we've gotten a lot of hateful comments on our like Facebook ads which we haven't in the past um so I
to like we're in a and these are just people here in the valley and we think of like the happy valley and every all's good right um and I'm not like naive enough to think it's all good but it it people are emboldened to come out of their shells and say stuff and that's
really true so I appreciate you all putting your names down because I know that that also feels scary so thank you really thank you so counselors well it's kind of interesting that we're
meeting here at the fire station because the human rights uh commission is meeting on the second to a Monday of the month there at CO but we could have just easily had a combined meeting with them and us because to me this is just a human rights uh issue i know people have
political issues with it i know people have religious uh issues with this stuff but to me that's irrelevant it's human rights and on Thursday the human rights commission gave out their award for the they gave out their human rights award and I was there listening and several
people from town high up made outstanding speeches in support of equality and what human rights is so you do have the we we I should we have the backing of people in positions uh and that should make us feel uh confident
that we have the backing the support of people who can make a difference in our community so I I'm here to support this uh no questions asked you know I'm going to get a little bit of uh push back from my religious community i'm going get a
little bit of push back from some political friends but it's worth the price is worth the price because human rights is above everything else so that's why I supported I thank you for taking the time to do that and start the
ball roll not much to add just super appreciative for everyone being here and um bringing forward this resolution um and just we want to do more so like tell us what you want and and we can try to do it um and
even just um I know we're thinking about making the ordinances gender neutral and even on the website there's like on the public safety commission it was saying like men or or women and then um just today Matt Conway updated that to just say individuals so I think that we are
trying to do the right thing and I appreciate um both speaking out and and that it's vulnerable so thank you yeah that's a really good comment so um so today we're talking about a resolution
um now I'm thinking of the Beatles song and Tracy Chapman yes all of it all of it um and and we will also work on an ordinance separate so um the ordinance will then be able to be in our code um
and protect gender affirming care um people from this community and people from outside of this community um and you you know I I I heard the comments about the police and we've been talking to um the chief um who is fully in
support of both the resolution and the ordinance um has made some good comments and has also just shared that this is already the practice of the Greenfield Police Department that they they are supporting trans rights um that
they you know the the the chief is like look there's HIPPA so we can't like we're not going to go after people like there's there's rules and we follow them and we've alo also instructed all of our um officers and what I've talked to him about is we aren't always going to have
you as a chief so we also want to make sure that these practices are part of our standard and how we treat folks um so that's really important uh so after after we tackle the resolution um and that gets and um
I'm going to encourage both the recorder and also you all to like share this widely so that people know because otherwise you know a resolution I think the last words on the resolution are that it's going to go to the recorder it's going to go to the mayor different
officials but also want to make sure that people who need to know that we're a safe city know act because that's going to be important for for keeping people safe so um counselors do we have any changes
proposed changes to the resolution well do do you have any or is that just your notes oh this is the ordinance oh that's the Okay that is a work in progress um that definitely has some changes but No there was a few typos that uh were cut
and corrected and uh Okay the few changes I suggested in the draft mode were made uh just to kind of alleviate and help our friends who have issues with some of the language sanctuary versus safe i thought that was you know
important enough to make a compromise on that and there was also a political statement in there that people took offense to and I didn't have a problem taking that out either i'm all for compromise and a consensus building on these issues it doesn't have to be either or we can be in the middle and
get people to you know understand and I hope people who are listening in heard the stories because it's one thing to you know be on Facebook and have your opinions and but when you hear the stories real life people talking about what they have to go through that should
make people think long and hard about what their personal values are when it comes to advice and treat all people equally absolutely and um as councelor Brown said every five years we go through all
of our ordinances and do a review so that's allowing us to make sure that we move general neutral language throughout our code in in green field at this time so we can do it all in one fell swoop which is great so we don't have to go
like by code which would be a lot um so let's vote on this um so we're going to vote um on whether or not to recommend it u for passage by the full council so all in favor indicate I
Oh okay twist um any opposed any abstain okay so we will be recommending Yay thank you no thank you thank for bringing it
forward and my only comment was when I saw that Pittsfield had passed the and I was like Pittsfield beat us and like this literally that same weekend I was like pulling up resolution language and then got the email from
Tristan so it was like kismmet perfect timing that um it's coming together so the it's important um and we want to live into our values as a city so get everybody turning out so and just be
patient on Wednesday because the competition will probably be a little bit diff it won't be quite as touchy feely as we are but people are going to want to talk about it and they have everybody to talk about if we can get it passed in April so that we can read it of Franklin Pride that's the dream
so this is why I think we can have it done this month so question um could you lay out like the road ahead for the ordinance and how the community can be more involved yes so um point of
order the agenda it's just a general question how do we find out information about what Wednesday would be like what Wednesday is like so our uh agenda is on the town's website and so you can look at the full council agenda and that'll
give you a sense of the order and we're taking up um we are entering into budget season which is what kind of slows things down so I will keep to our um agenda at hand uh and uh just for the
public you can't do point of order only counselors can do point of order thank you that is incorrect you need a parliamentarian that not in that is not in conjunction with Robert's border can you mute please
thank you so before we adjourn um I just want to go into old business um which old business is part of agendas um so we talked about having precinct meetings and I've subsequently learned that we
have to mail a postcard to every single person in Greenfield to make this happen and um give it our budget challenges uh we're not going to be able to do that so um we want to we'll have another conversation about how this committee
can have more community engagement that isn't the official in our ordinances and has to be done with a postcard from the mayor and maybe an ordinance to change yes which we we we also mentioned in um
public relations and then um under new business um just wanted to ask my fellow counselors on this committee um if there are future topics we should be for future discussions
not sure we can I can email you okay yeah so Councelor Perry and then my other counselors who aren't here um will go over if there are other people we want to invite to speak to community relations as well as um future
conversations um I know the ordinance will be possibly either this committee or um appointments and ordinances so it it could it could go either way for sure since they're doing all of the ordinance review for the city that's why it came
to this committee okay so um it is 6:45 and um I will take a motion to adjurnn so moved second from all in favor i thank you
we're under adjournment [Music]