A Cincinnati City Council committee voted Monday to allocate funding to support mental and physical health for transgender and nonbinary youth.
Council member Mark Jeffreys introduced the motion, which passed by unanimous vote. It will be up for a final vote of Council Wednesday, but will require a future vote on an ordinance to officially allocate the funding.
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Jeffreys says one of his own children is transgender.
"Over the last two years, I've become acutely aware of the needs in this community," he said. "And I believe now is the time for us as a city to say that transgender youth are human beings and deserving of basic dignity. There's just a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety out there in this community."
The total $500,000 in funding will come out of the Health Department’s budget: half in the current fiscal year and half in fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1. The city will put out a request for proposals and choose an outside organization to award the funding to.
Read the full motion and statement below (article continues after):
Several people spoke in favor of the motion, including Tiffany Dickerhoof of Hyde Park, the mother of a transgender son.
"The anxiety that I feel as a parent is dwarfed by the anxiety endured by my son, who no longer feels safe in his home country," she said. "He is anxious about his ability to receive gender affirming care. He is anxious about his ability to play sports. He is anxious about his ability to use the restroom in public, and he's anxious about his overall safety."
Although all nine council members, all Democrats, supported the measure, one public speaker highlighted the contentiousness of identity politics outside City Hall.
"Didn't you just see the American people vote against prioritizing they and them over us?" said Tracy Gragston of College Hill. "We had an election for this two weeks ago, and they and them lost fair and square. As a Black male voter in this city, we need council members that prioritize us over they/them to vote down this motion. Taxpayer money should not be used to fund the freak show."
Council members responded to the opposition by reiterating their support for LGBTQ youth.
"For anyone today looking at what we're doing — trying to save lives by prioritizing mental health care — and want to somehow suggest that we're playing identity politics, I would hope that they would direct their ire to the state government and the state legislature," said Council member Anna Albi, "where in the days following the election, they didn't try to help people with their property taxes. They didn't try to help kids who were going hungry after school lunches. No, they used the power at the state house to target trans individuals, to keep them from using the bathroom, to keep them from playing sports, to keep them from accessing health care."
The state legislature last week passed a bill that requires transgender students to use bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificates. The bill is headed to Gov. Mike DeWine for a signature.
