photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Members of the public wait for the Tuesday, July 18, 2023 Lawrence City Commission meeting to begin.

Lawrence city leaders have voted unanimously to codify protections against present and future anti-LGBTQ+ legislation through a new safe-haven ordinance.

As the Journal-World reported, Ordinance No. 9999 declares the City of Lawrence a “safe haven for all persons from the effects of discriminatory acts, legislation, regulation and other actions.” That particularly applies to transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people, who recently have been the target of legislation like SB 180. That law bans transgender people from using the bathrooms and other gender-specific areas associated with their gender identity.

The Lawrence City Commission approved the ordinance on first reading at its meeting on Tuesday. It’ll come back to the commission, possibly with slightly amended language based on commissioners’ feedback, for final approval at a future meeting.

“I think it goes a long way toward letting people know what Lawrence is and what Lawrence believes in,” Commissioner Bart Littlejohn said.

The ordinance states that the city’s public officials, officers, employees, agents and contractors will not gather or disseminate information regarding any person’s “biological sex, either male or female, at birth,” nor will it assist or cooperate in any investigations, arrest procedures, surveillance or information gathering conducted by any jurisdiction with the authority to enforce SB 180. The ordinance also bars the inclusion of any question regarding one’s “biological sex, either male or female, at birth” on any city application, questionnaire or interview form related to benefits, services or opportunities offered or provided by the city.

“It makes me really sad that we have to do this, because people just want to live their lives and be left alone,” Mayor Lisa Larsen said.

The Kansas Legislature’s decision to pass SB 180 spawned a local initiative called No SB 180 in Lawrence, which has played a part in coordinating significant public participation at recent City Commission meetings urging city leaders to adopt a safe-haven ordinance like the one approved Tuesday.

The initiative has also been collecting survey responses to gather suggestions that would inform the process of crafting the ordinance. On behalf of the No SB 180 in Lawrence initiative, consultant Alex Kimball Williams — who has worked with the city on an ordinance like this one before, which was intended to protect immigrants, as part of the Sanctuary Alliance — shared some of the survey responses the initiative has collected from community members so far.

That includes, for example, that 41 of the 48 survey respondents so far feel “incredibly worried” about anti-LGBTQ+ state legislation.

Kimball Williams said the plan is for the survey to remain open for responses for about four weeks or until the initiative reaches its target for respondents. From there, Kimball Williams said the primary use of those results would be in informing the initiative’s continued efforts moving forward. Other representatives with the initiative who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting said any action beyond that is up in the air for now.

In other business, the City Commission:

• Took a recess during the public comment portion of the meeting after a speaker was removed from the building.

The speaker — Justin Spiehs, who frequently gave comment at local government meetings during the pandemic to share anti-mask and anti-vaccination sentiments — was asked to leave after being given multiple warnings that his comments weren’t germane to city business. Larsen and Commissioner Amber Sellers both called for points of order multiple times while he was speaking, before Larsen asked for a police officer to escort him from the building.

After Spiehs was removed from the meeting, Larsen and Sellers appeared to be arguing with one another and the meeting took a five-minute recess before public comment continued.

• Heard an update from consultant Jonathan Morris about the progress of the Community Police Oversight Work Group.

That’s the city-appointed group tasked with recommending changes related to police oversight in Lawrence. The work group hosted a community forum last week and will host another Monday, July 31.