Keene Pride is seeking signatures for a petition to the Keene City Council that intends to encourage the city to implement legislative measures to protect the community’s LGBTQ+ population. The petition encourages city officials to pursue a sanctuary city approach, in order to protect members of the LGBTQ+ community from rising anti-LGBTQ+ violence and policies.
The petition currently has over 500 signatures, and is looking to reach 1,000 signatures by the end of May.
According to the petition, which is available on Keene Pride’s website, “declaring Keene a sanctuary city for the LGBTQ+ community would publicly affirm that the city stands in solidarity with its LGBTQ+ residents and visitors. This designation would serve
several important functions.”
The three functions outlined in the petition included fostering safety and support, promoting equality, and community engagement.
Board President of Keene Pride Adam Toepher said he hopes the petition will inspire the city to craft legislation to protect the LGBTQ+ community in Keene.
“I’m hoping the city will put together some sort of ordinance that would prevent the city from harming citizens. We don’t have anything on the books addressing what would happen if, for example, the federal government decided to try to start wrangling up trans people and deporting them somewhere, would the city of Keene assist in that in any way. We don’t have anything written down saying whether or not they would. That’s really the core of it, not utilizing city resources to harm people,” said Toepher.
“It’s really difficult right now because powers at the state level, such as [New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte] are trying to ban this type of language, like sanctuary cities. New Hampshire is a really tough climate right now, but we’re going to do everything we can to put this through to the city, and hope they do something supporting the guts of this petition, with or without the language of a sanctuary city,” added Toepher.
Toepher said people interested in signing the petition can find it on Keene Pride’s website.
A sanctuary city approach is not an official classification of a city or public policy, but instead is a vague term meant to describe a local government approach that focuses on protecting members of a marginalized community.
As previously reported by The Equinox, legislation designed to ban perceived sanctuary cities has been introduced in Concord.
According to Judith Reed, a volunteer with the Keene Immigrant and Refugee Partnership, sanctuary cities are a vague term that don’t have a specific definition.
“It is kind of hard to ban something that doesn’t have a definition. You’re trying to do something through the law, and if it isn’t clear what a sanctuary city is, a piece of legislation about banning it isn’t going to be easy to enforce,” said Reed.
Mayor of Keene Jay Kahn said it is important to reaffirm community values.
“The city of Keene has been on record since, at the very least, 2021 as a supportive community for marginalized populations,” said Kahn.
Ryan Pacheco can be contacted at
rpacheco@kscequinox.com
