Seattle City Council approves $300,000 to aid local trans community

Savannah Butcher, The Seattle Times on Aug 14, 2026

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SEATTLE — With an increase in anti-trans legislation nationally, Seattle City Council is allocating funds to better aid its trans residents and those seeking refuge from other areas.

Seattle City Council approved $300,000 in funds to local LGBTQ+ organizations Tuesday in an effort to support local trans community members.

After more than 100 public comments, City Council unanimously voted, 9-0, for the funding to be distributed to community organizations providing emergency shelter, food, employment support and other essential services, according to the ordinance.

“Trans displacement is a civic emergency … the need is only growing,” said Michael Woodward, the executive director and sole paid staff member of Traction, a nonprofit supporting the Pacific Northwest trans community.

“It is a beginning and we will celebrate it as such,” said Traction in an open letter to the city council. “It will provide real relief, real beds, real bus passes, real food and real housing support.”

Traction reported helping 1,500 trans people flee red states since the November 2024 election last month, 20 times the number of people they helped in the 18 months before the election.

According to a study from the Movement Advancement Project in Oct. of 2025, around 400,000 trans and nonbinary people had moved to a different state after the November 2024 election, and 1.2 million were considering a move.

Local trans advocate organizations also have reported an increase of trans people to Seattle from states with anti-trans legislation and decrease in philanthropic funding, according to King County Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rink.

“Foundations are not funding LGBTQIA+ organizations on the same level they have before, and it’s put a tremendous strain on their organizations as they’ve lost that philanthropic support,” Rink said.

Under Trump, grant opportunities have disappeared, and many private donors have pulled out funding, according to local nonprofit leaders supporting the trans community.

Rink, who authored the amendment, is working with the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, local organizations and trans leaders to decide where the funds will have the most impact.

Rink says she is hoping to come to a more long term, continuous solution in the future to support the local trans community. She called the $300,000 “not an insignificant amount of money, but a small amount of money,” compared with the amount of people it would serve.

Others described the funds as the “bare minimum” during public comment.

The money would come from JumpStart funds allotted to the Northgate Commons project, an affordable housing project that will have sufficient funds to complete their plan after this deduction, according the amendment.

The JumpStart Fund is the product of a progressive payroll tax on the city’s largest employers, which helps fund affordable housing, equitable development and Seattle’s Green New Deal. JumpStart only taxes companies with more than approximately $9 million in payroll, or at least one employee with an annual salary more than around $194,000.

Mayor Katie Wilson still needs to sign the amendment, which is included in the midyear supplemental ordinance. Council members voted on the ordinance as a whole, which included a ban on rental “junk fees.”

In late May, Seattle’s LGBTQ commission wrote a letter to Wilson, recommending a state of civil emergency. Wilson declined, but she agreed that action was needed.

Nationwide, more than 500 anti-trans bills have been proposed so far this year, ranging from access to medical care, barriers to accurate IDs, free speech and expression bans, restricting student and educator rights, weakening civil rights laws and more, according to the ACLU.

Danny Askini, the executive director of Seattle’s Gender Justice League, said the proposed funds are needed on the ground urgently at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

“City council cannot change the anti-trans laws that are sweeping this county. They can’t change federal policy,” Askini said. “But what you can do is help us support the people that are arriving because of those changes.”

Rink says she hopes the recipients of the funding will be determined within the next week, because of the pressing need.

Rink says the city has previously been in contact with local groups supporting the trans community, such as the Kawaguchi O’Connor Initiate, Traction, Lavender Rights Project, Entre Hermanos, UTOPIA Washington, Seattle LGBTQ+ Resource Center, Stone Soup Crew, Gender Justice League, MANTIS and more.