Lane County asked to create true sanctuary for all

Presenter: The transgender and immigrant communities and allies celebrated, as Lane County reaffirmed the Oregon Sanctuary Promise Act. Calls for a statement began shortly after the presidential election in 2024 and concluded April 22 in a meeting of the Lane County Board of Commissioners.

In sharing public comment on the statement, leaders and members of local faith communities shared sacred writings from their religions.

Rabbi Ruhi Sophia Motzkin Rubenstein (Temple Beth Israel, April 22, 2025): I’m Rabbi Ruhi Sophia Motzkin Rubenstein, live here in Lane County. I’m speaking as the rabbi of Temple Beth Israel, the co-chair of Interfaith Clergy United, a wife, a mother.

Thank you, commissioners, for taking so seriously the concerns you’ve heard these past few months from our transgender and immigrant community members and allies. In a moment when these communities are particularly under attack from our federal government and in the media, it is courageous of the county government to stake a position that all in this county, regardless of gender identity or immigration status, are entitled to safety, access to medical care, and freedom from persecution.

[00:01:11] These are basic rights that I think many of us who are not marginalized tend to expect—although certainly, in recent years, all of our rights are threatened.

[00:01:22] This is not about whether we approve of a particular lifestyle or who we want to share a bathroom with. This is about whether or not everyone in this community is worthy of dignity and safety regardless of whether we approve of how they are living their lives. In my mind, that is what it means to respect each other as created in the image of a loving God.

[00:01:44] Jewish classical texts, thousands of years old, recognize and refer to multiple genders beyond the male and female binary. So this is also an issue of religious freedom. Thank you again, commissioners, for your courage.

[00:01:58] Emily Searlait Cluck (April 1, 2025): My name is Emily Searlait Cluck. I am a transgender woman and by the amazing grace of God, I’m a devout Christian.

[00:02:06] I would like to start this message briefly by a reading from the Gospel According to Matthew.

[00:02:13] “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’

[00:02:43] “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick on prison and visited you?’

[00:03:03] “And the king will answer them: ‘Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ “

[00:03:15] I’m asking, I’m asking you all, if any of y’all are Christian: Follow the amazing agape of our Lord and Savior. Have mercy upon us as trans people and as immigrants. Hold the line against the unholy Gestapo who are after us.

[00:03:35] And I say this in all solidarity with our Jewish comrades who welcomed the wandering Aramean, and to our Muslim comrades who follow the examples of the Holy Prophet Mohamed. I ask you all in my perspective as a devout Christian, protect us.

[00:03:52] Presenter: Brenda Kameʻenui.

[00:03:54] Brenda Kameʻenui: I belong to a Christian faith community in Eugene that believes in loving your neighbor, including those who leave their homes because of violence, and those of different gender and sexual identity. People are taught to hate with misinformation, lies, modeled behavior, or direct teaching.

[00:04:13] No God I know sanctions separating people into categories to minimize their humanity and deny them rights. The Lane County Commission has done the right thing in drafting language to support all its people. I urge the commission to firmly support the Sanctuary Promise Act by adding a commitment to update and create policies across Lane County to protect the rights of transgender people and immigrants.

[00:04:40] Austin Hodges: My name is Austin Hodges. So I just want to start by saying that in Matthew 18:6 of the Bible, the Lord says: ‘Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fast around his neck and to be drowned in the deepest depths of the ocean…’

[00:04:57] And you people on the board have a power to…bring it back to biblical aspects of our government, as there’s only two genders, male and female. It’s always been like that since the beginning of time…

[00:05:08] And, you know, if you read in Psalm 139, the Lord says: ‘We are all fearfully and wonderfully made in His image.’

[00:05:14] Brian Matthews: My name is Brian Matthews… I’m a Christian, a follower of Jesus, and I think that there’s been some convolution of what that means in our culture, and so I would just like to say to everybody present that I’m sorry for every person who said that they were a Christian who disrespected you, who looked down on you, who treated you in an ill manner, because that is not what the Bible teaches us as Christians.

[00:05:44] Brian Matthews (April 8, 2025): In recent months (I’ve been here a few times) and I come primarily today to stand in opposition and it’s not because I’m an enemy. I’ve got no personal grind with anybody but we live in a constitutional republic that provides us with equal rights. And for a small segment of the community to ask for special rights just seems objectively wrong.

[00:06:14] So I’m not a hater. Just want to put that on record. I’m just looking for right, just and fair for everybody in the community and I’m appealing to you commissioners to make objective decisions, and not subjective. So, you know: what’s good for the whole.

[00:06:31] Presenter: Janet Wulling:

[00:06:32] Janet Wulling: I’m Janet Wulling, I support sanctuary for immigrant and refugee people and the reason I support that is because I have a body. And because I have a body, I have empathy. And because this body has been given to me by a huge intelligence and it registers, I relate to human beings.

[00:06:51] So I want us to be talking about what’s true sanctuary: How do we have sanctuary for people who like guns and people who don’t like guns? People who drive big noisy trucks, and people who drive little silent cars, people who are everything, however they need to be, because we are such a variety of world of good people.

[00:07:10] So my main thing: How can we make real sanctuary for all these people?

[00:07:16] Presenter: Lane County Commissioner Pat Farr introduced the statement of reaffirmation, then quoted from the Bible:

[00:07:22] Commissioner Pat Farr (April 22, 2025): From the New Testament, Matthew 24, starting with the verse 35: ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in.’ And later the king said, ‘Truly I tell you whatever you did for one of these, the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

[00:07:45] I am in support of the statement. Thank you.

[00:07:47] Presenter: Lane County staff was given the task of translating the community’s most deeply-held values into a statement of public policy. County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky:

[00:07:58] Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County, administrator, April 22, 2025): I want to just acknowledge, there’s a lot of emotion in this room today. And it’s a unique thing that we hold dear in our free democracy, that we allow people to come and voice their perspective on issues in the public sphere. And they can really say what they want to say, and we listen to those perspectives.

[00:08:18] I will note here a policy brief that came out from the United Nations in 2021 about trust in government. This report four years ago found the level of trust in American government is about 50%. It has dropped since that time to, I think, around 40%.

[00:08:35] But what this sort of nonpartisan policy brief does is, it breaks down the factors that contribute to trust in government or distrust in government, and it talks about design factors and performance factors.

[00:08:47] There’s a really important point that the design factors, particularly in a democracy, for trust in government, focus on the understanding of majority rule: that the majority rights govern, and that equally as important are the rights of the minority, that those rights are protected, that there is a rule of law.

[00:09:05] Presenter: He introduced the three county leaders who helped develop the statement.

[00:09:10] Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County administrator): These three individuals worked under my direction on behalf of the Board of Commissioners, at your direction, to develop the statement. Latiffe Amado is our equity manager:

[00:09:22] Latiffe Amado (Lane County, equity manager): First I wanted to just say thank you. My name is Latiffe Amado and pronouns she/her/ella. Thank you just for your time, attention and trust in engaging our communities on these ongoing conversations, crucial conversations.

[00:09:36] Also, today’s item reflects Lane County’s deep and continuing commitment to equity. This work is not new. And when we think about belonging for all people, we do really mean all people.

[00:09:47] And that also means that we have to recognize when certain groups are under attack, particularly by this federal administration today. This statement really honors the voices of our immigrant, refugee, and LGBTQ2S+ communities. And it does build on the board’s long-standing actions to uphold dignity, protect rights, and foster a culture of belonging for all people.

[00:10:10] I want us to remember that the work at this county started with the Human Rights Commission. So human rights, that’s how this work started here, and it has shifted and evolved and names have changed, but at the heart and the root of it is around human rights. So thank you for just the opportunity to be engaged with community.

[00:10:29] Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County administrator): And Eve Gray is our Health and Human Services director:

[00:10:32] Eve Gray (Lane County Health and Human Services, director): In my mind, what the statement is really about is being able to to serve the community, all members of our community, in the best interest of everyone in our community. The reality is that if people who need access to care that we provide in Health and Human Services don’t have access to care, their health deteriorates. And that costs all of the community more if we don’t have the right access and systems that people can navigate.

[00:11:03] So, ultimately, I see this statement as about us keeping our local community healthy. And that doesn’t say anything about federal rules and laws, which still exist and are still upheld in Lane County by the federal administration, but allows for us to provide a safe space, so that the people who are in our community right now can remain healthy in our community right now.

[00:11:36] That is ultimately the goal, and really not from a Health and Human services perspective, not speaking to anything else aside from everyone needs access to care and to the services that we provide.

[00:11:53] Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County, administrator): Greg Rikhoff is our assistant county administrator:

[00:11:55] Greg Rikhoff (Lane County, assistant county administrator): It’s been an honor to work with the community members to help capture ideas and form this work. I couldn’t say it more eloquently than my colleagues: All means all, and as we have said repeatedly in this room: Discrimination has no place in Lane County.

[00:12:16] Presenter: Speaking for the statement, Commissioner Heather Buch:

[00:12:20] Commissioner Heather Buch: Thank you, everybody, who’ve been coming and speaking out and staff who’ve worked really hard on this particular statement. I fully support it.

[00:12:30] For those that may be watching, for those that may not feel comfortable coming in here in public, who are scared, who aren’t sure how they’re going to be treated from day to day, I want you to know that here at Lane County, you belong.

[00:12:50] We acknowledge your existence, but we go beyond that. You too—all trans, immigrants, refugees—have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as everybody in our country does.

[00:13:07] What we are stating today, I know from my work here, we do this work every single day. But this is really just a codification of that work, even if the words may not feel new to some of our internal staff, because we know we do this work every day, it may feel new to some people in the public who aren’t as familiar with the equity work that we hold in such high value.

[00:13:43] I fully stand behind it. I couldn’t be more proud to reaffirm statements like this each and every time they come to our board. Behind it are individuals that are family, are friends, are neighbors, even if we may not overtly know that.

[00:14:08] All people in Lane County deserve dignity and respect and inclusivity in all programs within Lane County. We serve you, we thank you so very much for continuing to hold us responsible and keeping us on task.

[00:14:34] This time in our nation is very different and we tangibly feel that. It’s important that we acknowledge that on the board, but it’s also really important that you hold us accountable to follow each and every one of these statements that we’ve noted.

[00:14:53] Please return, please continue to talk to us, and I will continue to work on your behalf and protect the most vulnerable in our community.

[00:15:04] Presenter: Lane County is asked to create true sanctuary for its variety of many good people, as public comments share our most deeply-held values.