Director Rachel Sayre uh has worked in some tumultuous conditions both locally in [clears throat] the United States and abroad. When I first nominated Director Rachel Sayre in 2024, I noted her credentials as a senior humanitarian advisor with USAID, an incident commander during the 2023 Haiti disaster, uh and her experience leading the US humanitarian strategy for those that were displaced in Poland following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

She showed up every single Monday at 11:00 a.m., even when I was late, and even when I couldn't show up because I was so overwhelmed by the amount of needs that our community had, and she was there to support, and she did it with compassion. She did it with neutrality. And the last thing that I will say as I go through is that she serves as a leader for others. She has taught me how to do my job. She is an inspiration.

Over the next 4 years, my goal is to make Minneapolis the most disaster-ready city in the country. Being disaster-ready means that everyone in our community knows where to go when disaster hits. It means that all of our collective layers of response organizations are connected, so we know who can respond fastest and where the gaps are. It means we have a trauma-informed response based on verified needs and focused on the most vulnerable. It means that we all practice together, because when we practice together, we take the teeth of a disaster out. We know what to expect, and we know we're in it together.

I'm I'm sure I told you in our um one-on-one that uh emergency management is so serious, but you make it so fun and so important, and you're very serious, and yet you're so light-hearted and caring, and we see that. We know how important this work is to you. You make it even more important to us, and so thank you.

It was really unconscionable, frankly, that the government would adopt such language and such hostile language. Now, today we have a much stronger foundation and knowledge of the best interventions for public health, and we know that, um, a safer space for some of this activity is good public health. And so, today we are doing again more technical foundational work so that we can make this a reality by moving some things around in the code, um, and get us on that pathway towards, uh, uh, fully realizing the vision of the community.

What this does not do is it will not open up bathhouses suddenly tomorrow. This is really technical in nature. This is moving things around in our laws. And this is setting us up for future work with the health department, with the legal department, with all sorts of folks in the future as we're on a um a pathway or on a road to creating a regulatory framework for bathhouses.

My first experience at a bathhouse was not for sex. It was to get tested for HIV. I went because I knew that it was a place where queer people felt safe. For many people, these of venues are not just social spaces, but they are public health spaces. They are places where people can access HIV testing, education, condoms, and prevention.

Yesterday I witnessed straight council members tell the queer community they knew what was best for them. You do not live in our shoes, and you cannot queersplain to us. So please remove the bathhouse ban.

I I love how Council Member Chavez is leading this work, talking to staff, working with the different departments, getting different points of views. You all can't see things on that side. On this side, that's a lot and that's very different than the way things have happened around here traditionally. So, I I appreciate the work that's going into it, but I I do want us to make sure that we're taking community on this ride with us around the steps we're taking to get there. is not a final step.

The city of Minneapolis declares that the rights [snorts] to self-determination, bodily autonomy, and access to gender-affirming and reproductive health health care are fundamental human rights. That protecting the lives and rights of two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual and other identities and experiences that fit with these communities collectively 2S LGBTQIA+ is necessary for the city's public health, peace, and safety.

The ordinance defines gender-affirming care as all medical, surgical, counseling, or referral services, including telehealth services, that individual may receive to support and affirm the individual's gender identity or gender expression, and that are legal in this legal that are legal laws under the state of Minnesota. The ordinance defines intersex care as all medical, surgical, counseling, or referral services, including telehealth services, that individual may receive related to natural differences or variations in sex characteristics or reproductive anatomy that are legal under the laws of Minnesota.