(The Lion) — Massachusetts now has a transgender sanctuary city.

The Worcester City Council voted Tuesday to make the state’s second-largest city a sanctuary for transgender people, but critics worry the move could upset the Trump administration and jeopardize federal funding.

The resolution passed 9-2 after a contentious meeting that featured colorfully dressed transgender people and a woman who testified wearing grapes on her head, the Maine Wire reports.

“The City of Worcester as a sanctuary city will not cooperate with Federal and State on policies aimed to harm transgender and gender diverse people and ensure transgender and gender diverse people have access to healthcare, housing, education, and employment without fear or discrimination,” the resolution said.

The measure was submitted by Allie Cislo, an LGBT and pro-Palestine activist who uses she/they pronouns and is an organizer for Queer Residents of Worcester.

It came as Councilor Thu Nguyen, who identifies as non-binary, attended her first meeting since announcing last month she would take a temporary leave because other councilors, including Candy Mero-Carlson, referred to her as “it.”

Mero-Carlson voted in favor of the resolution Tuesday.

The proceedings included LGBT activists screaming, cursing and even threatening violence and harassment against the board if they did not get their way, Maine Wire reported.

“If you say that you’re afraid of Trump, and that’s why you don’t want the city to be a safe space for trans people, you better prepare for trans people to make this a very unsafe space,” activist Dewey Cosgrove Atienza told the council during a public comment period.

The blue-haired Atienza, a biological female, uses they/he pronouns and identifies as a gay, disabled and autistic man. Atienza wore white gloves and what appeared to be a pearl necklace while speaking.

Meanwhile, Worcester State University assistant professor Rita Mookerjee, who spoke in favor of the resolution while wearing grapes on her head, invited the councilors to her queer studies class.

However, she warned the councilors that they would encounter hostile LGBT-identifying students.

“When you come, know that there are strong queer and trans people in my classroom who will collect you with the quickness,” Mookerjee warned.

A man named Michael Kingsley compared the Trump administration to Nazis.

“Let us remember that the Nazis burned books on gender sciences first,” Kingsley told the councilors. “Now, the administration has villainized and marginalized migrant workers, trans, LGBT people and even special needs, denying life-saving and affirming care.”

“It stops now,” he added. “If we don’t stand up for others now, there won’t be anybody left to stand up for us.”

But Councilor Morris Bergman, who opposed the measure, argued it offered no additional rights or privileges to the LGBT community, something the Massachusetts Family Institute also says.

The resolution is a solution in search of a problem, lacks teeth and promotes “hysteria” at a time when the city should work on fixing real issues, Jessica Richardson, Mass Family’s communications assistant, wrote in an email to The Lion.

“MA law already provides equal protection to people regardless of their ‘gender identity,’” Richardson wrote. “Residents of Worcester are facing real issues such as economic insecurity, a failing educational system, increasing homelessness, and a need for affordable housing. The city council would be wise to focus on actual problems and not be bullied into virtue signaling on behalf of activists.”

Bergman was also concerned the action could prompt the Trump administration to seek to withhold federal funding from the city.

“I can’t say with 100% confidence that the unintended consequences of doing something – that doesn’t add any more protection than already exists – isn’t going to cause harm to the other 200,000-plus people in the city of Worcester,” Bergman said, according to GBH News.

City Solicitor Alexandra Kalkounis could not guarantee a lack of negative financial impact from the resolution.

Kalkounis cited Trump’s executive orders saying the federal government won’t fund the promotion of gender ideology and will withhold funding from schools that promote it.

“The current Executive Orders related to gender-affirming care are of first impression, meaning there is no historical precedence for them as there is for immigration, and there have been no decisions or guidance issued from any challenges,” Kalkounis told the council in a statement.

However, Mayor Joe Petty feels willing to take that risk.

Petty said the resolution communicates that “we got your back.”

“And that’s what people are looking for,” he added. “So they can go home and sleep safe at night here in the city of Worcester.”