Citizens Sue San Francisco Over Discriminatory Payments to ‘Trans’ LatinX, Black ‘Men’
Judicial Watch announced it filed a lawsuit on behalf of San Francisco residents who allege the city made discriminatory payments to black and Latino male residents who identify as transgender.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco, alleges that San Francisco Mayor London Breed, the City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, the director of the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, and City Administrator Carmen Chu of “violating the Equal Protection clause of the California Constitution.”
The Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT) program was announced on November 16, 2022, by Mayor Breed, who said that the initiative will “provide low-income transgender San Franciscans with $1,200 each month, up to 18 months to help address financial insecurity within trans communities.”
At the time, Mayor Breed claimed that “trans communities” experience “higher rates of poverty and discrimination,” and therefore the program would need to target these individuals to “lift” the community up.
Transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGI) identifying San Franciscans above the age of 18 are eligible to receive the taxpayer funds if they earn less than $600 per month and agree to complete a survey when entering the program and every three months thereafter. Judicial Watch explained that the program began distributing funds to eligible participants in January 2023, and the GIFT payments are set to continue through June 2024.
The residents accuse the city’s leadership of discriminating against residents based on the basis of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and transgender identity. The lawsuit states that “Biological males identifying as female are given preference over biological females identifying as male, and applicants identifying as Black or Latino are given preference over applicants identifying as other races/ethnicities.”
“Plaintiffs contend that any expenditure of taxpayer funds or taxpayer-financed resources on the GIFT program is illegal … because of the requirement that eligible participants be transgender, non-binary, gender nonconforming, or intersex is immediately suspect and presumptively invalid and cannot survive strict scrutiny review,” the lawsuit alleges. The plaintiffs also state that discrimination based on biological sex are illegal “because the program grants preferential treatment to biological males who identify as females.”
The lawsuit seeks a court order to declare “any and all expenditures of taxpayer funds and taxpayer-financed resources on the GIFT program to be illegal” and an “injunction permanently prohibiting Defendants from expending or causing the expenditure of taxpayer funds and taxpayer-financed resources on the GIFT program.”
