San Francisco officials have shut down a guaranteed-income program exclusively offered to trans-identified individuals.
The city’s Board of Supervisors voted 7-3 last month to end the taxpayer-funded initiative, halting any future projects with the same eligibility criteria.
The city agreed not to create a similar initiative with the same eligibility rules, according to an agreement to settle a taxpayer lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch on the grounds that the program contravened the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution.
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The settlement, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, also includes a payment of $3,250 in attorney’s fees and costs.
Judicial Watch, a Washington-based conservative legal organization, stated that the lawsuit, Phillips et al. v. Breed et al., was filed in January 2024, naming Mayor London Breed, City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, the director of the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives and City Administrator Carmen Chu as defendants.
The group alleged the city used taxpayer money for an arrangement that favored transgender applicants, with an added emphasis on individuals described as “biological black and Latino men who identify as women.”
Mayor Breed first announced the Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT) program in November 2022.
According to a press release from her office, the city would “provide low-income transgender San Franciscans with $1,200 each month, up to 18 months.”
The pilot program planned to select 55 participants for a timeframe spanning January 2023 through June 2024. The mayor’s release noted that the initiative aimed to address what her office considered “financial insecurity within trans communities.”
Judicial Watch said the program favored applicants who were “transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, or intersex” and who had monthly incomes of no more than $600. Undocumented residents were included among those eligible for the benefit.
The GIFT program was administered by the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, which oversaw the enrollment process.
“This settlement is a huge victory for taxpayers who oppose taxpayer-funded woke racism and transgender extremism,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said in a statement Friday. “This settlement agreement puts a stop to the illegal use taxpayer money to hand out free cash to transgender individuals based on race and sex in blatant violation of California’s constitution.”
The group maintained that race-based criteria were essential factors in awarding the income.
On Dec. 10, the Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance authorizing the settlement, which was signed by Mayor Breed on Dec. 19. Honey Mahogany, San Francisco’s Director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives, said in June that the program would come to an end due to lack of funding.
While San Francisco has had multiple guaranteed income programs, GIFT was the first to concentrate exclusively on transgender individuals.
Another project, the Abundant Birth Project, provides $1,000 per month to mothers identifying as black and Pacific Islander, as well as “pregnant people,” from the first trimester until two years postpartum. According to city officials, up to 150 individuals could participate by the end of 2024.
Another initiative, launched in 2021, offered monthly payments of $1,000 for up to 18 months to local artists affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
