San Francisco taxpayers are suing over a city program that gives low-income transgender people up to $1,200 a month in taxpayer funds, arguing that it violates the equal protection clause of the state’s constitution.
The lawsuit, which was filed by Judicial Watch on Monday, takes issue with what the city calls the “first guaranteed income initiative to focus solely on trans people,” which the city’s mayor, London Breed, announced in 2022. The program, which began dispersing funds in 2023 and will keep doing so through June 2024, says it provides “low-income transgender San Franciscans with $1,200 each month, up to 18 months” to address “financial insecurity within trans communities.”
“The transgender extremists running San Francisco are illegally using taxpayer money to hand out free cash to transgender individuals based on race and sex in blatant violation of the state’s constitution,” Judicial Watch’s president, Tom Fitton, said in a statement.
A Judicial Watch open records request in October showed that the city was prioritizing “black and Latino transgenders (biological men),” according to the group. The program “also allowed illegal aliens to apply; allowed people who ‘engage in survival sex trades’ to apply; and the use of the funds by participants was virtually unrestricted,” Judicial Watch said.
The group alleges the city’s program “discriminates in favor of biological black and Latino men who identify as women in the distribution of tax money.”
The taxpayers suing say the city’s program violates Article 1, Section 7 of the state’s constitution on three counts: transgender status discrimination, sex discrimination, and race/ethnicity discrimination.
“Applicants who do not identify as transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, or intersex are not eligible,” the lawsuit states. Furthermore, applicants are “prioritized based on their biological sex and race/ethnicity. 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.”
