It pays to be transgender, at least in one California city, as a city council has voted to approve monthly payments to trans or non-binary individuals.
The City of Palm Springs in California will pay transgender residents between $600 and $900 monthly, solely for identifying as trans or non-binary with no strings attached.
This universal basic income will go to trans residents regardless of their income.
The Palm Springs City Council voted unanimously to pass the payments and has set aside $200,000 for this new pilot program.
Twenty transgender and nonbinary Palm Springs residents will receive the free money funded by the taxpayers for 18 months, with advocacy-based health center DAP Health and LGBT advocacy group Queer Works managing the program, according to the city council.
“Transgender Americans suffer extremely high rates of under and unemployment. Transgender Americans face enormous challenges living full and authentic lives,” the mayor said. “Those challenges have increased substantially in the past few years as transgender children and their families have been targeted by extremist legislators and governors,” said Palm Springs Mayor Lisa Middleton who is Transgender.
Middleton initially opposed the program but voted in favor of it. She noted the need for community assistance is “absolutely real”.
“I have been wrong many times,” Middleton said, however. “I could be wrong again on this one.”
“At least some of them have minimum income requirements to qualify, whereas this one is no-strings-attached ‘woke’ virtue signaling to the LGBT community in a way that is not only offensive but discriminatory,” said former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio, a Republican who was the city’s first openly gay council member, according to Fox News.
DeMaio added he was “completely opposed to guaranteed or universal basic income programs, because they ultimately cause inflation and raise the cost of living on everyone,” arguing they simply “don’t work.”
Queer Works Chief Executive Officer Jacob Rostovsky indicated a preliminary total budget for the program was $1.8 million, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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