Universal Basic Income Test For Trans Only In California

Transgender and nonbinary people in a California community will get universal basic income (UBI) regardless of their economic level.

Residents of Palm Springs, California, who identify as transgender or nonbinary are eligible for a UBI of up to $900 a month with no strings attached.

Following a unanimous vote by the Palm Springs City Council last week, $200,000 will be set aside for the new pilot program.

Former Republican San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio, who was the city’s first openly gay member, called the program “outrageous and discriminating.”

“We’re completely opposed to guaranteed or universal basic income programs, because they ultimately cause inflation and raise the cost of living on everyone — they don’t work,” DeMaio said in a statement.

“But 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,” he continued.

The program will be managed by advocacy-based health facility DAP Health and LGBT advocacy group Queer Works, and will provide free money to 20 transgender and nonbinary Palm Springs residents for 18 months.

The program’s implementation will be preceded by a six-month design stage, during which the group Mayors for a Guaranteed Income will provide guidance.

Transgendered people are “one of the most disenfranchised demographics in our community,” according to DAP Health CEO David Brinkman, who claims that they endure “among of the greatest levels of housing insecurity, joblessness, and discrimination.”

In a news release, Queer Works CEO Jacob Rostowsky stated that transgender and nonbinary persons “are tremendously underrepresented in our culture in general, especially economically,” and told the Desert Sun that any state monies would have to be matched by the city of Palm Springs.

“The budget for our project is projected to be around $1.8 million,” Rostowsky added. “As a result, when we look at what other [programs] that have been successfully financed have done, their local communities have almost matched that funding.”

Palm Springs Mayor Lisa Middleton, who is transgender, said she “raised serious misgivings in general to guaranteed income schemes” at the city council meeting on March 24.

“I specifically stated that I did not believe such programs could scale up to adequately respond to the over 37 million Americans living below the poverty line, the over 6 million Californians or the over 400,000 in the County of Riverside living below the poverty [line],” Middleton said in an email, praising Brinkman for his work and expressing her “concern for the financial security vulnerabilities of the transgender community.”

“Transgender people in the United States have exceptionally high rates of poverty and unemployment. Transgender people in the United States confront significant obstacles in leading full and true lives “”said the mayor.” “These obstacles have grown significantly in recent years, as extreme politicians and governors have targeted transgender children and their families.”

Middleton went on to say that she feels a UBI program should be a “county, state, and federal obligation,” rather than a “local” one.

“My vote to affirm that evening was procedural to provide $200,000 to DAP in order to help them in the application for state funding. In advance of the vote I specifically stated my belief that guaranteed income programs were not the long-term way to proceed. I did not commit to any future funding of guaranteed income programs.”

This piece was written by Staff Writer on April 5, 2022. It originally appeared in DrewBerquist.com and is used by permission.

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