US west coast town guarantees income for trans residents – RT World News
Those seeking help in San Francisco will be able to choose from 97 gender options
San Francisco announced a program offering up to $1,200 per month for “economically marginalized transgender people.“Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT) is the first initiative of its kind to focus solely on this group, according to a city statement released Wednesday.
Only 55 people will be selected for the program, which aims to “help address financial insecurity within trans communities“and will also include”complementary direct services such as gender-affirming medical and mental health care, case management and specialist care services, as well as financial support“, revealed the city.
The app allows residents to self-identify with 97 different gender options – including “standard,” “transvestites,” and “I don’t use labels– as well as 19 sexual orientations and 18 pronouns. Applicants must live in San Francisco, earn less than $600 per month, and identify as transgender, non-binary, gender nonconforming, or intersex (abbreviated as TGI).
Applicants who are also “black, indigenous or of color (BIPOC), homeless, living with disabilities and chronic illnesses, young and old, monolingual Spanish speakers and legally vulnerable people such as undocumented TGI people, engaging in commerce survival sex, or are formerly incarceratedwill be given preferential placement, according to the program’s website.
The initiative will be taxpayer funded, with $2 million taken from the Mayor’s Office for Housing and Community Development over two years. Its implementation will be led by trans-focused healthcare provider Lyon-Martin Community Health Services and The Transgender District, a neighborhood organization in San Francisco’s Tenderloin that claims to be the world’s first legally recognized transgender district.
A 2015 survey found that 33% of California’s transgender residents lived in poverty, compared to 12% of the general population.
Targeted guaranteed income programs are becoming increasingly popular in the state of California. The Palm Springs City Council voted in March to implement a guaranteed income initiative that would provide a monthly income of $600 to $900 to trans and non-binary residents, and Oakland made headlines last year with a $500 monthly income program that excluded white residents.
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