Stimulus Check Update: Is California Sending Payments To All LGBTQ Residents?

The City of San Francisco in November launched a guaranteed income program for its transgender residents, leading to rumors that California could launch a statewide stimulus check for all LGBTQ residents.

In November, San Francisco officials announced the "Guaranteed Income for Transgender People (G.I.F.T)" program, which aimed to provide at least 55 "economically marginalized transgender people" earning less than $600 per month with monthly relief checks of $1,200 for a year-and-a-half. The program would also send checks to enrollees who make a maximum of $4,000 a month, as per Fox News.

San Francisco's initiative led to a rumor that California might look into launching a similar pilot program for LGBTQ residents.

While California is experimenting with a larger guaranteed income pilot initiative, the program is targeting residents who "aged out of the extended foster care program at or after 21 years of age or who are pregnant individuals," according to the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) website.

That being said, some cities in California are launching their own pilot programs for people belonging to the LGBTQ community.

As mentioned above, there is a guaranteed income program in San Francisco that prioritizes certain groups, including "transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and intersex people who are also Black, indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC), experiencing homelessness, living with disabilities and chronic illnesses, youth and elders, monolingual Spanish-speakers, and those who are legally vulnerable such as TGI people who are undocumented, engaging in survival sex trades, ​or are formerly incarcerated," according to its website.

In Palm Springs, lawmakers are also exploring another pilot program. The city has already allocated $200,000 to develop a guaranteed income pilot program for transgender and nonbinary residents.

The program in Palm Springs, however, is still in the planning stages. As of March, it was being discussed that the program might send monthly payments of $600 to $900 to 20 individuals identifying as transgender or nonbinary.

"This is a chance to help individuals receive money that we can think of as a subsidy — to subsidize the gap in income that the trans and nonbinary community faces due to having some of the highest levels of unemployment in this country," Queer Works Chief executive Jacob Rostovsky said in a meeting with city council members in March, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

As of writing, the city council has yet to allocate any money to send to its transgender residents.