Palm Springs is set to offer transgender and non-binary residents a guaranteed income of $600-$900 a month for two years in a scheme that even its own supporters admit is likely to cost the tax payer.
The council in California voted in favour of the plan which will benefit 20 trans people in its jurisdiction and will cost around $200,000.
The highly divisive and seemingly bitterly unfair decision was hailed as a triumph by council member Christy Holstege who, speaking to the Los Angeles Times, praised the city for being “on the right side of history and supporting our trans and non-binary, gender nonconforming community”.
She doubled downed in a later Tweet with:
“In the City of Palm Springs, we are proud to be a beacon of hope to the rest of the nation. We’ve worked hard to build an inclusive community. Our latest proposes a guaranteed income pilot program for trans and non-binary people.”
In the City of Palm Springs, we are proud to be a beacon of hope to the rest of the nation. We’ve worked hard to build an inclusive community. Our latest proposes a guaranteed income pilot program for trans and non-binary people. (2/2) https://t.co/cLc7PgvICc
— Christy Gilbert Holstege (@christyholstege) April 1, 2022
Although singling out individuals based on their demographics doesn’t seem all that inclusive.
Perhaps even more astoundingly, Palm Springs’ mayor, who is transgender herself, said she voted in favour of the scheme but was unsure as to whether it would succeed. ‘Succeed’ in doing what is anyone’s guess:
“My serious concern is the ability of these guaranteed income programs to scale up to the magnitude of the issues that are before us,”
“I have been wrong many times,” admitted Mayor Lisa Middleton. “I could be wrong again on this one.”
Trans residents who are signed up to the scheme will receive hundreds of dollars each month to spend in any way they wish. This is in contrast to other social security plans which put reasonable restrictions on how and where the money can be spent –generally on food or bills.
In a meeting about the bill last week, Queer Works Chief Executive Jacob Rostovsky – who is also transgender – excused the supposed positive discrimination, claiming that transgender people are especially vulnerable to unemployment, homelessness and discrimination:
“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,” said Rostovsky.
Although Rosovsky failed to address the fact that it is illegal for employers in the USA to discriminate based on gender identity and that there are numerous other factors which may mean transgenders are less likely to find work – such as depression or anxiety brought on by their dysphoria.
Fox’s Tucker Carlson was highly critical of the council’s decision on Monday night, pointing out that Christy Holstege herself had said that such schemes are overly expensive and often take money away from vulnerable people who are struggling:
“The bureaucracies that we’ve set up to fund poverty programs and to staff them are probably much more expensive than giving the people the money who need it,” said Holstege.
Carlson’s co-host Jason Rantz referred to the scheme as “a big scam”. He went on to suggest that in a world where gender supposedly no longer exists, there is no way to prove someone is ‘trans’, and what he calls “the country’s wokest guaranteed income scheme” is very open to abuse.
This story syndicated with permission from My Patriot Post