This story aired in the August 29, 2024 episode of Crosscurrents.
It’s Transgender History Month. This year, California adopted it statewide. But before that, San Francisco made the designation back in 2021. In August of that year, Mayor London Breed announced that the city was investing millions in trans initiatives. That funding expired in 2023, and there have been some questions around what was done with it and when and how it will be renewed.
Click the play button above to listen to this story
The Office of Transgender Initiatives led the efforts to designate Trans History Month in 2021. Honey Mahogany, who heads this office, said that Trans History Month follows in the steps of other social causes.
"We look at many civil rights movements, you know, the African American struggle for freedom and liberation. And, a lot has been gained through merely educating people, both ourselves and the public as to who we are as a people."
But three years later, it is not clear that trans people by-and-large are feeling the effects.
When KALW went to San Francisco's Castro District, the fact that August was Trans History Month was news to almost everybody
“We could do a lot more. Even though we are the most progressive city”
“Like we also want money towards organizations and things to help trans people, one – transition and feel safe.”
"I feel like my friends and my community members have not seen the effects of that.”
That was Chris Watts, Taylor James Monae, and Una Chang. None of them had heard of Trans History Month and they wondered if it was performative. They didn’t really understand what was being done for the trans community despite the investments that Mayor Breed made in 2021.
The mayor devoted millions to acquire the site that would become the LGBTQ museum. She put 2 million towards a guaranteed income project and another 2 million into black trans equity programming through the Dream Keeper’s Initiative. That’s a part of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.
They funded organizations like the LYRIC LGBTQ youth center — that’s the second oldest and largest organization serving queer youth in the country. They host a wide range of programs, including paid career development, housing support and healthcare access. In the 35 years they’ve been active, they've worked with thousands of youth.
But since the grant expired in 2023, reapplying for funding has not been easy.
The executive director of LYRIC center, Gael Lala-Chavez, says LYRIC had to do layoffs and cut services like the youth leadership program because of the city’s budget crisis.
"We're in a little bit of a crisis here, and no one knows what we're, we're going to be in a few months...They're in a huge deficit, and they're anticipating this this next year being the same. And even the state is experiencing budget issues. It just trickles down to service providers like LYRIC."
This comes at a critical time for trans youth in America, with transphobic rhetoric and legislation in other states compelling many young people to escape to places like San Francisco, where despite the challenges, there are significantly more resources for trans people.
Lala-Chavez says since joining LYRIC in 2021, the amount of young people from outside the city seeking their services is skyrocketing – now making up around 40% of their clients.
"We will not close our doors. We will continue to do what we do. Our staff is very resilient and, we're we're doing as best that we can with the resources that we have."
Though the funding may have dried up this year, Lala-Chavez doesn’t feel that Trans History Month is all performative.
"I think Transgender History Month is an opportunity for them to feel empowered, to feel, you know, connected to community, to feel like they're not alone."
Lala-Chavez is part of the transgender advocacy group with the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives. There, they are working on educating people about Trans History Month and meeting with city officials to maintain funding for trans services. That way, they can stay intact even in times of significant budget crisis.
Lala-Chavez also works closely with Honey Mahogany, the director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives. Mahogany says that celebrating the culture and identity of trans people is a tool for making material gains.
“I think that oftentimes there’s this false dichotomy of oh well you can’t celebrate culture or history because people are suffering, and I think that’s false, I think we have to do both… I think in order to give us the spiritual food that we need to fight another day we have to find time to acknowledge and celebrate history and culture. And also use that as a way for us to advocate and push for more access, more services, more equity, more inclusion. ”
Until budget woes can give way to organizations desperately in need of resources…Transgender History Month may be stuck in a phase of being unintentionally performative. Right now, there’s a lot of will, but not a lot of ways to fund it.