A city in southern California is launching a new program to provide universal basic income to transgender and nonbinary residents.
Under the program, residents in Palm Springs are eligible to receive monthly payments of $900 strictly for identifying as transgender or nonbinary.
The pilot program will pay $900 a month for 18 months to 20 residents who identify as trans or nonbinary -- with no strings attached, FOX News reported. Applicants will have to meet a poverty threshold, the report notes.
The City Council has approved $200,000 for the program, which would initially provide payments to 20 people who live, work or otherwise spend the majority of their time in Palm Springs, the Desert Sun reported.
The program has generated a lot of controversy, with a former city councilman calling it discriminatory.
"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," former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio told FOX. "This one is [a] no-strings-attached 'woke' virtue signaling to the LGBT community in a way that is not only offensive but discriminatory."
Palm Springs Mayor Lisa Middleton, who is transgender herself, said transgender Americans face long-term challenges such as high rates of unemployment that simply cannot be addressed universal basic income programs.
"Transgender Americans face enormous challenges living full and authentic lives," Middleton told FOX. "Those challenges have increased substantially in the past few years as transgender children and their families have been targeted by extremist legislators and governors."
Still, Middleton said she voted to approve the plan so that organizers could apply for state funding. And that's apparently what they plan to do, with sights on $35 million allocated in 2021 toward guaranteed income programs across California, NBC Los Angeles reported.
The program will be managed by LGBTQ advocacy organizations DAP Health and Queer Works.
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