State Sen. Scott Wiener was chased from the San Francisco Trans March on June 27 over his views on Israel — but the official who proposed slashing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the city's LGBTQ+ youth services budget is Mayor Daniel Lurie, who faced his own separate heckling at City Hall during Pride Month.

As Wiener's confrontation went viral and ignited a citywide debate about antisemitism and protest tactics, a parallel story went largely untold: Lurie's administration proposed a budget that would have cut LYRIC Center for LGBTQ+ Youth by roughly $300,000 and the SF LGBT Center's youth services by $312,012 — amounting to 56 percent reductions in their DCYF-funded drop-in budgets. The Board of Supervisors clawed back $28.5 million in add-backs before the budget was adopted July 24, 2025, but those restorations are guaranteed only through FY 2025-26, leaving LGBTQ+ youth organizations without long-term funding security heading into the next cycle.

On June 27, video of protesters confronting State Sen. Scott Wiener at the San Francisco Trans March spread rapidly across social media. Days later, a second clip circulated showing Wiener approached at a restaurant and pressured to say "Free Palestine." Mayor Daniel Lurie responded by labeling the Trans March confrontation "antisemitic." The political debate that followed focused almost entirely on Wiener.

But Wiener — who represents California's 11th Senate District and has championed transgender healthcare legislation at the state level for years — holds no role in San Francisco's city budget. The official with actual power over the funding that sustains LGBTQ+ youth programs is Lurie, and this spring Lurie's administration proposed cutting deeply into exactly those programs.

Wiener's Israel record

The protests targeting Wiener stem from a position he has held publicly and on the record. In a May 2021 statement, Wiener wrote: "I unequivocally believe in the importance of a Jewish state. Jews need a safe haven. We need a Jewish and democratic Israel living side-by-side, in peace, with a Palestinian state." Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, he stated that "Israel has every right to secure its borders" and called for Hamas to be "entirely eliminated as a political and military force."

His position shifted significantly in January 2026, when Wiener publicly stated that Israel's military campaign in Gaza "qualifies as genocide," citing mass civilian casualties — a statement that drew a rebuke from five Jewish organizations including the JCRC Bay Area, and led to his resignation as co-chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. He has since said he will not support unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel.

That evolution — from strong Israel supporter to genocide critic — did not satisfy protesters who confronted him at Trans March. But it complicates the portrait of Wiener as an unambiguous Zionist hardliner.

The march and its aftermath

Five people were arrested and two SFPD officers were injured during the June 27 Trans March at Dolores Park, according to SFPD. Wiener left the event after being surrounded by protesters. He returned two days later to march in the SF Pride Parade, where he received cheers.

Lurie — who was separately heckled and shouted down by LGBTQ+ protesters at two City Hall events during Pride Month — responded to the Trans March incident by calling it antisemitic, triggering a sharp rebuttal from the activist who filmed the confrontation.

The budget Wiener had no vote on

What Wiener had no role in: San Francisco's FY 2025-26 budget, adopted July 24, 2025 (File #250589, Ordinance #119-25). Lurie's initial proposal required city departments to absorb 15 percent in ongoing spending cuts, which translated into a proposed 56 percent reduction in DCYF-funded youth services drop-in budgets for LYRIC Center for LGBTQ+ Youth (a projected loss of nearly $300,000 in workforce development and case management funding) and the SF LGBT Center ($312,012 in proposed cuts), according to the Bay Area Reporter and ABC7.

Eleven LGBTQ+ organizations, including the SF AIDS Foundation and Lyon-Martin Community Health Services, released a joint statement opposing nearly $3 million in proposed cuts to queer, trans, and HIV care services citywide.

Gael Lala-Chavez, Executive Director of LYRIC Center, warned publicly: "All of us are raising the alarm, because it is going to completely change and impact every single person in severe need in the City of San Francisco."

The Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee, chaired by Supervisor Connie Chan, secured $28.5 million in add-backs over two years before the budget was finalized, according to Mission Local. Lurie's office stated the final budget would "strengthen the social safety net and invest in our LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities." But advocates and budget analysts note that the funding restorations are confirmed only for Year 1 of the two-year budget cycle — leaving LYRIC, the SF LGBT Center, and peer organizations without guaranteed funding for FY 2026-27.

Supervisor Ahsha Safaí separately introduced a resolution calling on the mayor to restore $25 million in DCYF cuts that included LGBTQ+ youth programs.

As of publication, no itemized line item for LYRIC Center appears in the publicly available adopted budget documents; its funding flows through DCYF rather than as a named appropriation, making year-over-year comparisons difficult to pin down from public filings alone.

The contrast is stark: the senator being run out of Trans March over his Israel views has spent years authoring state legislation protecting transgender healthcare. The mayor whose budget threatened to gut the city's LGBTQ+ youth safety net was cheered — then heckled — during the same Pride season.