No, a California city is not giving all trans people $900 a month – it’s yet another lie
No, transgender people aren’t receiving monthly payments of $900 in California. (Getty/Canva)
A conspiracy theory that a city in California is giving transgender people a monthly payment of $900 has been debunked by a fact-checking organisation.
A theory that the city of Palm Springs in the Western state was giving free money to its transgender residents first emerged in an Instagram video shared earlier this year.
The video, which uses info shared from a hip-hop culture blog shared in 2022, claimed that the city’s government was paying “transgender, non-binary residents” $900 as part of a universal basic income scheme with “no strings attached.”
“Apparently, they giving transgender a monthly payment of $900,” the user said in the clip, before cutting to another shot of him wearing a blonde wig, seemingly suggesting he might adopt a trans identity to receive the payments.
The claim is, of course, complete nonsense, and was quickly debunked by fact-checking group and Poynter Institute subsidiary PolitiFact.
A post on PolitiFact’s website confirmed that, while a small pilot scheme for universal basic income was launched in 2023, the 30 candidates selected for the pilot were chosen regardless of age, race, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Eligible residents received $800 per month for 18 months as a way to research how the scheme, if launched across the city, would affect the residents’ lives.
Candidates had to make less than $16,600 a year and be a past or present client of two nonprofits – DAP Health or Queer Works. Both organisations were involved in the pilot’s creation.
While both non-profits provide services to LGBTQ+ people, they do not exclusively serve LGBTQ+ or transgender individuals.
According to a press release from DAP Health, the Palm Springs City Council approved a $200,000 grant for the initial design of the pilot, which was intended “to support the initial research and program design of a guaranteed income pilot program.”
The statement continued that the pilot aimed to “provide direct financial assistance to marginalized local individuals in need for a likely period of 18 months.”
And no, conspiracy theorists, marginalised does not mean only transgender people.
After successfully designing the proposal, the City Council then provided a further $500,000 to start the program, which began in March 2023.
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