Political Notebook: CA LGBTQ groups laud state funding restorations

With federal funding for queer and transgender health care services targeted by the Trump administration, leaders of LGBTQ service providers in California are hailing the restoration of funding for such programs in the state’s 2025-2026 fiscal year budget. In particular, more than $145 million was allocated for specific services benefitting LGBTQ youth and adults, as well as people living with HIV.

As the Bay Area Reporter first reported in late June, state legislators restored nearly $41 million in funding for LGBTQ health programs that Governor Gavin Newsom initially had cut in his revised budget proposal released in May to address a projected $7.5 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal year that began July 1. After an intense lobbying effort waged by LGBTQ advocates, lawmakers added back the funds in the Budget Act of 2025 that they approved and Newsom signed on June 27.

“This budget decision reflects a clear understanding that the well-being of LGBTQ+ people is integral to the health and future of California as a whole,” California LGBTQ+ Health and Human Services Network Director Dannie Ceseña, who is Two-Spirit and Native, stated upon the budget’s passage last month. “In a time when economic pressures threaten crucial programs and services, the restoration of these funds affirms that equity requires real, sustained investment.”

More than 68 community-based organizations had banded together under the banner of the Health Equity Coalition to mount a fierce lobbying campaign to see state legislators restore the funding. Among their asks was reappropriating $9.844 million to a fund for LBTQ women’s health initiatives that had yet to be allocated from the initial $17.5 million given to it in a previous budget cycle.

The restoration of the funding for queer and trans women’s health care services was a particular relief for Horizons Foundation. The San Francisco-based LGBTQ philanthropic organization last year had been awarded $1.9 million from the state health department on behalf of six grantee partner organizations.

As it noted in a post on its website last September, a portion of the funding went to San Francisco agencies El/La Para TransLatinas, Lyon-Martin Community Health Services, the Young Women’s Freedom Center and the San Francisco Community Health Cetner. Berkeley’s Pacific Center for Human Growth and the Gender Health Center of Sacramento also shared in the funding.

Horizons Foundation President Roger Doughty told the B.A.R. this week that the contracts for the six agencies will now be funded through the end of the 2025 calendar year.

“We are very glad that we are going to have funding at least to finish out the present work. We thought it was just going to be taken away, which was shocking,” said Doughty, a gay man. “All the drama that happened over the past two months about the funding and possible premature end to it, unfortunately led to some disruptions.”

Staff had to plan accordingly, Doughty noted, should the funding be lost and had to warn clients they could end up losing their services. It resulted in a “waste of organizational time and resources,” he added, and uncertainty for clients.

“Now, it is really good there is more funding. It was unfortunate all the drama had to be gone through,” he said. “Organizations and their clients pay a price.”

While he wasn’t sure if the funds included in this year’s budget would lead state health officials to issue another request for proposals from service providers, Doughty said his agency would have conversations with leaders of the other nonprofits about applying for it should they do so. The budget bill said the money should be “available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2027.”

“This has been a challenging program to execute, working with the state Department of Public Health. There are a lot of very good people there and it does not move quickly or easily,” he noted. “If there is more opportunity to apply for funds, we would certainly want to do that.”

The final state budget also included the return of $4.05 million previously budgeted to support LGBTQ+ foster youth. LGBTQ health advocates also secured $15.8 million added back for the California Reducing Disparities Project and $11.17 million in previously allocated funds returned to the state health agency’s Reproductive Justice Fund.

“We’re grateful to our state leaders for restoring this critical funding for programs that support LGBTQ+ and vulnerable patients,” stated Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California CEO and President Jodi Hicks. “As federal protections erode, California must remain a beacon for reproductive justice and health equity.”

The budget also included $441,000 for the Transgender, Gender Nonconforming, and Intersex (TGI) Wellness and Equity Fund. The state’s School Health and Safety Office is to receive $150,000 and one staff position to support LGBTQ+ initiatives and best practices.

The Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges is to use $10 million to support LGBTQ+ students enrolled at community college districts across the state. Meanwhile, the State Department of Education received $77,000 to pay for a half-time existing staff position responsible for updating existing, and developing new, resources and strategies, and in-service teacher training to support LGBTQ and questioning students.

California lawmakers also allocated $75 million from the AIDS Drug Assistance Program Rebate Fund to cover looming cuts in federal HIV funding, continue the vital work of disease investigation specialists, and fund new hepatitis C testing equipment, as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation noted in hailing the passage of the 2025 budget. The ADAP fund has generated more than $1 billion in drug rebates that California could use for this purpose, SFAF officials stressed, and use of rebate funds doesn’t impact programming or care provided by ADAP.

It was met with praise from End the Epidemics, a coalition of more than 120 organizations across the Golden State working to end the co-joined epidemics of HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), viral hepatitis, and drug overdoses. It also applauded the inclusion of $885,000 to support and provide technical assistance for the Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction Initiative and related activities by the State Department of Public Health.

“We are extremely fortunate to be able to use ADAP rebate funds to help fill in the gaps left by waning federal support. Yet we recognize that this solution is temporary – and we will need our representatives to make contingency plans in order to continue this funding for HIV prevention in future years,” stated Laura Thomas, a queer woman who is senior director of HIV and harm reduction policy at SFAF.

At the federal level, funding cuts continue to loom over HIV service providers in the months ahead. They face the threat of seeing Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration eliminate domestic HIV prevention funding.

As it is, President Donald Trump has sought to scrap funding for international AIDS agencies via the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), with the House voting to approve doing so. But Senate leaders this week said they wouldn’t support a $400 million cut to the program that was included in Trump’s rescissions request to Congress, which has a deadline of Friday, July 18, to act on it.

Come Thursday, the Trump administration is expected to wind down a specific support line LGBTQ youth could access via the federal national suicide help line. California lawmakers, at the request of Newsom, included $17.5 million in the state’s 2025 budget to support the 988 State Suicide and Behavioral Health Crisis Services Fund so calls are directed to trained, culturally competent counselors.

“Cutting off a proven lifeline for people in need is outrageous and inexcusable,” Newsom had stated in announcing the state funding in mid-June. “While this federal administration slashes services and tries to erase LGBTQ people, California will do the opposite. Every child - straight, gay, transgender - belongs.”

Correction
Last week’s column misspelled the first name of new queer Oakland Board of Port Commissioner Alvina Wong. The online version has been corrected.

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column reported on statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality California’s first endorsement in a 2026 state legislative race.

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Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected].