(Editor’s Note: Eleven organizations, outlined in the below, provided this joint statement via a press release to the San Francisco Bay Times.)
Eleven LGBTQ+ service providers on June 18, 2026, released a joint statement calling on San Francisco to fully fund the queer, trans, and HIV care infrastructure the city has spent decades building, after a budget season that restored some organizations’ funding for a single year while leaving others facing deep cuts. Signatories include the SF LGBT Center, Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, El/La Para Trans Latinas, Lyon-Martin Community Health Services, LYRIC, Openhouse, QWOCMAP (Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project), San Francisco AIDS Foundation, San Francisco Community Health Center, San Francisco Pride, and The Transgender District.
The statement follows Mayor Daniel Lurie’s decision to reverse a percentage of planned cuts to eight LGBTQ-serving organizations, including the SF LGBT Center. The coalition welcomes this partial reversal and thanks the community members, advocates, and city leaders who fought for it. But a reversal for some cannot mean silence for the rest: nearly $3 million in confirmed cuts to coalition organizations remains unrestored in the proposed budget. The organizations whose funding was restored, including the center, are standing in solidarity with the organizations still facing significant cuts.
The partial reversal also comes with an expiration date. San Francisco budgets two years at a time, and the restored funding appears only in the budget’s first year; in year two, this money disappears. The coalition agrees we need to protect our backbone LGBTQ+ service providers, and that is exactly why one year of funding is not enough. Without ongoing investment, the organizations the mayor himself described as essential will face the same fiscal cliff twelve months from now. One-year funding also leaves these organizations in limbo—unable to responsibly hire staff or plan service delivery.
The remaining cuts come as federal attacks on LGBTQ+ communities are escalating and demand for local services is rising. They would unravel decades of progress, destabilize community anchors that have built trust over generations, and put thousands of LGBTQ+ San Franciscans at immediate risk, disproportionately those who are trans, BIPOC, immigrant, and low-income.
As first proposed, the budget cut millions from LGBTQ+ programming citywide and threatened the elimination of critical trans-specific programs in San Francisco. Even after the mayor’s partial reversal, coalition organizations still face over $2.7 million in confirmed cuts, a significant loss for the LGBTQ+ San Franciscans who rely on these services. Restoring every remaining dollar remains a reasonable ask given the context, even in a deficit year.
The coalition is urging the Board of Supervisors to restore the remaining cuts in full before it adopts the budget this summer, and Mayor Lurie to carry every restoration through both years of the budget. Keeping these organizations whole costs the city almost nothing; losing them would cost San Francisco something no budget can buy back and leave thousands of LGBTQ people in need without critical social safety net services.
The entire press release, including statements from leaders of the nonprofits, is at https://bit.ly/4eW0e7V
Published on June 25, 2026
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