CA Legislature set to restore $40M for LGBTQ health that Newsom cut

California legislators are set to restore $40 million for LGBTQ health programs that Governor Gavin Newsom had cut in his revised budget proposal released in May. The Legislature is expected to approve its revisions to the gubernatorial budget Friday and send it back to Newsom for final adoption.

The governor has until June 30 to sign the 2025-26 state budget into law. LGBTQ lawmakers and advocates are calling on Newsom to maintain the restored funding for the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity. It helps pay for various health care programs, reproductive care, and mental health services for LGBTQ youth and adults across the Golden State.

The budget committees in both the state Assembly and Senate had approved the legislative budget proposal June 11. The two chambers are now scheduled to vote on the balanced budget package today ahead of their June 15 deadline to do so.

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, told the Bay Area Reporter Thursday when asked for comment that, “I’m very proud to protect health equity funding for programs that serve the LGBTQ community and many others. Health disparities are a major drag on California’s success and we need to continue our progress to combat them. These funds will help vulnerable LGBTQ women, foster youth, and so many more access critical services to combat historic inequities, and that’s exactly what we should be doing with our public funds in California.”

The California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network had reacted with deep alarm at the governor’s proposed cuts. In a June 12 interview with the B.A.R., LGBTQ network director Dannie Ceseña expressed excitement that lawmakers had added back the funding for the various LGBTQ health services.

“I am just feeling really good about that and looking forward to them voting and approving the budget by Sunday,” said Ceseña, who is Two-Spirit and Native. “My biggest concern I have is the governor approving it and not pushing back on that piece. We are really encouraging people to call the governor’s office and to be putting pressure on him to keep the funding for those programs.”

While he said he will be worried until the budget is finalized, Ceseña is optimistic about seeing the money for LGBTQ health care be preserved.

“I really believe the Legislature realized this is more than just a budget line. It really is a lifeline for our communities,” he said. “Now it is Governor Newsom’s turn to prove he has really heard our communities and the messages we have been sending and signs a budget that really protects these programs.”

 
Tony Hoang, a gay man who is executive director of statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality California, told the B.A.R. he is “cautiously optimistic” that the funding will be included in the final budget signed by Newsom later this month. Should it not be, it would be “devastating,” he said, not only for the health needs of LGBTQ Californians but also the nearly 70 community-based providers of the services.

“We recognize the tough budget outlook for California as a whole. It is why we were so heartened that the Legislature pushed back in their own counterbudget to ensure California leads with action and not just words,” said Hoang, adding that EQCA and its coalition partners “are going to do everything we can to mobilize our community to advocate to the governor’s office to ensure he and his office keep these reappropriations in.”

Wiener declined to comment when asked if he, too, is hopeful about seeing Newsom retain the funds.

The governor’s office has yet to respond to the B.A.R.’s inquiry on if Newsom will, in fact, maintain the funding as he negotiates with legislative leaders over the coming days on the final budget package.

State leaders need to address a projected $7.5 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and are bracing for even larger cuts that could be required due to the negative fiscal impacts spawned by the policies and decisions made by the Trump White House and congressional Republicans. Newsom proposed a total of $12 billion in cuts in order to set aside $4.5 billion for the state’s discretionary reserve as part of his $226.4 billion General Fund spending plan , as the California Budget & Policy Center noted.  

As the B.A.R. previously reported, Newsom’s proposed budget did not renew $17.5 million allocated in a previous budget to the Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Women’s Health Equity Fund. Additionally, the governor’s proposal eliminated entirely the Gender Health Equity Section in the state health department’s Office of Health Equity, a $15.5 million cut, and axed $15.8 million for the health equity office’s California Reducing Disparities Project. Those cuts amounted to $48.8 million.

It sparked outrage from dozens of LGBTQ service providers across the state, as the cuts would have rescinded funding already awarded to dozens of community-based organizations. Banding together under the banner of the Health Equity Coalition, they mounted a fierce lobbying campaign with state legislators that specifically requested nearly $41 million in restored funds.

Their ask called for reappropriating $9.844 million to the fund for LBTQ women’s health initiatives that has yet to be allocated and $4.05 million previously budgeted to support LGBTQ+ foster youth. They also called for rejecting the $15.8 million cut to the California Reducing Disparities Project and asked that $11.17 million in previously allocated funds be returned to the state health agency’s Reproductive Justice Fund.

Legislative leaders included the funding in their budget. They also restored proposed cuts for addressing sexually transmitted infections.

“As a proud provider of sexual, reproductive, and gender-affirming health care, the Planned Parenthood affiliates in California are grateful to the Legislature for restoring critical state funding for these programs supporting LGBTQ+ and other vulnerable patients in our state,” stated Jodi Hicks, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. “As the Trump administration decimates federal programs that advance reproductive justice and health equity, California must continue to be a beacon for LGBTQ+ people and their ability to access the health care they need and deserve, no matter what.”