The organizers of the San Francisco Trans March downplayed the harassment of gay Jewish congressional candidate Scott Wiener at their event last weekend, saying that “many working class LGBTQ people” believe “he does not represent their interests.”
The remarks from the Trans March relayed Tuesday to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency marked the organization’s first direct comment on the subject since the California state senator’s treatment at the march was roundly condemned by local and national Jewish and LGBTQ leaders. The incident, captured in a viral video of Wiener enduring taunts, reignited Pride-themed concerns about Jewish inclusion in LGBTQ and left-wing spaces.
In their statement, the march’s organizers said they were “aware that some community members verbally confronted Scott Wiener about his policies in Dolores Park on Friday,” adding, “Wiener is criticized by his constituents everywhere he goes in San Francisco.”
They added, “He has made many choices throughout his political career that have led many working-class LGBTQ people to feel he does not represent their interests, and he hears about that everywhere he goes.”
The march’s organizers, who did not sign their names, did not specify which “choices” of Wiener’s they were referring to in their statement. In the filmed confrontation at the Friday march, most of Wiener’s hecklers referred to Israel and Gaza.
“Your policy on the genocide in Gaza is terrible,” one activist, who filmed and posted the encounter, tells Wiener in the video, adding, “You do not belong here.” Another yells, “You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel.”
The confrontation caused Wiener to leave the event rather than attend a scheduled Pride Shabbat. He later told CNN he believed he was targeted for being Jewish. In the aftermath of the video going viral, Wiener’s campaign said it registered its largest single-day total in donations as he gears up for the November election for former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s seat.
Wiener helped pass legislation supporting trans rights
A spokesperson for Wiener’s campaign did not immediately return a JTA request for comment on the march organizers’ remarks. In his time as state senator, Wiener has advocated for trans issues and helped pass legislation supporting the trans community, something the lead instigator of the heckling acknowledged in his video and posts attacking the candidate.
In his own statement, Wiener noted that he had attended the Trans March every year since its inception 22 years ago, until Friday.
Wiener has moved to the left on Israel during his primary campaign, concluding that the country has committed genocide in Gaza - a stance that cost him some local Jewish support and a leadership role in the statehouse’s Jewish caucus. In remarks to JTA on Monday, the head of a local Jewish advocacy group that had opposed Wiener’s Israel stance suggested that this didn’t matter to his hecklers.
“We were critical of Wiener’s statements on Israel, but we have seen that even he is not we [sic] immune to the wrath of the DSA mob, which cannot be appeased.”
'It is Jew hatred, pure and simple'
Tali Klima, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, told JTA in a statement. “It is not about criticism of Israel or humanitarian concerns. It is Jew hatred, pure and simple, that seeks to oust Jewish lawmakers from public life.” She referred to the Democratic Socialists of America, a faction that has in recent years become stridently anti-Israel.
Wiener’s opponent, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, was also at the Trans March and received a warmer reception there. Asked if Wiener’s treatment at the march was antisemitic, a Chan spokesperson told JTA, “In this moment, what matters is how State Senator Scott Wiener felt and feels about the interactions. We must stand in solidarity against hate whenever someone tells us they are experiencing hate.”
The march’s organizers added, “What is important for us as organizers of the Trans March is that we are organizing to build a world that fosters community, love, growth, and self-determination for all people. This world can only be built on a system where everyone has housing, healthcare, education, food - all the basic needs of human existence as basic human rights.”