Trump cites California LGBTQ+ centers to justify big cuts to ‘woke’ campuses

‘Republicans’ favorite scapegoat’

Lira and his staff set up the meeting room for the celebration, draping each table in a lavender cloth and hanging streamers from the ceiling. Together with the balloons and the catering, including pan dulce with lavender-colored crusts, the event cost about $3,000, he said, all of it supported by federal funds. 

The grants to San Diego’s pride centers were an earmark, requested by local Democratic US Rep. Sara Jacobs. A co-chair of the “Transgender Equality Task Force” in the House, Jacobs said Trump’s proposed cuts to San Diego’s pride centers have little to do with this particular grant. 

“He wants to be able to control what (colleges) teach, who they admit and hire, what areas of study they can follow. He wants us to be talking about LGBTQ+ kids instead of how he’s attacking the ideals that higher education is founded on, like free speech,” she said. “LGBTQ+ kids and especially trans kids are Republicans’ favorite scapegoat.”

San Diego’s LGBTQ+ center isn’t the only cited reason for cutting the roughly $200 million federal program where the earmark came from, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. Trump’s budget offers another, broader justification too, saying colleges and states, not the federal government, “should be responsible for funding institutional reforms and innovative programs.  These additional resources have allowed colleges and universities to fund ideologies instead of students, while still raising tuition costs.” 

Trump targets one other community college grant in California as justification for cutting another, roughly $100 million federal program, although without naming the college. “It is not the responsibility of Federal taxpayers to support a new ‘Guided Pathways Village, expanding the current Learning Communities and creating a new Ethnic and Pride Inclusion Center for historically underserved students, including LGBTQ+ students,’” the budget proposal says. The language about the “Guided Pathways Village” directly matches a 2021 press release about a $2.25 million federal grant to De Anza College in Cupertino. 

Already, his administration has slashed research funding to professors who study LGBTQ issues and prevented federally funded programs from recognizing non-binary or gender nonconforming students.  

On Tuesday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, threatening to withhold “large scale Federal Funding” from California because of one transgender athlete. 

Snacks and support at the LGBTQ+ center

When the pride center isn’t hosting events, it’s a hang-out space, where students stop by to grab a snack, study, and talk with Lira, who is a counselor. Outside the center is a rack of free clothes for students who are transitioning their gender. 

“Like everyone else I come here most days for the food,” said student Daniella Abbott with a laugh. “I honestly met most of my friends here.” She said she has seen the pride center grow in popularity since it first opened in February 2023. Now Lira said over 30 students come to the center each day. 

Christopher Delgado is also a regular. “When I first came here, I was about to be homeless,” he said. Lira recommended he enroll in a counseling course that’s specifically targeted to LGBTQ+ students, which changed his life, he said. “I was able to lift myself out of a bad place.” He is set to graduate next year but came to the Lavender Celebration to cheer on his friends. 

Delgado identifies as gay while others around him say they’re trans, queer, pansexual or bisexual. Some aren’t out to their families or say their parents aren’t supportive.

After all the speeches, Lira returned to the podium, where he announced graduates’ names and placed stoles around their necks. The students transferring to four-year universities announced their plans, and each posed for a photo with the college president and district chancellor.

Abbott was the first name called. Standing at the podium next to Lira, she announced that she’s headed to UCLA in the fall, though it isn’t technically true – at least not yet. “I got waitlisted,” she told CalMatters with a laugh. “It’s happening. They just don’t know it yet.”

Her back-up, UC San Diego, already admitted her and she said it offered a generous financial aid package — a requirement for her. 

As part of the federal earmark, Mesa College gave out $500 scholarships to low-income LGBTQ+ students involved in the pride center, and Abbott was one of the many recipients. 

“When I found out I got the scholarship, I was like ‘Oh great, I can finally get lunch,” she said. It was a joke, she later clarified, but there’s a kernel of truth: Although she lives at home with her parents, Abbott is responsible for most of her living costs, such as gas and food. She received around $8,400 in federal financial aid in the past academic year, as well as $4,000 in state aid.

Many of California’s roughly 2 million community college students are low-income — some are even homeless — and like Abbott, they rely on federal aid  to cover daily expenses. In his budget, Trump proposes ending long-standing programs that offer academic counseling and cash to low-income students who are the first generation in their families to attend college. The Education Department has already moved to exclude students without legal status from accessing that program. 

Earlier this year, the advocacy association for California’s community college presidents and trustees asked the state to help offset the impact of federal budget cuts, but the state has a projected budget deficit, and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposals don’t mention the association’s request. 

Funded or not, federal programs at risk

The federal budget is even more complicated. With Trump’s proposal in mind, the Republican-controlled Congress drafts its own spending bill, which the president must ultimately sign. The House of Representatives put forward its spending proposal in April, but unlike Trump’s budget, the House version doesn’t mention the 2023 earmark to the San Diego pride centers or the US Education Department’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.

That’s probably because the House is  focused on high-dollar programs, said Iris Palmer, the director of community college policy at the think tank New America. She said the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, about $200 million a year, is “not even a drop in the bucket.”

Even if Congress funds higher education programs that Trump wants to cut, Palmer said the administration could try to avoid implementing them. “They’ve fired everyone,” she said, “It makes it very hard to run grant programs.”

Regardless, the San Diego pride centers are planning to exhaust their federal funds no later than next summer, and earmarks are, by design, a one-time grant. All told, about half of the Mesa Pride Center’s budget comes from the federal earmark, said Lira. The rest is from the state, and the state Legislature has signaled that money will continue, at least into next year.  

Smith, the San Diego colleges’ district chancellor, didn’t specify how, exactly, the pride center will handle the cuts, though he said that some resources will “definitely go away.” 

Once the Lavender Celebration is over, a few students and volunteers remain to clean up, including Valerie Seng, a professor of medical assisting at Mesa College, and Sage Shevkolenko, a student and project assistant at the pride center. In a community where some students don’t feel comfortable going home or coming out, they’re a bright spot: Seng is Shevkolenko’s mom. 

“It means a lot,” said Shevkolenko, referring to her mom’s presence at the event, as they both helped take down the streamers and began dismantling the branded backdrop where students took photos in their stoles. “I know that a lot of families don’t have that privilege.”