The mood was festive Friday evening as Jews gathered for a Shabbat celebration in Dolores Park ahead of the annual San Francisco Trans March. Organizers and attendees were unaware that state Sen. Scott Wiener was trying to make his way toward them — or that he’d never arrive.
Wiener, a prominent Jewish and gay politician who has spearheaded transgender-rights legislation, was surrounded and screamed at by protesters accusing him of supporting genocide in Gaza. After more than two minutes of the incident escalating, he left the park. The confrontation took place before the Trans March, which Wiener also intended to join. He did not return for the march.
The man filming him, Dimitry Yakoushkin, began by complimenting Wiener’s transgender legislation efforts before he began berating Wiener about positions on Gaza.
“It breaks my heart that someone who wrote good legislation for queers is so f***ing terrible on Gaza,” Yakoushkin says in the video.
Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat and the frontrunner to replace retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi, has consistently defended Israel’s right to exist but earlier this year labeled its actions in Gaza as a genocide. According to his campaign website, Wiener does not support U.S. funding of Israel’s military or of the Iron Dome, a defensive system that protects Israelis from ballistic missiles.
As the footage spread online, the public berating of Wiener sent shock waves through the Jewish groups behind the Shabbat gathering.
“We are saddened and appalled that Senator Scott Wiener experienced antisemitic invectives, harassment, and physical intimidation while attempting to join the Trans March,” said Jaimie Krass, president and CEO of Keshet, a national LGBTQ Jewish advocacy group and co-sponsor of the Shabbat gathering.
Rabbi Eliana Kayelle, who identifies as trans and queer and serves as Keshet’s Bay Area education and training manager, said the Shabbat ritual provided a “meaningful” and “powerful” way for transgender people and Jewish allies to come together.
“I was shocked and disappointed to hear later about what had happened to Senator Scott Wiener,” Kayelle said.
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, Or Shalom Jewish Community and Base Bay Area also co-sponsored the Shabbat event.
Wiener released a statement Saturday saying he left the park and canceled his plans to attend the Shabbat festivities out of concern for his safety. It was Wiener’s first time missing the Trans March since its inception in 2004, he said.
“They were so physically and verbally aggressive that it was impossible for me to safely remain in the park,” Wiener said.
The incident, which attracted national media attention, took place only two days after an anti-Zionist activist recorded himself grilling Wiener about Israel in a Mission District restaurant and bar.
Although Wiener didn’t say so in his original statement, his team said he has since labeled Friday’s incident as antisemitic.
“Obviously when individuals yell things about ‘listening to your Israeli handlers,’ it’s clear that that the intentions were antisemitic and that their goal was to push Senator Wiener out of the march because of his Jewish background,” Wiener campaign spokesperson Joe Arellano said. “It’s just unfortunate that a mob of fringe leftist activists feel like this is their only way to make their point known.”
Prominent Jewish leaders, including San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, denounced the incident as antisemitic as well.
“As mayor, I can never accept hate directed at a member of our community,” Lurie wrote in a post on X. “The language directed at Sen. Wiener yesterday was targeted, hateful, and antisemitic. In San Francisco, we welcome disagreement and respectful dialogue around issues many of us feel passionately about—but we cannot allow harassment and threats of violence.”
The California Senate Democratic Caucus and California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus jointly denounced the “verbal harassment and attacks” of Wiener. The California Legislative Jewish Caucus called it the “latest in a series of hateful incidents targeting Senator Wiener that are part of a broader effort to exclude, isolate, and ostracize him because of his Jewish identity.” The American Jewish Committee’s Northern California chapter also released a statement, calling Wiener’s targeting “acts of intimidation rooted in age-old antisemitic tropes.”
Friday’s incident didn’t prevent Wiener from attending the San Francisco Pride Parade on Sunday, where Wiener was surrounded by supporters in orange shirts emblazoned with his name. While the parade focused on celebration, Friday’s incident was on the minds of some attendees.
Among them was Tye Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area. Gregory, who is gay, pointed out how important a champion Wiener has been for LGBTQ people.
“All I can say is there’s a national assault on LGBTQ rights, and nothing’s more self-defeating than eating your own,” Gregory said. “Not only was it a vicious antisemitic attack, it was a self-defeating one.”
On social media, Wiener’s supporters expressed similar disappointment that such a strong supporter of LGBTQ rights was forced to leave a Pride event.
“As a trans woman I really don’t appreciate you appropriating my identity to turn away people who want to stand up for my rights because of completely unrelated grievances,” one person commented on X.
Wiener has sponsored legislation to protect transgender youth, shield out-of-state families, expand healthcare access and secure civil rights for LGBTQ seniors and foster children.
“If there’s anybody who’s an ally for the trans community from the elected officials, it’s Scott,” Jeremy Russell, JCRC’s director of marketing and communications, said in an interview during Sunday’s Pride Parade. “What took place was egregious. It’s hard to watch that kind of stuff but that behavior is unacceptable and it’s against Pride.”
Since Friday, Wiener’s campaign reported, donations have broken records. Saturday saw the largest number of contributors since his congressional campaign launched, followed by even larger numbers on Sunday. Arellano attributes this to the attention garnered from Friday evening’s viral video and Wiener’s subsequent news show appearances.
“I think that it really raised Senator Wiener’s profile, and in some ways they did us a favor, because they elevated him into a national figure, which is quite helpful to his campaign,” Russell said. “While we’re very angry that it happened, in some ways, he did a favor to Scott. So it’s a double-edged sword.”