Illegal aliens seek ‘free’ sex changes in California

Word has apparently traveled down the continent to the transgender communities in Mexico, Honduras, and elsewhere: If you make it all the way to California, the government will pay for your shelter, hormones, and surgeries — no questions asked.

Last month, we received a report from a whistleblower who claimed that illegal aliens were staying in San Francisco’s homeless shelters.

Following up on the tip, we visited numerous publicly-funded shelters in San Francisco, and spoke to employees and residents about their policies, sometimes through a translator. 

We discovered not only that the shelters were housing illegal immigrants, but also that they were apparently housing a population of male-to-female “transgender” illegal aliens, who had hoped to obtain free “gender-affirming care” in California.

And, to our shock, state and local governments apparently are providing it.

St. Vincent De Paul’s MSC-South facility is San Francisco’s largest homeless shelter, and, in 2024, signed a $66 million service contract with the city. After we arrived at the front entrance, an employee wearing a do-rag and a light green polo shirt showed us around and confirmed that illegal aliens were living there.

“You got a few people here from El Salvador. . . . You got a few people here from Venezuela. You got a few people here from a little bit of everywhere,” he said. 

As a rule, he suggested, management instructed employees to refuse cooperation with federal immigration authorities. “When the ICE thing was going around, we all had a meeting, and they told us, ‘We ain’t letting them in.’” 

Among the shelter’s residents was a group of Hondurans who identified as transgender. During our visit to MSC-South, whose executive director did not respond to a request for comment, we spoke with two Honduran men, “Lyca” and “Alondra,” who identified as transgender women. Both indicated that the local government gave them shelter and food. 

Lyca, who wore long hair and red lipstick, was candid about this arrangement. He confirmed that he was an illegal immigrant and that the shelter doesn’t ask questions about immigration status.

“Tengo Medi-Cal,” he said, referring to the state health-care program, which, under Gov. Gavin Newsom, began providing “full scope” coverage to illegal aliens, which includes transgender procedures, or “gender affirming care.” He said he was receiving cross-sex hormone therapy — and bore the physical signs of having done so.

Alondra, a muscular man in a camouflage shirt and dyed hair tied behind his head, said he had been in the United States after claiming asylum. According to the translator, the city government had offered to pay first and second month’s rent on private apartments for him and Lyca. But neither accepted the offer — in Lyca’s case, because he might not be able to pay for the apartment after the second month.

At the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center, a city-funded shelter on the eastern waterfront that did not respond to our comment request, we heard similar stories. “Jacqueline,” a self-identified “trans woman” from Mexico living at the shelter who claimed to be a lawful US resident, indicated that there were illegal aliens living in the shelter. 

Wearing rouge on his cheeks and a low-cut red shirt, Jacqueline flaunted his large chest. He said that he had receied transgender hormone treatments, and confirmed that he had also received breast implants from the state Medi-Cal program.

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Though Jacqueline claimed to be a legal resident, he suggested that the state also provides implants to illegal immigrants. “Even though you’re undocumented,” he said, “you can get them.” 

“You have to have a process, the hormones . . . go through therapy,” he said. “Es un proceso.” 

We asked Jacqueline if he had also completed “bottom surgery,” a type of genital procedure that can involve castrating a male and turning his penile tissue into a “neo-vagina.” San Francisco has multiple clinics that offer bottom surgery, which the state reportedly provides to Medi-Cal recipients, under the theory that it can be a “medical necessity” for those whose gender identity does “not match their gender assigned at birth.”

“Did you do bottom, too? Bottom surgery?” we asked.

“I’m waiting for that one,” Jacqueline replied.

(The California Department of Health Care Services, which administers the Medi-Cal program, did not respond to our request for comment.)

Sometimes, clinics hide these policies under euphemisms; other times, however, they are more explicit.

At the end of our trip, we visited a third government-funded shelter, the Taimon Booton Navigation Center, which is focused on “transgender, gender non-conforming & intersex people.” (The center does not post its address publicly and displays a sign referring to what appears to be its former name, the “Bryant Street Navigation Center.”)

Outside the facility, which did not respond to our request for comment, we met a group of male-to-female transgender illegal aliens, who told us that they wanted to receive transgender medical treatment. 

When most Californians think about “homeless services,” they imagine that their tax dollars are going to support veterans, families, and those who have fallen on hard times.

But in San Francisco, the reality is that some homeless shelters have apparently turned into havens for transgender-identifying illegal aliens, who can receive “gender-affirming care” on the taxpayers’ dime.

Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and the author of America’s Cultural Revolution. Jonathan Choe is director of the Center on Wealth & Poverty at Discovery Institute.