California has officially gone off the deep end. The state is now requiring business owners to prove they are “gay enough” before qualifying for hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded government contracts, according to a bombshell report from Townhall, which cited original reporting by City Journal. That is not a parody. That is not a misprint. That is exactly what is happening in the most progressive state in the nation, and it should alarm every single American taxpayer.
Here is how this insanity came to be. Years of radical Democrat leadership in Sacramento, constantly pushing the boundaries of left-wing social engineering, eventually produced a program through the California Public Utilities Commission that funnels $633 million exclusively to businesses owned by gay or transgender individuals. Activist groups had pressured state officials with claims of widespread anti-gay discrimination among utility companies, and rather than investigate those claims with any real scrutiny, Democrats simply opened the government checkbook and handed it over based on identity.
To cash in on this massive DEI windfall, applicants must complete an “LGBTBE Certification” process that includes a deeply invasive questionnaire. We are talking about questions involving marriage licenses, what the program describes as “completed or attempted parenting efforts,” evidence of transition surgery, and even a letter of approval from a so-called “recognized LGBT organization.” In other words, a government-appointed panel is now in the business of deciding whether you are authentically gay enough to deserve public money. If that does not strike you as unconstitutional, you have not been paying attention.
And if you think about gaming the system to access these contracts without meeting the ideological checklist, think again. The penalty for submitting false claims is a $5,000 fine and up to one year behind bars. So California will imprison you for lying about your sexual orientation on a government form, but has spent years refusing to fully cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. The priorities of this state speak for themselves.
Legal experts and conservatives across the country are now raising serious questions about whether this program violates equal protection laws and federal contracting standards. This is exactly the kind of government overreach that President Trump has been fighting since day one, pushing back against DEI programs that treat Americans differently based on identity rather than merit. California may think it can buy political loyalty with taxpayer dollars, but the American people are watching, and the reckoning for this brand of radical governance is coming.
Source: townhall.com