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2026 Legislative & Budget Priorities

In 2026, LGBTQ Caucus Members voted to approve priority and endorsed legislative packages.

The priority and endorsed packages cover top issues impacting our communities across California, including: Health and Mental Health Supports; Enhancing Supports in Education; Enhancing Public Safety; Supporting Families; Supporting Veterans; Combatting Hate; and Data Privacy.

“Sponsored” Priorities (in numerical order)

AB 1540 (Mark González) – Restore LGBTQ+ 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline

  • Restores the “Press 3” 988 LGBTQ+ Youth Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, backfilling a program that was eliminated by the Trump Administration.
  • Bucket: Health & Mental Health Supports

AB 1775 (Ward) – Support for Discharged Service Members

  • Provides critical housing, employment, and transition-to-civilian-life support for service members being discharged from the U.S. military as a result of President Donald Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14183, which targets transgender service members.
  • Bucket: Supporting Veterans

AB 1930 (Zbur) – Defending Protected Health Care in California

  • Requires business entities in California, including providers and healthcare institutions, to notify the office of the California Attorney General (AG) when they receive a subpoena regarding protected healthcare activity, and will also authorize the AG to respond and intervene.
  • Bucket: Data Privacy

SB 934 (Wiener) – Safeguards for Conversion Therapy Survivors

  • Extends the statute of limitations so survivors of conversion therapy can pursue civil legal claims against licensed mental health providers who subjected them to these harmful and discredited practices.
  • Bucket: Health & Mental Health Supports

SB 957 (Pérez) – Stopping Harmful Information Exploitation and Lawless Data-sharing (SHIELD) Act

  • Strengthens user data protections by requiring social media companies to notify individuals when the federal government seeks their personal information through an administrative subpoena.

  • Bucket: Data Privacy

SB 1023 (Laird) – Enhanced Access to PrEP

  • Supports PrEP access during a time when the federal administration is rolling back support for HIV services.
  • Bucket: Health & Mental Health Supports

SB 1101 (Pérez) – Higher Education Data Sharing Transparency Act

  • Requires colleges and universities to notify students, faculty and staff when their personal information is shared with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and limits such disclosures to what is legally required, while specifying the type of information released.

  • Bucket: Data Privacy

SB 1114 (Cabaldon) – SOGI Data Privacy

  • Strengthens privacy protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex (SOGI) data by limiting agencies from sharing SOGI data unless required by federal law or subject to a subpoena or warrant enforceable in California
  • Bucket: Data Privacy

SB 1328 (Cervantes) – LGBTQ+ Higher Education Equity for Satellite Campuses

  • Extends existing higher education equity provisions to ensure students at satellite campuses have the opportunity to succeed in a safe and supportive educational environment.
  • Bucket: Enhancing Supports in Education

“Supported” Endorsements (in numerical order)

AB 908 (Solache) – LIFT Act** [TWO-YEAR BILL]

  • Requires the existing requirement of inclusive school instructional material and school curriculum, pursuant to EDC 51204.5, to be included in the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s existing compliance monitoring of sex discrimination.
  • Bucket: Enhancing Supports in Education

AB 1578 (Jackson) – Anti-Hate Speech Training

  • Requires state and local officials to take specified anti-hate speech training.
  • Bucket: Combatting Hate

AB 1836 (Gabriel and Ward) – Non-Profit Security Grant Program

  • Allows California’s Non-Profit Security Grant Program to allow funding for security at community events hosted by non-profits, including LGBTQ+ Prides.
  • Bucket: Enhancing Public Safety

AB 1876 (Addis) – Fair Care for All Act

  • Codifies the Section1557 ACA nondiscrimination protections in health care.
  • Bucket: Health & Mental Health Supports

AB 2014 (Elhawary) –Preventing Gender Bias in Criminal Trials

  • Implementing a key recommendation from the California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code in order to address gender bias in criminal trials. Specifically, this bill would authorize a writ of habeas corpus to be prosecuted where the conviction was based on evidence or argument that likely triggered gender-based stereotypes at trial in a manner that created a reasonable probability that the outcome would have been different if such evidence was not admitted or argument offered.
  • Bucket: Enhancing Public Safety

AB 2164 (Bauer-Kahan) – Care Without Fear Act

  • Prohibits future Governors from recognizing a request for extradition of a person providing or aiding legally protected reproductive health care services or gender affirming care services in California.
  • Bucket: Enhancing Public Safety

SB 998 (Lena Gonzalez) – Discrimination Prevention Coordinators

  • Spells out the responsibilities of the education discrimination prevention coordinators, including the LGBTQ+ Discrimination Prevention Coordinator.
  • Bucket: Enhancing Supports inEducation

SB 1149 (Durazo) – Bereavement Leave for Chosen Families

  • Expand bereavement leave for chosen families, inclusive of LGBTQ+ families.
  • Bucket: Supporting Families

 

 

Budget Priorities: 

Gender-Affirming Care Trust Fund (One-Time, GF) – 

This #1 budget priority establishes a state-backed fund to support gender-affirming health care in California. $1 Million would be for the State-Only Medi-Cal Coverage and Billing Pathway, and $25 Million for the Provider Network Stabilization and Uncompensated Care Grants. This one-time, narrowly targeted investment will serve as a critical bridge to stabilize California’s gender-affirming care delivery system in order to prevent irreversible provider withdrawals, protecting patients from dangerous gaps in care, and ensuring continued compliance with California’s nondiscrimination and coverage mandates. Despite California’s strong legal protections, escalating federal actions – including proposed rules by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to bar Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender-affirming care and penalize hospitals that provide it – have destabilized care for transgender youth and created widespread uncertainty around the use of federal funds. The impact is already being felt as a number of hospitals have ended or scaled back services, leaving thousands of patients without care and overwhelming community providers. At the same time, federal coverage rollbacks across programs like TRICARE and the VA have further strained the system, creating a chilling effect that threatens continued access to medically necessary care statewide without targeted state intervention. The Gender-Affirming Care Trust Fund, therefore, is our most critical, life-saving investment needed in order to support transgender youth and their families as well as the providers who serve to provide the utmost health care for their patents.   

 

Supporting Transgender Discharged Service Members (One-Time, GF) – 

This budget priority, in coordination with AB 1775, would support service members discharged under Trump’s recent transgender military ban by investing $500K into funding the discharge upgrade program, and  $5M to support veterans losing their military housing due to being discharged/separated from service. 

 

ADAP Backfills to Federal Cuts (One-Time, Special Fund: ADAP Rebate Fund) – 

This budget priority would provide a reinvestment of ADAP Rebate Funds in order to support various services for those living and at risk of HIV, especially services impacted by loss of federal funds: $33.8M: PrEP & PEP Initiation Initiative (PPIRI); $14.5M: Rapid Antiretroviral therapy (ART) Projects; $14.1M: Project Cornerstone;  $30M: Routine HIV, Viral Hepatitis, and Syphilis Testing in California’s Emergency Rooms;  $550K: Delivery of Training on the new Hepatitis C (HCV) point-of-care (POC) RNA Test; and, $18.6M: Disease Investigation Workforce. 

 

California Community Colleges’ LGBTQ+ Centers (Special Fund: Prop 98) –

This budget priority would renew funding to support LGBTQ+ centers on California Community College Campuses. 

 

LGBTQ+ Community Centers (One-Time: GF) – 

This budget priority would provide critical funds to support all of the LGBTQ+ community centers across California experiencing a loss of federal funds. 

 

California “Press 3” / LGBTQ+-Dedicated Suicide Prevention Hotline (Special Fund: 988 State Suicide and Behavioral Health Crisis Services Fund) – 

In response to the Trump Administration eliminating the LGBTQ+-dedicated Suicide Prevention & Crisis Hotline, this budget priority, in coordination with AB 1540, would restore the “Press 3” LGBTQ+-Dedicated Suicide Prevention & Crisis Hotline in California.