(José Niño, Headline USA) California State Senator Scott Wiener informed CBS News that pro-Palestinian demonstrators who accosted him at San Francisco’s Trans March deployed antisemitic rhetoric that “went beyond free speech,” Information Liberation reported on X.
“They [said] I have ‘Israeli handlers’—which is a classic anti-Semitic trope,” Wiener explained during his appearance on CBS News anchor Major Garrett’s podcast “The Takeout.”
The altercation took place last Saturday, as Wiener crossed Dolores Park en route to a trans-led Pride Shabbat observance tied to the annual Trans March. The homosexual Jewish Democrat seeking to fill retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., seat had participated in the event annually since its 2004 inception.
Footage that spread rapidly online depicted protesters encircling Wiener, hurling profanities and insults while recording him. Activist Dimitry Yakoushkin recognized Wiener’s extensive pro-trans record before assailing him regarding Gaza. “It breaks my heart that someone who wrote your legislation for queers is so f—ing terrible on Gaza, Scott,” Yakoushkin declared. Demonstrators branded Wiener “genocidal,” gestured obscenely, and alleged he possessed “Israeli handlers” and “Zionist handlers.”
Wiener departed the park and broke his 22-year attendance streak at the Trans March. He submitted a police report concerning the physical contact.
His campaign spokesperson informed J Weekly it was “clear that the intentions were antisemitic and that their goal was to push Senator Wiener out of the march because of his Jewish background.”
Wiener stands among California’s most accomplished LGBTQ rights legislators and had previously characterized Israel’s conduct in Gaza as “genocide” earlier in 2026, generating pushback from Bay Area Jewish groups, as the CNN reported. The activists drove out a Jewish trans-rights champion who had already embraced their stance on Gaza.
As J Weekly, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie labeled the protesters’ words “targeted, hateful, and antisemitic.” The California Legislative Jewish Caucus characterized the incident as part of a “broader effort to exclude, isolate, and ostracize him because of his Jewish identity.” The American Jewish Committee’s Northern California chapter denounced the “acts of intimidation rooted in age-old antisemitic tropes.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
