Scott Wiener is a Democratic member of the California Senate and a prominent gay politician who has championed significant state legislation to expand the rights of transgender people.<\/p>\n
But late Friday afternoon, as Mr. Wiener was on his way to a Pride Shabbat service led by a trans rabbi, he was run out of San Francisco\u2019s annual Trans March by protesters accusing him of endorsing genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n
A man named Dimitry Yakoushkin filmed Mr. Wiener, castigating him for being \u201cterrible on Gaza,\u201d the video Mr. Yakoushkin later posted to social media shows. A half-dozen or so other people follow along, yelling a steady stream of invective at Mr. Wiener, profanely accusing him of being \u201cgenocidal\u201d and having \u201cZionist handlers.\u201d One waves a middle finger in his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do not belong here anymore, Scott,\u201d Mr. Yakoushkin shouted. \u201cI want to support someone who\u2019s so positive on trans rights, but you\u2019re a piece of shit on Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Wiener, a front-runner in the race to replace the retiring Nancy Pelosi in the House, said that protesters never shoved or grabbed him, but that they did touch him multiple times. At that point, he said, he decided that attending Shabbat and the march could endanger him and his staff. \u201cIt was the first trans march that I have not participated in since the first one in 2004,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Debates over transgender rights and over U.S. support for Israel have divided the Democratic Party, with the war in Gaza growing especially contentious in recent months. Polls have found Israel and its government becoming increasingly unpopular with Democratic voters. Mr. Wiener has defended Israel\u2019s right to exist, but criticized its actions in Gaza and has said it should not receive U.S. military aid.<\/p>\n
Those fissures have manifested in a series of House primaries this year pitting the pro-Palestinian progressive wing of the party against more moderate Democrats who support Israel, backed by a flood of money from hard-line pro-Israel groups. This week, the pro-Palestinian side scored major wins in New York, when two vocal critics of the war, Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier, ousted incumbent Democrats who have been supportive of Israel. A third pro-Palestinian candidate, Claire Valdez, also won her primary.<\/p>\n
During his victory speech<\/a>, Mr. Lander said that Democrats need not choose between supporting Palestinian rights and taking care of marginalized groups at home. \u201cSolidarity is not the same as unity,\u201d he said. \u201cUnity means we already agree. Solidarity means we do the work to build bridges even across significant differences.\u201d<\/p>\n But in San Francisco, the episode with Mr. Wiener reflected how intensely some left-wing activists, emboldened by a surge of popular support for some progressive policy positions, are pushing veteran politicians to adopt their positions on a variety of fraught issues.<\/p>\n Mr. Wiener has been one of the most outspoken politicians in support of transgender rights \u2014 a wedge issue that many other Democrats have distanced themselves from as Republicans have made it an electoral liability \u2014 but that has not insulated him from criticism from the left on other issues like Gaza.<\/p>\n In a deep-blue district with two Democrats on the ballot in November, Mr. Wiener faces a fierce challenge from Connie Chan, a progressive San Francisco supervisor who has Ms. Pelosi\u2019s endorsement. (Ms. Pelosi did not vote against aid to Israel, America\u2019s strongest ally in the Middle East, and said that the F.B.I. should investigate whether some pro-Palestine protesters were connected to Russia<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Both Mr. Wiener and Ms. Chan have now called the war in Gaza a genocide, and Mr. Wiener has said that he opposes military aid to Israel. Critics said that Mr. Wiener took those positions only in response to political pressure.<\/p>\n More than five million people have seen Mr. Yakoushkin\u2019s video, which also underscores the normalization of the threats and intimidating acts that some politicians have faced.<\/p>\n This week, Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary, said that someone had falsely accused him<\/a> of posing a danger to his young children.<\/p>\n Mr. Wiener said that he would be filing a police report about the encounter at Dolores Park.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m used to being recorded, but then I could hear there was a group of people \u2014 a large number started shouting my name,\u201d Mr. Wiener said. \u201cThey were sort of surrounding me, not preventing me from walking, but following along, screaming, saying horrible, vile, false things about my quote-unquote Israeli handlers.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Mr. Yakoushkin, a 49-year-old sex and intimacy<\/a> coach<\/a>, said that he did not see the episode as harassment, but merely constituents who were engaging with a politician.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that he feels, like, physically intimidated by his constituents,\u201d Mr. Yakoushkin said. \u201cIf that\u2019s the case, you should probably look for a different job.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Yakoushkin, a political activist who supports Ms. Chan for Congress, said that he also disagreed with Mr. Wiener\u2019s housing policies, even though he believed the senator had passed important legislation for the state\u2019s gay and trans community.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s up to voters to decide whether to compromise,\u201d Mr. Yakoushkin said. \u201cI would not.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Wiener had been targeted by activists just two days before the Trans March event, when San Francisco police removed a man named Jesus Coba from the bar where Mr. Wiener was watching a World Cup game. Mr. Coba, who took a video<\/a> of the encounter and posted it to social media, berated Mr. Wiener for not saying \u201cfree Palestine\u201d on camera.<\/p>\n In 2024, Mr. Coba had followed Mr. Wiener as he exited a plane and said, \u201cremember me\u201d before asking him to comment<\/a> on the children who had been killed in Gaza.<\/p>\n Mr. Wiener, who has criticized the war in Gaza, said that he believed that voters in the district want a champion for trans rights and for the rights of Palestinians. \u201cSupporting the trans community is a very, very high priority for me,\u201d Mr. Wiener said. He said his support for trans rights had also led to death threats and targeting from political activists and influencers, but on the far right.<\/p>\n While Mr. Wiener has the backing of several unions and important Democratic organizations and is one of the country\u2019s most prominent supporters of trans rights, he has been criticized by the left as insufficiently progressive for San Francisco.<\/p>\n His opponents have pointed to support his campaign received in the primary from a super PAC tied to the tech industry. J Street, a more liberal and less hard-line pro-Israel group, also spent money supporting his candidacy.<\/p>\n Mr. Wiener, whose family fled the pogroms in Eastern Europe, has always supported Israel\u2019s right to exist, but has been a critic of Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n Two years before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, he said that Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s \u201caggressive, escalating airstrikes\u201d in Gaza were \u201cmaking both Palestinians and Israelis less safe, and jeopardizing world support for a nation that absolutely must continue to exist as a democratic haven for Jews around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n When Mr. Wiener announced his run for Congress last fall, he had moved further to the left, saying he would vote against military aid to Israel, an issue that has split Democrats.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, this February, activists surrounded Mr. Wiener in a car and yelled that he was \u201cfunding genocide,\u201d acting as a \u201cgenocide profiteer\u201d and \u201ckilling babies.\u201d (As a member of the California Legislature, Mr. Wiener does not have the power to send U.S. military aid to Israel.)<\/p>\n