The front-runner to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress got chased out of his own city's Trans March by the very coalition he spent his career building. California State Sen. Scott Wiener was surrounded and berated by masked activists Friday in San Francisco — not over his gender legislation, but over Israel.
The episode lays bare the fault line running through the progressive movement: the intersectional coalition is devouring itself, and no amount of woke credentials will save you if you fall short on the party's latest litmus test.
Wiener, who is gay and Jewish, walked through the park as one activist initially praised his work on trans issues — then turned on him. "You've been terrible, you've been terrible on Gaza," the person shouted, according to video posted by Dimitry Yakoushkin. "You do not belong here anymore, Scott. And it breaks my f—ing heart. It breaks my heart that someone who wrote your legislation for queers is so f—ing terrible on Gaza, Scott."
Another activist stuck a middle finger in Wiener's face as he retreated. One declared he had "stopped being queer the moment he started supporting Israel," the New York Post reported. Yakoushkin wrote on X: "Scott Wiener showed up to the trans march and for the first time we kicked his a— out."
The Daily Caller noted the crowd screamed "we f—ing hate you" and accused Wiener of backing a "genocide in Gaza." The anger traced entirely to his stance on Israel — not to anything he did or didn't do on transgender policy.
This wasn't a one-off. Two days earlier, activist Jesus "Frisco Lens" Coba confronted Wiener inside the Napper Tandy Irish bar during a World Cup match. "Wiener, you gotta get the f—k up out my hood, bro," Coba said. "It's free Palestine here, you already know what it is, we are against the genocide." That clip drew more than 198,000 views on Instagram within a day.
Wiener had long resisted labeling Israel's military campaign a genocide before reversing himself in January. "I do believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza," he said at the time, according to the Post. "To me the Israeli government has tried to destroy Gaza and to push Palestinians out. And that qualifies as genocide." The flip wasn't enough.
Wiener took a commanding lead in the June primary and faces Supervisor Connie Chan — who carries Pelosi's endorsement — in November. The old guard and the new activists are now at open war over what the coalition stands for and who gets to belong.
The question for ordinary Americans watching from outside the bubble: when a movement demands total conformity on every issue — foreign wars included — what exactly is left of the coalition? And who decides when you've crossed the line?
