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By Jordan King
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California state Senator Scott Wiener was confronted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators over his stance on Israel and Gaza while attending San Francisco's Trans March, with footage showing activists following him through the event and urging him to leave.
Video of the confrontation, posted to X and viewed more than 5 million times, shows several demonstrators surrounding Wiener, who is Jewish, slamming his position on Gaza, shouting profanities and chants against "Zionists," and following him while he leaves the park.
It took place at the San Francisco Trans March, an annual community-led transgender rights march and rally, on Friday.
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Wiener described the incident as including physical intimidation, saying he left the event for safety reasons.
In an X post on Saturday, he said a group “ran up to me, surrounded me, and began harassing me, both verbally and physically, including physical contact.” He added that the situation escalated to the point that “it was impossible for me to safely remain in the park,” and said it marked the first time he had been unable to participate in the Trans March.
"They made statements about my ‘Israeli handlers,’ among many other inaccurate, extreme, and vile statements," he wrote.
Wiener also described a separate incident earlier in the week, in which a man allegedly cornered him and staffers at a bar while shouting abuse before being ejected.
“When opposition and disagreement transition to harassment...that crosses a line,” Wiener wrote.
Trans March organizers later defended the confrontation and accused Wiener of using the incident to advance his political campaign. In a June 30 statement to Newsweek, they said members of the public have long challenged elected officials at the annual event and argued that "holding politicians accountable is nothing new." The organizers also said Wiener "was at no point in danger" during Friday's encounter.
When Newsweek contacted Wiener’s office, it was directed to his statement online. Newsweek has contacted the San Francisco Police Department, via email outside of normal working hours, for comment.
'You've Been Terrible on Gaza'
It comes as Wiener campaigns to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in California's heavily Democratic 11th Congressional District after she announced she would not seek reelection. The crowded race has drawn several prominent Democrats and has put Wiener's record on issues including housing, LGBTQ rights and the Israel-Gaza war under increased scrutiny.
The footage shows the person filming Wiener telling him: “Scott, I think your legislation on trans issues….is fantastic and I really applaud you for that, and I think you deserve to be here for that, but I think your…policy on the genocide in Gaza is terrible. I think you do not belong here.”
Warning: This video contains strong language.
During this speech, several other people join in on confronting Wiener, with some wearing balaclavas, shouting as they follow him through the park.
One person can be heard yelling “we f***ing hate you, you piece of s**t” while another says: “Get the f**k out of here.”
“You’ve been wonderful for trans people,” the person filming says, “and you’ve been terrible on Gaza. You do not belong here anymore Scott and it breaks my heart,” they add.
Another person in a balaclava can be seen walking next to Wiener as they shout: “Everybody f***ing hates you.”
Wiener remains silent throughout the interaction, even after the person filming asks: “Scott do you have anything to say about Gaza? How can you do this to San Francisco?”
Demonstrators follow Wiener out of the park and continue yelling expletives at him, calling him a “piece of s**t” and blasting “Zionists.”
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'Broken Man Walking Away Defeated'
The clip was posted by Dimitry Yakoushkin, who often posts progressive political views on X, especially pro-LGTBQ views.
“Scott Wiener showed up to the trans march and for the first time we kicked his a** out,” Yakoushkin said. “It's sad because while he's written some good legislation for queers, hes ultimately a genocidal-supporting center right shill. Trigger warning: broken man walking away defeated.”
Yakoushkin has also posted support for one of Weiner’s opponents, Democrat Connie Chan, but there is nothing to suggest they are a representative of Chan’s campaign. Newsweek has contacted Chan’s office, via email outside of normal working hours, for comment.
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Trans March Responds
In a statement to Newsweek, San Francisco Trans March said: "Immediately following the incident, instead of engaging Trans March directly to resolve his concerns, Senator Scott Wiener's campaign went to social media and used the confrontation in fundraising communications."
It then spoke out against what it called a "disproportionate response from SFPD inflicted upon transgender people, children, families, and their allies on Friday night."
According to the San Francisco Police Department and multiple local reports, the Trans March ended in clashes between marchers and police in the Tenderloin after officers attempted to arrest someone suspected of spray-painting a building. Police said one suspect had also assaulted another person with paint. When other marchers tried to stop the arrest, officers and protesters clashed. Five people were arrested, and SFPD said two officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the nonprofit Local News Matters reported.
"The role of Trans March and the greater movement for trans liberation is to focus on the material conditions affecting transgender people," it said. "Across the country, transgender people are facing an unprecedented wave of legislative and legal attacks on our rights and our humanity."
"Participation comes with shared expectations," it added. "Trans March is a community-led event rooted in transgender liberation. Everyone is welcome to participate, provided they respect our values, follow the direction of organizers and our safety team, and recognize that this space is led by and for the community. We welcome allies who come to listen, learn, and stand in solidarity because collective liberation remains our north star."
How People Reacted
Multiple people from both sides of the political aisle have spoken out against how Wiener was confronted, with several conservative figures arguing it is illustrative of a "civil war" in the Democratic Party.
Conservative activist Amy Reichert said the video showed Wiener "being attacked by his own," adding: "I’ve been saying this for a while: the Democratic Party is in a civil war, and the far left socialist wing is winning."
"Normally, I’d celebrate the left devouring itself," Reichert said. "But this is different. If the socialist wing takes control in California, and I believe it will, Republicans won’t be the only target. Moderate Democrats will be next, labeled 'Nazis,' 'fascists,' and 'racists' for refusing to fall in line."
"Moderate Dems, The Purge has begun," she said. "Your time is up and you have no one to blame but yourself for allowing this hateful rhetoric in the first place."
Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt shared a previous post from Wiener calling him "Mayor McBigot" with the video and said: "Hey, Wiener guy! Remember when you called me a 'McBigot'? How does it feel now that the Frankenstein you created is coming for you? Every stupid communist learns this history lesson the hard way. Enjoy!"
The Combat Antisemitism Movement also shared the clip with the caption: "Jewish lawmaker Scott Wiener, a longtime LGBTQ+ advocate & Pelosi successor candidate, was chased out of a trans march by anti-Israel activists."
Democratic U.S. representative for California's 15th Congressional District, Kevin Mullin, shared Wiener's statement and said: "What happened to Senator Scott Wiener last night was unacceptable. Here in the Bay Area we have a long and proud history of heated protest and passionate disagreement; last night was not that. There is simply no place for hate speech, harassment, and violence - in our politics or elsewhere."
"No matter your beliefs, no one should be threatened or intimidated for simply showing up for their community. Elected officials and candidates for office do not lose their right to basic human decency," Mullin said.
How Wiener's Position on Gaza Has Changed
For much of the Israel-Hamas war, Wiener was an outspoken critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, condemning the scale of destruction in Gaza but he has repeatedly stopped short of describing Israel's actions as genocide.
That changed in January this year. After declining to answer whether he believed Israel was committing genocide during a congressional candidate forum, Wiener released a video days later saying he had changed his view. "I do believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza," he said, adding that the Israeli government had sought "to destroy Gaza and to push Palestinians out."
He said that he had not wanted to use the word before because of its sensitive connection to the Holocaust.
“As a Jew, I am deeply aware that the word genocide was created in the wake of the Holocaust, which was the industrial extermination of 6 million Jews,” he said. “For many Jews, associating the word genocide with the Jewish state of Israel, is deeply painful and frankly traumatic.”
“But despite that pain and that trauma, we all have eyes and we see the absolute devastation and catastrophic death toll in Gaza,” he said.
Israel has been accused of committing genocide in Gaza by human-rights organizations and global experts, which it denies.
Despite this shift, Wiener has continued to support Israel's right to exist, telling the nonprofit Jewish news organization, Jewish News of Northern California: “Israel really matters to me as a Jew—it’s home to half of all Jews on the planet.”
“I’ve been very clear from the beginning of this campaign what my stance is,” he said. “I support funding for Israel’s defense, Iron Dome, David’s Sling, etc. I continue to support that. I do not support selling offensive arms to a government not committed to peace. So I’m not going to support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities.”
He went on to say that he hopes in the future “we have a government in Israel that is committed to peace and democracy.”
Wiener's LGBTQ Record
Although the demonstrators condemned Wiener over Gaza, the person filming the incident repeatedly acknowledged his long record of advancing LGBTQ rights in California.
Since joining the Legislature, Wiener has authored or backed a series of bills expanding protections for LGBTQ Californians. In 2022, he wrote SB 107, which established California as a refuge for transgender people and their families by limiting cooperation with out-of-state investigations into gender-affirming care.
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In 2025, he introduced SB 497 to strengthen those protections, including by increasing safeguards around sensitive medical records and expanding California's transgender "shield laws."
Wiener has also championed legislation affecting the wider LGBTQ community, including measures to improve access to HIV prevention medication, protect LGBTQ seniors in long-term care facilities from discrimination and create a nonbinary gender marker on California identification documents. He previously served as chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus.
Update 7/1/26, 9:12 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from organizers of the San Francisco Trans March.
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