On this first episode of a brand new podcast printed Thursday, California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, an LGBTQ ally, broke together with his get together, saying that transgender athletes enjoying in feminine sports activities is “deeply unfair.”
“I feel it is a difficulty of equity. I fully agree with you on that. It is a matter of equity. It is deeply unfair,” Newsom mentioned on his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom.”
Newsom’s feedback got here throughout a dialog with conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who leads conservative group Turning Level USA and performed a vital position in garnering youth help for President Donald Trump within the 2024 election.
Newsom, generally seen as a 2028 presidential hopeful, additionally agreed that the political advert that damage former Vice President Kamala Harris probably the most in her presidential marketing campaign was her earlier help for offering taxpayer-funded gender transition-related medical take care of detained immigrants and federal prisoners. Trump’s marketing campaign had performed again her remarks in a widely-circulated ad.
“She did not even react to it, which was much more devastating,” Newsom mentioned.
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at East Los Angeles Faculty, on Feb. 26, 2025, in Monterey Park, Calif.
Mario Tama/Getty Photographs
Newsom additionally pointed to his personal work in increasing LGBTQ rights, whereas referencing present regulation within the state of California that enables transgender athletes to take part in class sports activities that mirror the gender they establish with.
Newsom himself was a trailblazer in increasing LGBTQ rights: in 2004, as mayor of San Francisco, he allowed same-sex marriages to proceed despite the fact that they weren’t but allowed nationwide.
He referenced that second whereas discussing his alignment with Kirk’s views on transgender athletes in girls’s sports activities.
“I have been a frontrunner within the LGBTQ locations, as, you already know, again in 2004 [I] was marrying identical intercourse {couples}. And I do know we’ve [a] distinction [of] opinion on marriage equality, and so I have been at this for years and years, I take a backseat to nobody,” Newsom mentioned, earlier than discussing how he heard individuals speaking about transgender athletes.
A group of small Pleasure Flags, and Transgender Pleasure Flags, April 6, 2021, in Studying, PA.
Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Studying Eagle by way of Getty Photographs, FILE
On the podcast, Newsom additionally referred to as for compassion towards transgender people, even whereas discussing the sports activities difficulty: “There’s additionally humility and charm. You already know, that, these poor individuals are extra more likely to commit suicide, have nervousness and despair, and the way in which that individuals discuss all the way down to susceptible communities is a matter that I’ve a tough time with as properly.”
LGBTQ rights teams criticized Newsom’s remarks, saying that they got here amid nationwide backlash to transgender people and their rights.
The Human Rights Marketing campaign, a significant nationwide LGBTQ rights advocacy and lobbying group, mentioned in a press release shared on social media that with discussions nationwide in legislatures about limiting same-sex marriage or transgender rights, “this isn’t a second to sit down politely within the face of authoritarian bullies or throw individuals below the bus for political posturing.”
“Singling out trans children to attain political factors isn’t going to assist somebody pay their hire, maintain Medicaid or get a job, however it’ll make it appear to be Gov. Newsom believes our civil rights are up for grabs,” the group wrote. “Californians – and ALL Individuals – want leaders who’ve braveness of their convictions, and who will present up for them, within the faces of people that need to see us all again within the closet.”
The group additionally pointed to a 2013 regulation in California that allowed college students to be a part of sport groups matching their very own gender id. The American Civil Liberties Union praised the law in 2013 as “making certain transgender youth have the chance to totally take part and achieve faculties throughout the state.”
Newsom briefly referenced the regulation in his dialogue with Kirk, highlighting that it was handed earlier than he grew to become governor.
Two members of the California state legislature, Assemblymember Chris Ward and state Sen. Caroline Menjivar, released a statement by the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus criticizing Newsom’s remarks as properly, saying they had been “profoundly sickened and pissed off” by what he mentioned.
“Generally Gavin Newsom goes for the Profile in Braveness, generally not,” they wrote. “We awakened profoundly sickened and pissed off by these remarks. All college students deserve the tutorial and well being advantages of sports activities exercise, and till Donald Trump started obsessing about it, enjoying on a staff according to one’s gender has not been an issue since the usual was handed in 2013.”
President Donald Trump indicators the No Males in Ladies’s Sports activities Govt Order into regulation within the East Room of the White Home in Washington, Feb. 5, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Newsom’s remarks got here only a month after Trump signed an executive order intending on banning transgender athletes from collaborating in girls’s sports activities. The White Home has mentioned the motion is supposed to guard girls in sports activities from hurt and from dealing with opponents who they are saying have an unfair benefit.
LGBTQ advocacy teams have criticized the administration’s motion and common rhetoric as discriminatory and as having razor-sharp deal with problems with transgender rights to the exclusion of financial and different points.
