A month ago, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) raised eyebrows with comments he made about what he called the “unfairness” of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
“Well, I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair,” he told conservative influencer Charlie Kirk on the inaugural episode of the Gavin Newsom podcast.
It was a point he reiterated throughout their back and forth, with Newsom also noting that it was one of those “80/20” issues Democrats were “getting crushed on.”
It was a clear attempt at trying to make himself appear more moderate on the issue than he actually is – perhaps with 2028 considerations in mind. But he told the Los Angeles Times a few weeks later, after taking heat from LGBTQ activists, that he said it because Kirk put him under pressure to say something:
The governor said the moment happened organically after Kirk “pushed so hard” on the topic and referenced a California transgender high school athlete who beat their competitors by 8 feet in the triple jump.“And then asked me, ‘Tell me, that’s not fair?’ And I looked at him, I said, ‘You’re right. That’s not,’” Newsom said. “And so it wasn’t some grand design. And I know, I know that hurt a lot of people. But respectfully, I just disagree with those on the other side of this.”
And just days after the Times interview, and in the context of California Democrat lawmakers torpedoing two Republican-backed bills in committee that addressed the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sports, Newsom admitted he had no plan to deal with what he labeled as the “unfairness” of women having to compete against men because he couldn’t find a way to make it “fair” for both sides:
Asked about bills voted down in committee the day before in the California Legislature to keep biological males from competing in women’s sports, Newsom said: “I didn’t pay any attention to the committee yesterday.”
He then said he doesn’t have any policy proposal in mind regarding transgender athletes. “We tried to figure out how to balance this. Is there a way to make this work?” Newsom said of the competing interests at play. “We literally were talking to some International Olympic Committee experts … We were trying to figure this out, and couldn’t figure it out. And that’s my point of view—that I just couldn’t figure out how to, quote, unquote, make this fair.”
This is an issue that could dog Newsom in a 2028 Democratic primary and general election—raising questions not only about his ideology but his authenticity and fortitude.
Right after that, Newsom shifted to talking about how the LGBTQ community has no bigger ally than him.
Watch:
This isn’t a hard thing to rectify at all. But because Newsom wants to have it both ways on this, his way of getting out of it is to stick with the California status quo on so-called transgender rights, ostensibly because he can’t figure out a way to make it work for transgender athletes and female athletes.
Right.
This is otherwise known as the coward’s way out, and come 2028, Republicans shouldn’t hesitate to remind voters of Newsom’s dismal track record in the event he tries to straddle the fence once again.
-Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter/X.-
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