Newsom breaks with Democrats on Transgender Athletes
Gavin Newsom has pivoted on some of his stances in a way that is leaving many democrats furious.
Newsom, the Governor of California since 2019, has long been a popular figure for his outspokenness against the first Trump administration. Since 2020, people have speculated he may be a future presidential candidate.
Recently, he launched a podcast, in which he is dedicated to having conservative and liberal guests on. Newsom stated that he wants to be able to reach out to those to disagree with him and have an honest conversation.
On the first episode he invited conservative media personality Charlie Kirk. During the podcast, he was pressed by Kirk to give his opinion on trans athletes competing in high school girls sports. Newsom said that he agreed that it was unfair, supporting Kirk’s stance on the issue.
Many were stunned that Newsom, a man who used to officiate gay weddings before they were legal in California, would come out against trans athletes.
While attacks from the left piled in, calling Newsom bigoted and misinformed, polls show that he’s in the majority opinion. According to a poll from Gallup News, 69% of Americans say that trans athletes should have to play on the team of their assigned sex at birth, up from 62% in 2021.
This is all on the backdrop of Harris’s loss to Trump in the presidential election, and democrats scrambling to figure out what went wrong. Newsom seems to think that a major reason was Trumps attacks on trans people, saying that she never responded to the infamous “Harris is for they/them, Trump is for you ad.”
Newsom seems to think that Democrats need to talk about this issue less, or risk even more political backlash in the future.
