SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – California Gov. Gavin Newsom shocked many in his own party when he said that it is “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports on the first episode of his new podcast. According to a political insider, the comments are all “show business.”
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“It’s called show business – politics and show business,” said KCBS Radio political insider Phil Matier. “Gavin Newsom is out to launch a new podcast. It’s a very competitive field out there. You got to make an impression, and he did. His remarks are being re-tweeted, re-reported from here to London and back.”
Shortly after the “This is Gavin Newsom” episode with guest Charlie Kirk – a conservative activist – launched, David Trujillo, executive director at ACLU California Action, responded with a statement.
“Governor Newsom has previously been a champion of LGBTQ+ rights, which makes his comments even more shocking and disappointing,’ Trujillo said. “Fearmongering about transgender student-athletes is part of a broader nationwide effort by extremist politicians to exert more control over our bodies, families, and lives. At a moment when our trans loved ones are under attack, Governor Newsom should be uplifting and enforcing the protections transgender individuals, and transgender youth in particular, have in our state.”
While many people who responded to Newsom’s comments online were also critical of his apparent shift, Matier doesn’t think Newsom’s comments will hurt the politician.
“I mean, the people that are going to come out against it or be screaming about it, they weren’t necessarily going to help him to begin with,” he said. Matier added that Newsom and other centrist Democrats are looking for ways to bridge the gap with right-leaning Americans in the wake of President Donald Trump’s win in November, as well as races that resulted in both houses of Congress having Republican majorities.
Trump has made a ban of transgender athletes participating in women’s sports part of his policy platform, along with other issues he describes as “gender ideology.” Upon taking office in January, he issued an order declaring there are only two genders. During his address to Congress this week, Trump invited a 19-year-old who was allegedly “left with a traumatic brain injury after a transgender-identifying man spiked a volleyball into her head.” Audacy also reported this week that National Park Service web pages that were once dedicated to transgender figures such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were shut down and are no longer accessible.
On his new podcast, Newsom also discussed Trump using footage of his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, saying she would support transgender surgeries for people in prison, to his advantage during the 2024 presidential campaign. Regarding transgender athletes participating in women’s sports, a new poll reveals that his view is actually shared by a majority of Americans.
This survey conducted by the Pew Research Center last month found that 66% of respondents support laws that require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth. Support of restrictions on transgender people has become more popular in recent years, even among Democrats. For example, Pew said that 35% of Democrats now support making it illegal for health care professionals to provide medical care for a gender transition for minors, up from 26% in 2022 – over the same time period, support among Republicans grew from 72% to 79%.
Still, a majority of American adults (56%) still express support for policies aimed at protecting trans people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces, Pew found. An estimated 1.6 million people ages 13 and older in the U.S. identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
“He was talking about what he considered to be the fundamental unfairness of having men who had transitioned into women playing in women’s sports,” said Matier of Newsom’s comments. “And that’s something that a lot of people are talking about.”
Even if it puts him at odds with parts of his own party, Matier said that is a strategic loss that Newsom is willing to take.
“The only way he’s going to move out of California and possibly in the White House is down the middle lane, and any time you can call out your own on the left, you’re probably going to score points, not necessarily within that structure, but across the country in general,” he said.
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