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With growing speculation that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is positioning himself as the 2028 presidential candidate, he is now distanced from the left on issues of polarization: trans athletes in women’s sports.
In his debut episode of his new “This Is Gavin Newsom” podcast, Newsom had a candid conversation with Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk, a conservative commentator and solid supporter of President Donald Trump.
At one point, Newsom asked Kirk for advice.
“Get better ideas, governor,” Kirk said. “You have a favorite opportunity and run in the middle.”
Kirk cited examples of transgender girls and women competing in high school and college sports. He quoted one story, but repeatedly misunderstanding teenagers, Inland Empire athletes compete in triple jumps at high school track meetings.
Newsom did not address that particular example, but he called the idea of athletes who were assigned to him at birth, who competed in “deeply unfair” in women’s sports.
“It’s a matter of fairness. I agree with you,” Newsmom said. The governor received a partial scholarship to play baseball at Santa Clara University.
President Donald Trump will hand out pens after signing an executive order banning women’s or girls’ sporting events in Washington at women’s or girls’ sporting events in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday, February 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“I respect sports, so the issue of fairness is completely legal.”
Newsom then nurtured the fact that there are very few trans athletes competing in high-level sports across the country. NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel during a hearing late last year that he estimated there were fewer than 10 trans athletes competing in college sports.
There are more than 510,000 university athletes in the country, Baker said.
Still, that’s a concern for many Americans. A 2023 Gallup survey found that over 69% of Americans believe athletes should compete against the sports team assigned to them at birth rather than match their gender identity.
On the podcast, Newsom admitted that Democrats are on the loser of the debate.
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“We’re crushed by it. We’ve been crushed,” Newsom said. “It’s a matter of fairness and we lost.”
Just this week, Senate Democrats voted unanimously to advance a bill aimed at preventing transgender athletes from participating in girls and women’s sports. The bill would have codified an executive order that Trump signed last month to achieve the same goal.
Newsom’s stance comes after years at the forefront of LGBTQ+ issues. He made national attention in 2004 as mayor of San Francisco when he began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
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