As speculation increases that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is positioning himself as a 2028 presidential candidate, he’s now distancing himself from the left on a polarizing issue: transgender athletes in women’s sports.
In the debut episode of his new “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast, Newsom had a candid conversation with conservative commentator and Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk, who is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump.
At one point, Newsom asked Kirk for advice.
“Get better ideas, governor,” Kirk said. “You have an opportunity to like, run to the middle.”
Kirk then gave the example of transgender girls and women competing in high school and college sports. He cited one story, while repeatedly misgendering the teen, of an Inland Empire athlete competing in the triple jump at high school track meets.
While Newsom didn’t address that specific example, he called the idea of athletes whose sex assigned at birth was male then competing in female sports “deeply unfair.”
“It is an issue of fairness, I’ll agree with you on that,” Newsom said, mentioning that he has two daughters and his wife was a junior soccer star. The governor received a partial scholarship to play baseball at Santa Clara University.
“I revere sports, so the issue of fairness is completely legit.”
Newsom then brought up the fact that there are very few transgender athletes competing at a high level of sports throughout the country. During a hearing late last year, NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel that he estimated there were less than 10 known transgender athletes competing in college sports.
There are more than 510,000 college athletes in the country, Baker said.
Still, it’s a concern for many Americans. A 2023 study from Gallup found that more than 69% of Americans believe athletes should compete on sports teams that match their gender assigned at birth rather than those that match their gender identity.
On the podcast, Newsom acknowledged that the Democrats are on the losing side of this debate.
“We’re getting crushed on it. Crushed,” Newsom said. “It is an issue of fairness, and we’ve lost.”
Just this week, Senate Democrats voted unanimously against advancing a bill that aims to prevent transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. The bill would have codified an executive order signed by Trump to accomplish the same goal last month.
Newsom’s stance comes after many years at the forefront of LGBTQ+ issues. He gained national attention in 2004 when, as Mayor of San Francisco, he began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples—a progressive move at the time.
