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Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom put distance between himself and his party, and found common ground with influential conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk when the term-limited California governor and possible 2028 presidential contender agreed that biological men in women’s sports is “deeply unfair.”
“The young man who’s about to win the state championship in the long jump in female sports, that shouldn’t happen,” Kirk said on Newsom’s debut episode on his new podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom,” on Thursday.
Kirk, a MAGA world rock star and ally of President Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. who leads the powerful Turning Point USA youth organization, asked Newsom, “You, as the governor, should step out and say no. Would you do something like that? Would you say no men in female sports?”
“Well, I think it’s an issue of fairness,” Newsom replied. “I completely agree with you on that. It’s deeply unfair.”
GAVIN NEWSOM ASKS CHARLIE KIRK TO GIVE HIS PARTY ‘ADVICE’ IN ONE-ON-ONE PODCAST INTERVIEW
Kirk further pressed Newsom on whether he would condemn the recent victory of a transgender track athlete with a more than 40-foot jump at Jurupa Valley High School in Southern California.
Newsom – who was ahead of many in his party when, two decades ago, as San Francisco mayor, he defied existing state laws and issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples – didn’t directly address the win, but said “it’s a fairness issue.”
The student, AB Hernandez, won an invitational meet on Feb. 22, booting out a female runner-up who had jumped just over 32 feet in their competition category. Hernandez also took first place in two other events at the meet.
“So that’s easy to call out the unfairness of that,” Newsom, a Democratic Party torchbearer, said. “There’s also a humility and a grace… these poor people are more likely to commit suicide, have anxiety and depression, and the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with as well.”
“So both things I can hold in my hand,” the governor continued. “How can we address this issue with the kind of decency that I think you know is inherent in you, but not always expressed on the issue?”
Transgender athletes in California have long been protected prior to Newsom’s administration under AB 1266, also known as the School Success and Opportunity Act. The law was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, in August 2013.
However, Senate Bill 132, also known as the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, allows inmates to request cells and searches that align with their gender identity, which Newsom signed in September 2020.
Newsom’s comments in California came as Senate Democrats in Washington D.C. earlier this week voted unanimously to block a GOP-led bill that would prohibit federally funded schools from allowing transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.
Title IX government protections – which cover schools – prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities that receive funding from the federal government.
Democrats argue that policies to restrict transgender athletes’ participation in team sports are a form of discrimination.
There are relatively few transgender athletes competing at the collegiate level. Regardless, Republicans have spotlighted in recent years that transgender women playing in female sports hold an unfair physical advantage.
And the GOP attacked Democrats over transgender issues up and down the ballot on the campaign trail last year. That included a politically cutting ad from Trump’s campaign that spotlighted then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ support for taxpayer-funded gender transition-related medical care for federal prisoners and detained immigrants.
“It was a great ad,” Newsom said in the podcast, which was first reported by Politico. “She didn’t even react to it, which was even more devastating.”
Trump signed an executive order titled, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” in February, which said transgender athletes in women sports is “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls.” The order requires institutions receiving federal funding to abide by Title IX and follow the definitions of biological sex.
Newsom noted he has four children, including two daughters, and highlighted that both he and his wife played college-level sports.
“I revere sports, so the issue of fairness is completely legit,” Newsom said.
And pointing to Kirk’s efforts on the campaign trail, he emphasized the right was “able to weaponize that issue at another level.”
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Newsom noted that Republicans have been successful in portraying Democrats as out of step with most Americans on the issue.
“We’re getting crushed on it. Crushed. Crushed,” he said.
Some Golden State leaders from the left and the right were critical of the governor’s comments.
The California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, in a statement on social media, charged that “sometimes Gavin Newsom goes for the Profile in Courage, sometimes not. We woke up profoundly sickened and frustrated by these remarks. All students deserve the academic and health benefits of sports activity, and until Donald Trump began obsessing about it, playing on a team consistent with one’s gender has not been a problem since the standard was passed in 2013.”
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And Will O’Neil, chair of the Orange County Republican Party, took to social media to claim “the difference between “redefining Newsom” and actual Newsom policies is going to get exposed in these podcasts.”
“Entertainment is one thing, governing is different,” he added.
