California governor Gavin Newsom says transgender athletes competing in woman's sports is deeply unfair.

 

California governor Gavin Newsom. BBC/Getty.

California governor Gavin Newsom says that transgender athletes competing in woman's sports is "deeply unfair". BBC. Newsom made the comments on the first episode of his new podcast with conservative pundit Charlie Kirk. The context was the two men discussing why Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump and both men agreed it was due to the issue. Newsom cited the "Kamala is for they/them" ad as a major reason why Trump won. Newsom did say that he had a problem with how people "talk down" to "vulnerable communities" as well. Many Democrats condemned the remarks but polling shows that Newsom is aliened with many polls. A New York Times/Ipsos poll found that virtually all Republicans and 7 out of 10 Democrats agree that transgender athletes should not be in woman's sports. 

Gavin Newsom's podcast can be found here. 

My Comment:

I didn't listen to Gavin Newsom's podcast because I genuinely hate the format. Why would I listen to a two hour discussion when I could read the same information in ten minutes? Not to mention, I am not a fan of Newsom at all, I think he has ruined the state of California. 

But I do think he is a savvy politician and seems to be one of the few Democrats that understands why the Democrats lost in 2024. Certainly, transgender issues weren't the only reason why they lost, but it certainly is a major reason why. The truth is that a lot of people are disgusted with many of the things the transgender community is doing. 

Woman's sports is a big one. The truth is that biological males have a competitive advantage over biological women. On average men have a major advantage in muscle mass, strength, endurance and height, all of which makes them dramatically more able than even peak women. Pumping yourself full of hormones and growing your hair out does not suddenly change that. 

This means that women can no longer compete against transgender athletes. Dozens of records are getting broken by male to female transgenders and more than a few female athletes are getting injured by folks dramatically larger and more powerful than they are. President Trump highlighted the case of Payton McNabb during his congressional address this week. McNabb was a 17 year old student athlete that had a transgender athlete spike a ball in her face which injured her to the point where she could no longer compete. Such stories are hardly unique. 

Of course that wasn't the only issue with transgender athletes. Female athletes were forced into locker rooms with intact male to female transgender athletes, which was deeply uncomfortable for them at best and could lead to sexual assault at worse. 

This is not a hard argument to make and it's one that has convinced most folks. They say that transgenders in sports is a 80/20 issue and I think it might even be worse than that for Democrats. It's something that only activists agree with and I think Newsom is right to try and move the party away from it. 

Will it work though? Given the huge amount of pushback Newsom is getting, I am not sure it will. Newsom is a pragmatist on this issue but much of the core Democrats are indeed true believers. I don't see how the Democrats can thread the needle here. They either have to jettison the 30% of their own voters that are true believers on this, which would cost them the next election. Or they can keep doubling down and alienate just about everyone else. 

As for Newsom himself, he is positioning himself for a 2028 run. He's trying to move to the center despite an entire career of being a left wing radical. I am not even sure if he is legit on this issue or just trying to position himself as a moderate alternative to whoever the 2028 GOP candidate is (probably JD Vance, but who knows?). 

Will it work? It really depends on the Democratic Party. Part of me thinks that Newsom wouldn't have a chance to win a primary given the voters disdain for white men, but I do think that he would have a better chance of winning in 2028 than someone like Kamala Harris 2.0, especially if he continues to jettison the 80/20 issues.