Newsom’s Actions Show He Still Supports Boys in Girls’ Sports

Gov. Gavin Newsom, perhaps with an eye to 2028, is suddenly positioning himself as aligned with most Americans on the issue of male athletes playing on women’s sports teams.

But do his actions match up with his words?

In an interview last week with conservative podcast host Charlie Kirk on his new podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom,” the California Democrat suggested he was moving toward the center on the matter of boys playing on girls’ sports teams. As Kirk, who also leads Turning Point USA, discussed the issue, Newsom said, “I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair.”

What?

Newsom’s remarks were surprising. After all, Newsom is hardly known for moderation on LGBTQ matters. As mayor of San Francisco, he ordered marriage licenses to be given to gay and lesbian couples in 2004—almost a decade before same-sex marriage was legalized in California. (The California Supreme Court ultimately put a halt to Newsom’s rogue marriage licenses.)

More recently, he signed into law in 2022 legislation that allowed minors and their families seeking experimental transgender medical treatment to seek such care in California, regardless of their home state’s laws. Before Newsom signed, Sharon Supp, a legal counsel at religious liberty group Alliance Defending Freedom, wrote that the legislation would permit “California courts to strip custody from parents — even parents who don’t live in California — who have legitimate concerns about a young child undergoing irreversible medical procedures to appear as a different gender.”

News outlets quickly covered Newsom’s alleged shift, painting him as a moderate defying his party.

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom breaks with party on transgender athletes in women’s sports, sparking backlash,” blared an ABC News headline. “California’s Gavin Newsom opposes trans athletes in women’s sports, splitting with progressives,” wrote the Associated Press, while the New York Times reported, “Newsom Splits With Democrats on Transgender Athletes: ‘It’s Deeply Unfair’”.

But has Newsom really shifted?

Yes, his rhetoric isn’t exactly going to win him any trans hero awards anytime soon—and he’s receiving blowback from leftist groups, including the Human Rights Campaign and Equality California.

Yes, perhaps seeing the recent Pew Research Center poll showing that two-thirds of Americans believe athletes should play on their biological sex’s team, Newsom decided it was time to pivot to the middle.

But here’s the catch: As governor of California, Newsom actually could do something to help women and girls in sports.

Will he?

I sent a detailed email to Newsom’s press office Friday, asking if Newsom was planning to do any number of actions he could do to promote fairness in sports.

Was he planning to call for the repeal of the 2014 law which requires California schools to allow students to play on whatever sports team they wanted to? Was he going to cut state funding for California schools and universities allowing trans athletes to play on women’s and girls’ teams? Would he announce his support for President Donald Trump’s executive order mandating no federal funding for schools that allowed trans athletes on girls teams?

Did Gov. Newsom support either of the two bills currently in the state Assembly that would not allow boys to play on girls’ sports teams? Did he support changing California’s education code, which currently states, “A pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”?

Did he plan to say anything about the case of Brooke Slusser, a co-captain of the San Jose State’s women volleyball team? Slusser, who is now under fire because she joined two lawsuits related to a male player on her female volleyball team, is currently attending classes remotely during her final semester of college. She told Fox News Digital, “I would just be walking, and I’d have people say things to me, like I had one girl just scream ‘f— you!’ to me.” 

“I literally just didn’t feel safe. Anytime I left the house, I felt like people were just like staring at me, I felt like I had to watch my back whenever I was on campus,” Slusser added.

Newsom’s office did not respond by deadline at all. Nor was there any request for more time, no off the record plea to stay tuned for more actions by the governor.

Which suggests that maybe Newsom, in typical politician fashion, is trying to say one thing rhetorically—and do an entirely different thing actually.

Classic.

But journalists shouldn’t let him get away with it. Until Newsom actually takes action—or even makes more specific comments about the matter—it’s absurd to paint him as defying leftists or his party.

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