{"id":26675,"date":"2025-03-13T13:21:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T17:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=26675"},"modified":"2025-03-13T13:21:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T17:21:06","slug":"gavin-newsom-comes-out-against-men-in-womens-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/03\/gavin-newsom-comes-out-against-men-in-womens-sports","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Newsom Comes Out Against Men in Women\u2019s Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
This is Gavin Newsom \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a break from his party\u2019s official platform, California governor Gavin Newsom stated he believes that transgender women, men who identify as women, playing against biological women in sports is \u201cdeeply unfair.\u201d Newsom made the comments during the premiere episode of his new podcast, \u201cThis Is Gavin Newsom\u201d to guest conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Kirk, who has openly pushed back against men in women\u2019s sports, challenged the Democrat party\u2019s support of transgender athletes. \u201cYou right now should come out and be like, \u2018You know what, the young man who\u2019s about to win the state championship in the long jump in female sports, that shouldn\u2019t happen,’\u201d he said. Kirk referred to the recent incident of trans athlete A.B. Hernandez, who won a high school girls\u2019 triple jump by eight feet. \u201cI think it\u2019s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you,\u201d said Newsom.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shift for Newsom, who has been adamant in his support for transgender rights. Yet it\u2019s an issue that more and more Americans are shifting against, including voters who identify as Democrat. According to a Pew Research Center poll<\/a>, 66% of Americans support requiring trans athletes to compete on teams that match their\u00a0biological sex. 56% support banning medical interventions of gender transitions for minors. Another New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>poll showed that 79% of Americans believe transgender athletes should not play women\u2019s sports. More surprising, 67% of Democrats felt the same way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an issue that, in the light of the 2024 election, some Democrats believe is hurting them with the general public. During his first State of the Union speech for his second term, President Trump leaned into the issue, inviting Payton McNabb<\/a> to attend. McNabb experienced a concussion, brain bleed, and permanent whiplash after being spiked in the face by a trans athlete. Newsom noted how the issue had impacted Harris\u2019s failed campaign, referring to an ad that targeted Harris\u2019s support of paying for so-called \u201cgender-affirming care\u201d for detained migrants. \u201cShe didn\u2019t even react to it, which was even more devastating,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was even more challenging because it\u2019s issues of people who are incarcerated \u2026 illegal, incarcerated individuals getting taxpayer-funded, gender reassignment surgery. That is a 90\/10, not an 80\/20.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the apparent public shift on the issue, Newsom faced rebukes from queer advocates. Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang released a statement condemning Newsom. \u201cWe are profoundly disappointed and angered by Governor Newsom\u2019s comments about transgender youth and their ability to participate in sports. Transgender kids\u2014like all kids\u2014deserve the chance to play sports alongside their teammates and learn important values like leadership, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Transgender young people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,\u201d the statement read.<\/a> Others saw Newsom\u2019s shift as nothing more than a political ploy for a potential presidential run in 2028. \u201cThis is stunning,\u201d wrote Republican Assemblymember Bill Essayli, of Corona on X<\/a>. \u201cTalk is cheap @GavinNewsom. Why don\u2019t you support my bill AB 844 to reverse CA\u2019s law allowing boys to compete in girls sports? You\u2019re the Governor, not a commentator!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a break from his party\u2019s official platform, California governor Gavin Newsom stated he believes that transgender women, men who identify as women, playing against biological women in sports is \u201cdeeply unfair.\u201d Newsom made the comments during the premiere episode of his new podcast, \u201cThis Is Gavin Newsom\u201d to guest conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Kirk,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":26678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGavin Newsom Comes Out Against Men in Women\u2019s Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gavin Newsom breaks with his party, calling trans women in female sports \u201cdeeply unfair,\u201d sparking debate over shifting opinion on the issue.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/03\/gavin-newsom-comes-out-against-men-in-womens-sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gavin Newsom Comes Out Against Men in Women\u2019s Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gavin Newsom breaks with his party, calling trans women in female sports \u201cdeeply unfair,\u201d sparking debate over shifting opinion on the issue.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/03\/gavin-newsom-comes-out-against-men-in-womens-sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-13T17:21:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/03\/Gavin-Newsom_credit-This-is-Gavin-Newsom-YouTube.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" 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