On the menu today: Swaths of Los Angeles still look like a postapocalyptic hellscape, so perhaps it’s only fitting that the California governor known for his cold stare and slicked-back hair is emulating the shapeshifting abilities of the T-1000 from Terminator 2. (And you thought comparisons of California governors to Terminators would end with Arnold Schwarzenegger!) We all suspected Gavin Newsom wanted to run for president in 2028. But the way he’s talking about transgender athletes in women’s sports, he might be aiming for the Republican nomination. Look out for that bus, transgender athletes, because Newsom’s sudden about-face suggests that Democrats are ready to throw you under it.
Gavin Newsom Changes Shape
Way back in August 2013 — two years before Donald Trump descended the escalator and announced he was running for president — the state of California enacted a law requiring public schools to allow transgender kindergarten-through-12th-grade students access to whichever restroom and locker room they want. The law gave students the right “to participate in sex-segregated programs, activities and facilities” based on their self-identification and regardless of their birth gender. The spokesman for the bill’s sponsor said of those born one gender and identifying as another, “They’re not interested in going into bathrooms and flaunting their physiology.”
That bill was signed into law by former Governor Jerry Brown. The lieutenant governor of California at the time was Gavin Newsom. If Newsom had any objections to that law at the time, he kept them to himself.
Newsom has been governor of California for six years, two months, and one day. At no point in that six-year-and-change span did Newsom express even a peep of objection to that law or policy — right up until the moment Newsom sat down for the inaugural edition of his podcast with Charlie Kirk. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the California governor claimed that for years, he had thought the policy was unfair to women athletes:
Charlie Kirk: So, like, you right now should come out and be like, you know what, the young man who’s about to win the state championship in the long jump in female sports, that shouldn’t happen. You as the governor should step out and say no, no–
(In February, A. B. Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High School in Ontario, Calif., won a girls’ triple jump event by eight feet more than any other competitor. Hernandez also took first place at the meet in the high jump and long jump events, nearly three feet ahead of the triple jump runner-up and two feet ahead of the second-place long jump competitor.)
The interview continues:
Newsom: And I appreciate–
Kirk: But like, would you do something like that? Would you say no men in female sports?
Gavin Newsom: Well, it’s I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. So, it’s deeply–
Kirk: Would you speak out against this young man, A.B. Hernandez, who right now is going to win the state championship in the long jump, I can see you wrestling with it.
Newsom: No, I’m not wrestling. I’m not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you. By the way, as someone with four kids, you got to think two daughters, right, two daughters and a wife that went — God forbid — to Stanford, played on the junior national soccer team, and a guy who got into college only because I was left-handed and could throw baseball a little bit, or hit the ball for a little bit. So, I revere sports, and so the issue of fairness is completely legit. And saw that the last couple of years. Boy, did I saw how you guys were able to weaponize that issue–
Kirk: “Weaponize”? Don’t that’s, that’s —
Newsom: Weaponize, maybe pejorative, you’re right, but you were able to–
Kirk: Shine a light on?
Newsom: Highlight it in a way that frankly, there are not that many, we’re talking about. I think two, 500, and 10,000? I just didn’t realize–
Kirk: It’s 890 medals and trophies that we know of in the last five years. That’s a lot.
Newsom: No. So I’m gonna — let me step back and say completely fair on the issue of fairness. I completely agree. So, that’s easy to call out the unfairness of that. There’s also a humility and a grace. You know that that 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. How can we address this issue with the kind of decency that I think you know it’s inherent in you, but not always expressed on the issue. At the same time, deal with the unfairness–
Kirk: You asked a good faith question, like, ‘how do we Democrats get out of the wilderness?’ This one is an eighty / twenty issue in the New York Times poll, right, that’s all.
(The January 10 New York Times/Ipsos survey found that just 18 percent of U.S. adults say transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports; 79 percent said they should be barred, including 67 percent of self-identified Democrats.)
Newsom goes on:
Newsom: I agree with you. We’re getting crushed on this. Crushed.
Kirk: And you have an opportunity in the state to be like, ‘Look, I have a heart for A. B. Hernandez. I have a heart for the San Jose volleyball player. Let’s give them compassion. But it’s not fair, is just for like a woman’s — entire woman’s sports —
Newsom: I agree. You know, by the way, I agree with you, and it’s interesting. I stress-tested this, Charlie. I was wondering, I said, you know, in California, and I’ve been a leader in the LGBTQ places as you know, back in 2004, I was marrying same-sex couples. And I know we have different opinion on marriage equality. And so I’ve been at this for years and years. I take a back seat to no one, But I was actually on the issue of sports, which in the last few years has just exploded, trying to understand and understand the ten athletes in the NCAA — not five hundred and ten thousand athletes, but ten athletes, but how profound. And even my own friends and cohort of people saying, ‘the hell is going on? Why aren’t you calling this out? When did this happen?’ So in 2014, years before I was governor, there was a law established that established the legal principles that allow the allow trans athletes and women’s sports. But the issue of fairness is completely legit. So I completely align with you, and we’ve got to own that, and we’ve got to acknowledge it.
Notice that at no point does Newsom add, “And thus, I will be pushing to repeal the 2013 law that gave students the right to participate in sex-segregated programs, activities and facilities based on their self-identification and regardless of their birth gender.” He feels that those born male participating in women’s sports is unfair, but not quite strongly enough to do anything about it. (Last month President Trump signed an executive order that directed the U.S. Secretary of Education to pursue action against educational institutions or sports associations that either require women to compete against males or undress in their presence. Of course, for the Secretary of Education to do this, you need to keep the U.S. Department of Education around.)
Back in January, I wrote, “Maybe the catastrophe of the Los Angeles County wildfires will drive a stake in the heart of the ‘Newsom could be president someday’ chatter.”
Clearly, I was wildly overoptimistic about the discernment of a mainstream media culture that managed to talk itself into getting excited about the likes of Beto O’Rourke and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Politico’s headline on Newsom’s comment is, “Newsom’s move on trans athletes jolts 2028 campaign.” The guy who collects personal scandals the way kids collect baseball cards is somehow still considered a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in four years.
In Terminator 2, the liquid-metal T-1000 just oozes through prison bars that would impede anything solid. Much like that science-fiction villain, when Newsom encounters an obstacle, he just changes his shape and keeps moving forward.
And this leads to my gripe expressed on yesterday’s Three Martini Lunch podcast. Based on Newsom’s sudden about-face, it’s entirely possible that five years from now, Democrats will act like they’ve always opposed transgender athletes participating in women’s sports. These days you don’t find many Democrats arguing that Covid lockdowns were awesome, that keeping kids out of school for at least a year was harmless, that people ought to be fired if they don’t take the Covid vaccine, or that the lab leak was a crazy xenophobic conspiracy theory. When Democrats abandon a position, they count on mass amnesia over their old stances and often get away with it. To quote Mad Men, “This never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened.”
One last point about those 80-20 political issues: If you’re a politician who wants to stay in office, you’ve got to know your district or state constituents and their priorities really well, and be careful about how many times you stand with the 20 percent against the 80 percent.
But if you’re a citizen or an activist (or a columnist!) and you’re certain that you and the rest of the 20 percent are right, and the 80 percent are wrong, you ought to say what you believe, stand up for what you think is right, and push that rock up that hill, even if the whole task feels Sisyphean. What’s right is not always admired, and the wrong path can often be quite popular.
As one of the most famous comics panels in history put it:
“Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — ‘No, YOU move.’”
ADDENDUM: In case you missed it yesterday, the completely constitutional TikTok ban continues to be unenforced in violation of the law; the tariffs on goods from Mexico continue to go on and off like a strobe light; and Maxine Waters finally found someone she wants to deport in legal immigrant Elon Musk.