California Governor Gavin Newsom recently launched a new podcast and, in his first episode on Thursday, told conservative activist Charlie Kirk that he thinks transgender girls and women playing in sports for girls and women is “deeply unfair.”
Newsom and Kirk, the Donald Trump-aligned, 31-year-old right-wing influencer best known for starting Turning Point USA to promote conservative ideals on college campuses, spoke for over an hour about, among other things, how Democrats fumbled messaging in the 2024 election cycle and where the pair could agree.
“I’ve got to admire what you’ve been able to do, not to weaponize, but to organize on these college campuses a different point of view,” Newsom said before noting that his newly teenage son has seen videos of Kirk on TikTok. Kirk laughs that the teen could come to a Turning Point event in Florida.
Then, the governor asks Kirk for advice on how to better appeal to Americans.
“Get better ideas,” he responds.
“You have an opportunity to run to the middle … 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,” Kirk continued, misgendering a high school track player in California. “That shouldn’t happen.”
“Right,” Newsom said.
“Would you do something like that? Would you say no men in female sports?” Kirk asked. “Well, I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that,” Newsom responded. “It’s deeply unfair.”
“So, would you speak out against this young man?” Kirk pressed, adding, “I see you wrestling with this.”
“No, I’m not wrestling with the fairness,” the governor said. “I totally agree with you.”
The governor, who is widely understood to be eyeing a presidential run for 2028, described his new podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom,” as a forum to “have honest conversations” with people who both agree and disagree with “us.”
Newsom’s comments come as, across the country, transgender Americans continue to face increased offenses from conservative leaders in government, healthcare, and education—including directly from President Donald Trump’s administration.
In early February, Trump signed an executive order barring transgender student-athletes from playing on girls’ sports teams. The action, which notably doesn’t mention transgender boys and men playing in sports that align with their gender identity, claims to “protect” women.
Shortly after Trump signed the order, the National Collegiate Athletic Association changed its participation policy for transgender athletes and barred anyone who wasn’t assigned female at birth from participating in girls’ or women’s sports. (Some local leaders have pushed back on Trump’s order, including the governor of Maine, who said she would see the president “in court” over her state’s decision to allow transgender athletes to play on the teams they choose.)
