Newsom says that sharing your beliefs on trans athletes was not a “big design”

After weeks of criticism from political allies, Governor Gavin Newsom explained why he shared his conviction that he is unfair for transgender athletes to compete in female sports.

Newsom, in a recent interview with The Times, said that although he has deliberated on the problem for years, he has not implemented the interview with the conservative personality Charlie Kirk to express his opinions and announce news on his podcast last month.

The governor said that the moment had occurred organically after Kirk “pushed so hard” on the subject and referenced to a Transgender High School athlete in California who beat his 8 -foot competitors in the triple jump.

“And then asked me,” Tell me, it’s not fair? ” And I watched it, I said, “You are right. “And so it was not a great design. And I know, I know that it has a lot of people. But respectfully, I do not agree with those on the other side.”

The governor referred to the political left. Progressives and defenders of the Transgender Community within his own party accused him of betraying a group that had supported his political ascent.

Senator of the State Scott Wiener (D-SAN Francisco) said that Newsom’s comments were “devastating and depressing” of someone who had been such an ally of the LGBTQ +community. Newsom reviews also accused him of topping. They underlined his previous support for the California law signed by former governor Jerry Brown who allowed Trans students to participate in sports and to use bathrooms according to their gender preference.

Some Democrats allegedly allegedly allegedly, many of whom consider a future presidential competitor, strategically abandoned a vulnerable group of people after Donald Trump and the Republicans have made the question of the trans athletes participating in female sports for the Democrats in the 2024 elections.

The Republicans immediately started to pressure Newsom to support state legislation to prohibit transgender athletes from participating in youth and college sports. The governor refused to take a stand on the proposals, which should be examined Tuesday during a hearing of the legislative committee.

“It’s magnificent,” said the member of the assembly Bill Essayli (R-Corona) on the social media site X. “The conversation is cheap Gavin Newsom.”

In an interview with The Times, Newsom said he “had trouble with that for some time.”

He said that he and his collaborators had discussed and asked for advice on how to find a balance when the transgender athletes in competition against women became a problem in California, including during the controversy on the transgender volleyball player in San Jose state last year. He also referred to a situation in 2023 in which two Trans athletes refused to participate in an athletic finals competition from California Interscholastic Federation State High School after faced the reaction to participate in female sports.

“I mean, we have been exploring this for a few years quietly behind the scenes, and we … could not land,” said Newsom.

The governor approached this introspection during his podcast with Kirk.

“Completely just on the question of equity. I fully agree. It is therefore easy to call injustice,” Newsom told Kirk. “There is also a humility and a grace that these poor are more likely to commit suicide, to have anxiety and depression, and the way people speak to vulnerable communities is a problem with which I also find it difficult. So.

The governor continued by telling Kirk that he had “tested stress” this question before commenting on the scarcity of transgender athletes in the NCAA.

In an interview with The Times, Newsom rejected the idea that he could have shared his point of view during the 2024 electoral cycle and helped his party sailing in an unpopular problem with the voters. Two -thirds of the Americans said that Trans athletes should be rivaled in teams that correspond to their sex attributed to birth, according to a PEW research survey in February.

“I didn’t have a podcast,” said Newsom. “I didn’t have this conversation. I was there on the campaign campaign in the Big Blue Bubble, on the Big Blue Bus, in the Big Blue Crowds with great blue conversations. ”

Newsom said the parents of his children’s football matches came to him and shared their concerns about transgender athletes in competition against girls for young people. They are often democrats, he said, good people who celebrate the gay community and are not “transphobic”.

The governor also defended his own record for support for the Transgender community. He underlined the legislation he signed last year which prohibited school districts from obliging teachers to inform parents of gender identity preferences, which led to the federal survey last week by the Trump administration. He also noted his appointment in 2022 of the first openly transgender judge in the United States, Andi Mudryk, at the Superior Court of the County of Sacramento.

Although some people stood their hand individually and congratulated him, Newsom said that some of his “most loyal friends” said they were shocked and re -evaluated their support for him.

“I had a solid and solid record on many problems, and for people to question, you know, to speak in unfair terms, made me begin to believe a little more criticism of the law,” said Newsom. “I have always thought that the law overestimated how critical my party was, and I will be frank with you, I have a deeper understanding now of this criticism than ever, never understood.”