Gavin Newsom: Coward, Traitor, or Fool?

Unpacking Gavin Newsom’s turn to the Dark Side.

A few months ago, California governor Gavin Newsom, in a discussion with right-wing political commentator Charlie Kirk, said that he now agreed with the right’s position on trans sports participation. Immediately, that made him the highest-profile Democrat to turn on the trans community, joining the likes of Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, New York Rep. Tom Suozzi, and Texas Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar (otherwise known for taking bribes from Azerbaijan to cover up a mass ethnic cleansing of Armenians). But yesterday, Newsom went even further to the right during a podcast appearance on the right-wing Shawn Ryan Show, saying that the trans sports issue allowed him to change his mind on gender-affirming care for minors.

The message is clear: Gavin Newsom wants to move towards the political centre in order to run for president, and he thinks the best way to go about it is to throw trans people under the bus. But given that he’s from a state as liberal as California, previously had a very LGBTQ-supportive track record going back to his marrying of same-sex couples in 2004, and that his godson is Nats Getty, a trans model and ex-husband of trans influencer Gigi Gorgeous, this turn is somewhat perplexing. This begs the question: is his betrayal out of cowardice, malice, or idiocy?

Mistaken Moderation

Like I said before, term-limited career politician Gavin Newsom has his sights set on the presidency. Of course, it hasn’t been outright confirmed, but between his efforts to grow his national profile through media appearances and his attempts to become the face of the opposition to Trump’s policies, it’s either that or he’s preparing for the largest political book launch in history. But unlike other Democratic governors who have become more outspoken in their support for trans youth—like Minnesota’s Tim Walz, Illinois’ JB Pritzker, and Maine’s Janet Mills—Newsom believes his best path to the 2028 Democratic nomination is to become more moderate.

This is something some Democrats have tried in the past, but it rarely works. Maybe they win over some independent voters, but it comes at the cost of the party’s base. Except in this case, it might prove to be catastrophic should he be on the ballot come 2028. In 2024, around 1/7th of Kamala Harris’ votes (~7% of her 48.3%) came from the LGBTQ+ community, according to exit polls. Considering how close elections have been, he seriously can’t afford to lose us, especially not over an issue that is declining in relevance among non-queer voters.

It could be that he’s afraid of the liberal reputation that comes with Democrats from California, but he should know by now that no amount of flip-flopping on transgender rights can erase that. He’s been relevant on the national stage long enough for the right-wing media apparatus to have thoroughly dragged his name through the mud. Right-leaning voters, and independents for that matter, are unlikely to view him differently than they have for the past seven years because of this one small change. And as we’ve seen in New York with Zohran Mamdani, the core Democratic voters want a fighter, not someone moderate and, to be honest, a bit sleazy. At best, Gavin Newsom is a coward for his stance on trans rights.

Falling For Their Lies

It’s clear that the trans sports issue serves primarily as a vehicle to advance transphobia, and don’t just take it from me. According to the president of the right-wing American Principles Project, the trans sports issue was deliberately pushed because “it got opponents of the LGBT movement comfortable with talking about transgender issues.” In other words, it gets a bigoted foot through a misinformed door, one that can then serve to rationalise all other anti-LGBTQ+ stances. And it’s unfortunately worked: the public’s opinion on queer issues at large has steadily declined since 2019.

So if his change in position is sincere, Newsom has taken the bait. In his recent podcast appearance, he said specifically that before he saw their point of view on sports, he would dismiss anything anti-trans as hateful. However, according to him, once what they argued about one thing made sense to him, he was able to hear them out on other issues like gender-affirming care, and that shifted his stance. In other words, Newsom admitted to falling for disinformation, junk science, and hate that went against his established beliefs, and someone who falls for that is little more than a fool. He’d be a perfect fit in the Republican Party.

Of course, he may have also never had strong principles in the first place, and as such, changing his stance on trans people comes easily to him. Maybe he’s a political opportunist who was looking for a way to distinguish himself when he saw an opening to cater to Democrats who don’t support trans people (on sports, that’s around 40%). But whatever it is, he’s a traitor to the progressive values he’d ostensibly championed throughout his career.

As someone who used to support Newsom up until earlier this year, I must say I’m a little disappointed. Given that he’s one of the few major politicians who has a trans person close to him, I expected him to be one of the last ones to cave. But based on the reasoning he gave, I don’t expect this betrayal to be his last. Thankfully, because California Democrats have refused to act according to his whims, Newsom’s freshly acquired transphobia will likely never see the light of day.

The good news is, other prominent Democrats haven’t signalled a willingness to backstab us. Hopefully that trend holds, especially as the political relevance of legislated transphobia dies down. In 2028, this cannot be forgotten. Now that Newsom has shown us who he is—a coward, a traitor, and a fool—we must believe him.