The world has moved on, but let’s look back to the very first episode of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast when he sat down with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Among the topics discussed was the issue of transgender women competing in women’s sports. Pressed on the issue by Kirk, Newsom surprisingly agreed with his guest: “I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. … It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair.”
It appeared to be quite a reversal by a politician who has been a steadfast supporter of LGBTQ issues. Newsom was among the first elected officials to support gay marriage when, in 2004, as mayor of San Francisco, he ordered the city clerk to issue licenses to LGBTQ couples. This was eleven years before the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision. One commentator told Politico that Newsom’s podcast with Kirk was a shock wave sent through Democratic circles: “To have the governor of one of the bluest states come out and say this, saying our party has gone too far left, then it’s a permission structure for other Democrats to do this, too—to start saying publicly what people have been saying privately.”
Newsom’s about-face follows other similar comments from leading Democrats. Rahm Emanuel, former mayor of Chicago, White House chief of staff, and ambassador to Japan, recently ripped Democrats for their obsessive focus on LGBTQ issues, saying, they need to “talk less about the bathroom and more about the classroom.”
This vibe shift is undoubtedly a response to the results of the 2024 presidential election, where the arguably most successful television ad featured Vice President Kamela Harris’ support for taxpayer funded transgender surgeries for military personnel and the devastating line, “She’s for they/them. He’s for you.”
In a poll conducted in January, The New York Times found that 79% of the American people, including a majority of Democrats, believe biological men should not compete in women’s sports. Figures like Newsom and Emanuel know their party is on the wrong side of popular opinion and thus have shifted their views. Many are blaming the loud activist fringe who pulled the party so far to the left as to cost them elections.
Click Here To Read More (Originally Published at World Magazine)
