This Truly Is Gavin Newsom

For years, Gavin Newsom has postured as the golden boy of progressive politics, parading his supposed values on national television, his hair gel camera-ready. He has built a brand on being the polished, West Coast foil to the Trumpian nightmare, a staunch defender of LGBTQ+ rights, and a champion of inclusivity. And the minute he sees an opening to position himself for higher office, to chase approval from the people who would never vote for him anyway, he throws vulnerable communities under the bus.

Gavin Newsom’s vanity podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, debuted by giving Charlie Kirk—a career-long opponent of LGBTQ+ rights—a platform and treating him as a credible voice. As Kirk spewed transphobic rhetoric, Newsom nodded along, lending credibility to the right's debunked, bigoted hysteria over transgender athletes. But he didn’t stop at pandering—he actively reinforced the fabricated controversy, calling the supposed unfairness of trans athletes (of whom roughly two compete at the college level) “deeply unfair.” Not to the trans people whose rights and dignity are under siege of course, but to the very women and girls Kirk and his band of rabid misogynists exploit as political pawns. The same people dismantling women’s rights are now masquerading as their protectors—and Newsom has chosen to play along.

He is charging - cynically and clumsily - into a culture war that only exists because conservatives need a new scapegoat after they ran out of ways to attack gay marriage. It's gutless. It's opportunistic. It's the kind of betrayal that isn't just political—it's personal.

Newsom knows better. This isn't some uninformed yokel. This is a man who has officiated same-sex weddings, who has posed in solidarity with LGBTQ+ communities for decades. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's trying to split the difference, hedge his bets, and mold himself into whatever hateful avatar he thinks will win him the next election.

And in doing so, he is legitimizing the very arguments that are being used to strip trans people of their rights across the country.

The same trans people who are already facing unprecedented attacks. The same trans kids being forced out of sports, out of bathrooms, out of public life, and out of existence. The same trans adults who have seen their access to healthcare, jobs, and basic dignity eroded by a relentless rightwing assault. Newsom, in all his slick political calculation, has chosen this moment to "both sides" his way into relevance, as if that's ever worked for a Democrat, as if it's ever been anything but a death sentence for the communities that depend on real allies.

Newsom's defenders will call it political pragmatism. They'll say he's reading the polls, trying to reach a broader audience, playing chess while everyone else plays checkers. The usual platitudes and excuses.

But if your strategy is to throw already persecuted people under the bus, it's a garbage strategy. If your path to the White House requires you to capitulate to bigotry, it's a path straight to hell and damnation.

Let's not pretend this is just about trans athletes. This is about the broader message Newsom is sending. When he wavers on this, when he gives fascistic extremists an inch, he's not only abandoning trans rights—he's telling every progressive voter that their values are negotiable. That their rights, their safety, and their dignity are up for debate if the political winds shift. That he's not the fighter he's pretended to be. That he will not work for anyone but himself and his squalid political ends.

There is no room for equivocation on this. There is no room for mealy-mouthed "fairness" rhetoric when fairness has never been the point of these attacks. The right doesn't care about fairness. They care about control. They care about defining who gets to exist, who gets to be seen, who gets to belong, who gets to be alive. And every time a supposed Democrat echoes their talking points, it validates their crusade. It hands them a victory they could never earn. It emboldens them to go further.

Newsom had a choice. He could have stood firm, rejected the premise of the question, and defended trans people with the same clarity and conviction he's used to capitalize on every other progressive cause he's attached his name to. Instead, Gavin Newsom folded like a suit so cheap he'd never deign to wear it. In short, he sold out. This is not a leader—this is an opportunist. And not even a particularly good one.

Gavin - enjoy your moment in the right's condescending, snickering spotlight. Enjoy the fleeting approval of people who will only ever turn on you. Enjoy whatever imaginary polling boost you think this will get you.

Because you've just made one thing abundantly clear: you’re not fit to lead.

Not in 2028.

Not ever.

If this is Gavin Newsom, Gavin Newsom is a cringe-worthy disgrace.