So boys shouldn’t play on girls teams?

So boys shouldn’t play on girls teams? California’s governor suddenly affirms biology

In a sudden affirmation of biological and moral sanity, California Gov. Gavin Newsom came out Thursday with an affirmation that boys and men should not compete in athletic events for girls and women. Has the notoriously liberal Democratic governor jumped ship from his party and LGBTQ activists?

The issue came up on Newsom’s new podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom,” in a conversation with conservative activist Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA. Any conversation between Newsom and Kirk was destined to be epic, but Gavin Newsom is clearly rebranding himself for the 2028 presidential race.

Too soon, you say? Politico got right to the point when it ran the headline, “Newsom’s move on trans athletes jolts 2028 campaign.” The race for the 2028 Democratic nomination for the White House is well underway, so buckle your seat belts.

It was Kirk who raised the trans athlete controversy. He spoke of a “young man who’s about to win the state championship in female sports,” rightly concluding: “That shouldn’t happen.” Stunningly, Newsom responded: “I completely agree with you on that. It’s an issue of fairness.”

Since when? Newsom has championed every LGBTQ cause imaginable. As mayor of San Francisco, he ordered the city attorney to issue same-sex marriage licenses, long before such marriages were legal. That was decades ago. He consistently supported same-sex marriage, opposing Proposition 8 that defined marriage as exclusively the union of a man and a woman. In a television message, Newsom warned conservatives that same-sex marriage was inevitable and that opposition was futile: “The door is wide open now. It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not.”

Just weeks ago, Newsom signed into law a measure that allows the state’s public schools to recognize a student’s trans or non-binary identity without informing parents. Gavin Newsom is not just an advocate for the LGBTQ agenda; he has sought to brand that movement as central to his identity.

So what happened on the podcast? It was not a misunderstanding. Newsom invited Kirk, who played a strategic role in mobilizing the youth vote for Donald Trump in 2024, to tell him why the Democratic Party was failing. Kirk gave him an earful, and he kept pushing with candor.

Kirk argued the obvious point that the issue of boys playing on girls teams was a big loser for Democrats, but one the party would not abandon. Newsom then abandoned the messaging of his own party and said he wasn’t even wrestling with the issue. He was firm in his judgment that biological males on female teams is unfair. He called for compassion for trans athletes but concluded, “It’s just not fair.”

Let’s get this straight: Gov. Newsom is categorially and unquestionably right when he says, quite directly, that it is unfair for a boy to compete as a girl. Folks on his own political side went predictably nuts. The former Democratic mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot (married to another woman) responded to the governor’s heresy with candor: “It’s disgusting. There are kids waking up today in California with this news that their governor hates them, and rightly so.” Note the immediate use of “hate” as the only motivation for such a statement, in her view. Politico reported that progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said that Democrats should not “not take the bait and give in to their anti trans people rhetoric.” Politico then noted that Jayapal made the statement, but “she hadn’t seen Newsom’s comments.” Ah, the ways of leftist politics.

The New York Times quoted Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson, who responded to the governor with words of warning: “The fight for equality has never been easy, but history does not remember those who waver—it remembers those who refuse to back down.” She continued: “Our message to Governor Newsom and all leaders around the country is simple: The path to 2028 isn’t paved with the betrayal of vulnerable communities.”

The LGBTQ activist community has gone into their highest DEFCON alert, with flashing lights and loud alarms. Newsom’s defection on the issue of boys in girls sports is the launch of an attack, and the activists will circle their wagons in desperation.

After Newsom voiced his unexpected vision of reality, Charlie Kirk widely pointed the governor to the fact that, when a bill against males competing against females recently reached a vote in the Senate, not one Democratic senator voted for it. Not one. That’s your party, Governor.

The plain fact is that the Democratic Party is unlikely to waver in its LGBTQ activism because it can’t—it’s in the control of ideological activists who are more committed to identity politics than to reality, otherwise known as biology.

Where does Gavin Newsom really stand on the transgender issue? He is proudly the godfather of a prominent trans activist known as Nats Getty, who is, according to The New York Times, “married to Gigi Gorgeous, a transgender YouTube personality.” The governor toasted their wedding in 2019. He remains steadfastly committed to the LGBTQ cause—except on this one question. It is an obvious attempt at personal branding for a 2028 campaign, but it is in no way tied to any consistent affirmation of biology. He has just suddenly realized that boys playing on girls teams is unfair.

He is right on that score, but he is still all in for the LGBTQ revolution. Just not when it comes to girls sports, at least for now. The response to his political rebrand on this issue will be interesting to watch. But we should take note when a politician unexpectedly speaks the truth on this issue, whatever the motivation.

This article originally appeared at WORLD Opinions on March 7, 2025.