With the calendar now officially flipped over to 2026, we can expect to hear more serious rumblings about which Democrats have their sights set on a White House run in 2028. At the top of that list is California Governor Gavin Newsom. But Newsom’s schizophrenic relationship with left-wing gender ideology may have already alienated both hardcore progressive partisans and everyday Americans.
In March 2025, Newsom outraged liberals when he appeared on a podcast hosted by Charlie Kirk, the late Turning Point USA founder. When pressed by Kirk, Newsom admitted that it was “deeply unfair” to allow biological men who claim to be transgender to compete in women’s sports.
The comment predictably ignited outrage on the left. SFGate called the podcast “genuinely humiliating,” while Mother Jones called the governor’s comments “craven,” and The New Republic declared simply, “Gavin Newsom Is the Worst.”
As AMAC Newsline reported at the time, Newsom’s actions as governor hardly lined up with his seemingly moderate comments to Kirk. He has notably signed legislation upholding the right of men to invade female-only spaces and establishing California as a “sanctuary state” for confused kids who believe they are transgender. California under Newsom’s leadership also remains a national leader in prescribing permanent, dangerous, life-altering transgender drugs and surgeries.
But that didn’t stop the liberal pile-on – an effort led by prospective rivals to Newsom for the 2028 Democrat nomination. Since that moment, Newsom has appeared desperate to regain favor with disaffected gender ideologues, going out of his way to prove his “allyship” to the LGBTQ+ cult.
Which brings us to yet another buzzy Newsom podcast appearance in December, this time on “The Ezra Klein Show.” When the issue of LGBTQ+ legislation came up, Newsom stated: “I want to see trans kids. I have a trans godson. There’s no governor who has signed more pro-trans legislation than I have. No one has been a stronger advocate for the LGBTQ community.”
In the same interview, Newsom tried to equivocate by awkwardly shoehorning in his prior stance about “fairness” in sports. “You have to accommodate the reality of those whose rights are being taken away as we advance the rights of the trans community,” he said, before admitting that he doesn’t have a good answer on the issue of men in women’s sports.
But no amount of rhetorical fence-riding can hide Newsom’s actual record on the issue as governor.
As previously reported by AMAC Newsline, SB 107, which Newsom signed into law in 2022, specifically gives California courts the ability to claim “temporary emergency jurisdiction” over children to facilitate their “gender-affirming care.” This designation overrides any other court ruling in another state, meaning a divorced parent can bring their child to California for cross-sex hormones or the surgical removal of healthy body parts without the other parent’s consent.
Newsom followed SB 107 with a new law in 2025 that allows a relative within five degrees of kinship to declare themselves the guardian of a child for making medical decisions. Deemed “state-sanctioned kidnapping” by legal experts, Assembly Bill 495 gives a shocking amount of power, based merely on a signed statement, to any distant relative to sign off on life-altering drugs and surgeries for minors.
These two laws create a framework where a minor from another state – say, a confused young boy from Texas who believes he is transgender – could flee to California and be placed under the care of a distant relative who supports so-called “gender transition” procedures.
Voters, including those in his own state, are taking notice of Newsom’s comments and seeing right through his attempts to moderate his image.
“This is just more of Gavin Newsom’s typical doublespeak,” Sonja Shaw told the Washington Stand. “He says he cares about fairness, but no governor has done more to undermine fairness for girls or parental rights in California.”
Shaw is the president of the Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) Board of Education. The school district she oversees has found itself the target of a lawsuit by the Newsom administration because it refuses to hide information about a child’s mental and physical health from parents.
“His decision to make our state a sanctuary for secret gender transitions and his push for more ‘trans kids’ has created a system that prioritizes ideology over children’s safety, education, and well-being,” Shaw said.
Shaw’s comments illustrate the problem Newsom, and other Democrats who try to appear moderate on gender ideology, will face. While the California governor can make overtures here and there that may sound reasonable to Americans who aren’t tuned in to what’s actually going on in his state, Newsom’s track record speaks volumes. Newsom, as he said, is the most “pro-trans” governor in the nation and wants “to see trans kids.”
Ultimately, Newsom’s equivocation won’t please anyone. The gender theory apparatchiks who demand absolute conformity to their worldview (and who hold immense sway among the Democrat primary base) will give him a failing grade on their ideological purity test. Meanwhile, everyday Americans whom Newsom needs to win a general election will be alienated by Newsom’s policies and the fact that he refuses to simply say that men do not belong in women’s sports, and that it is impossible for anyone to “change” his or her gender.
In many ways, Newsom’s dilemma is the dilemma of the Democrat Party writ large. After ceding so much ground to the radical left in the pursuit of power, he has suddenly found that no one is willing to believe the moderate charade – leaving him without any real base of support.
Matt Lamb is a contributor for AMAC Newsline and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
