The “left” has gotten sick of his act as he keeps moving further and further right in order to appease republicans. I doubt he makes it far if he runs for president unless he switches sides and goes full republican, which wouldn’t be surprising.
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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At least this will probably end his political career. The left really doesn't need another rich liberal pushing for status quo, and Newsom has shown he's effectively just that.
All of this is likely to shift his image and potentially woo some right-wing voters in a future election and... Nah. I'm not about that. Too much of that.
Only the 2nd podcast episode in and ANOTHER anti-trans guest.
Sports are stupid and people should just give less of a shit about them in general. Its not the end of the world for a person just because they cant play sports.
Not a single trans person i know actually gives a shit about sports, if being in womens sports is part of the agenda its pretty far down the list. Youd think based on how much its talked about there is some kind of massive invasion when nothing is really happening (hmm a familiar strategy). Most of these people who pretend to care can't even name 3 women in the sport theyre pretending to rage about, let alone name a trans women whos dominating in a given sport.
Its because not enough people pushed back over the "bathrooms" because so few people even feel "comfortable" using a public rest room at all and just want to be left alone. They cant convince liberals all trans people are bathroom rapists but its a lot easier to do with sports when some of the same HRT meds is what cis people use to gain an advantage in some sports, its very easy to mudy the waters that way and shift public opinion.
May the gods smile on Katie Porter's candidacy.
I listened to his podcast, and he’s clearly trying to appeal across the aisle. Since anti-trans rhetoric has been heavily weaponized, the topic inevitably came up. My takeaway was that trans rights feel distant from most people’s daily lives, or they’re something parents don’t want their young kids exposed to, which can end up pushing some people away.
Overall, I didn’t think it was terrible. The first episode was rough—Gavin seemed unprepared and on the defensive with his guest. The second episode was better since he had a longer history with that guest, making for a smoother conversation. I’m not a fan of him openly seeking advice from Conservatives on running a campaign, but it does offer some insight.
These people aren't conservatives; they are christian and white nationalists. Michael Savage was permanently banned from the UK for hate speech.
Liberal DeSantis thinks he's going to be president.
This is how he's trying to win the favor of party leadership. Demonstrating that he can enthusiastically throw vulnerable minorities under the bus.
You guys are mad at him but he is taking the same stance that the majority of people have on it.
Whether or not he actually believes that stance only he would know, but I would suspect that like many other people who are now "flipping" on the trans athletes these people probably didn't support them being in women's sports, but felt compelled to say they did because of the backlash they were worried about getting.
Now that people are noticing that the general public actually doesn't want this they are either playing into to popular stance to take or they are just feeling safe to actually express their opinions on the matter authentically.
If you think that "trans athletes" is a legitimate political concern, then you're a dummy at best and a fascist at worst. No surprise it's a major issue in the heart of empire.
Well it is a political concern in the sense that it's realists and delusionals coming to a point where they can't co-exist anymore.
You're trying to convince people seahorses can actually fly despite everyone clearly being able to see that they cannot.
You have delusion going up against objective facts and you're trying to get everyone on board with the delusion which will never work.
99% of people do not give a shit if someone wants to identify as trans as long as they are an adult and they aren't trying to enter into spaces that belong to the biological gender they are now identifying as.
Where you lose people is when you involve children and when you try to make the argument that trans people are exactly the same as their bilogical mirrors. Everyone knows they are not. It is lunacy to try and pretend they are.
I will happily call them by their prefer name/gender and I will do my best to use neutral terms when I remember, but don't vilify people for making honest mistakes. Long before the whole transgender topic really blew up I remember accidentally mis gendering people on the phone a few times because I thought they sounded masculine or feminine. There was no ill intent and they didn't take it as such. They simply corrected me and I apologized and we moved on. That same interaction now has been turned into its own genre of rage bait video for some people.
Trans lives matter. The public opinion will shift as it has throughout history. Trans people aren't going to go away.
Yes but it has not shifted yet, and the backlash is massive. So until public opinion shifts this is the stance to take in order to win. Reminder that Obama ran opposing gay marriage.
The reality is that in a democracy, minorities need to win their rights by convincing the majority that they deserve them. As awful as that sounds, it’s the reality. So the trans movement still has a long fight ahead.
What backlash? All I see is Republicans making a mountain out of a molehill.
And the democrats stay silent which is an admission of their support. The republicans will keep twisting this knife like they always do with cultural issues ,and it will keep winning them points unless democrats come out and speak plainly against these issues or at least take the most neutral of stances. People dislike it so much they they’d rather vote for Trump or not at all than support trans women in sports or transitioning minors. This is the line that a lot of “common sense” liberals won’t cross and they so happen to be the kind of voters that win elections. I’m sorry to say but the trans community will need to keep fighting for at least a decade or two more I think.
Nobody said they didn't matter?
Not wanting trans women to compete against biological women in sports does not mean people want them to "go away". It means they aren't the same as biological women and people are tired of you guys pretending that they are.
When you look people in the eyes and tell them that a biological man that now identifies as a woman can actually get pregnant (despite lacking the biological requirements to do so) you are asking them to ignore reality and science which most people simply aren't willing to do.
Ozma has attached an article you really need to read about the myths. But also, why are you bringing up trans women being able to get pregnant? Is that what you define as a biological woman? Because there are plenty of cis women who aren't able to get pregnant. No one is saying trans women can get pregnant, until we have womb transplants that is. But right now? No one says trans women can get pregnant. But we do say that after hormones the differences between cis women and trans women really isn't a big difference besides born with equipment.
Also your insistence with using "biological" instead of cis while still saying that you don't think trans women should disappear really isn't helping your case. Just use cis, what's wrong with that? The term biological is being used by the right to invalidate trans women being women at all, cis is what they are. Just use that word.
Linguistic and logical gymnastics are not convincing. Just because you can do cartwheels around the definition of a woman doesn’t mean that you are correct and it just makes you much less likely to convince someone who is not convinced because it comes off as a bad faith argument or a straw man . Trans women are not the same as women that are born women. If you begin the conversation from there then you might be able to win more support from the so called “everyday American”. If you can’t then nothing will change.
No centrist cares. They have an excuse for breaking solidarity with a vulnerable minority.
I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice [...]
That was Martin Luther King Jr. talking about civil rights. It rings just as true today for trans people.
Geez, y'all go overboard with some of this stuff and it's ridiculous. Newsom is not anti-trans, he's not anti-LGBTQ+, and he's not against any rights of any other marginalized communities as far his other statements and actions assert. He said he thought the sports issue was "deeply unfair".
Guess what? Lots of people do. I hate to use a meme phrase, but we DO live in a society that has to somehow represent all people where possible. We have to try and make as many people happy with what we have to work with.
You can think that's an unfair situation for BOTH SIDES and not be against either one. Cis women thinking it's unfair to compete against newly transitioned women are bad now? Women are suddenly bad or wrong for speaking out on something they take issue with? What about them?
Is Newsom on the wrong side of society for being an advocate in all other ways to the LGBTQ+ community but thinking this one thing isn't fair to either side? No. That's a stupid assertion.
It's a complicated issue that nobody seems to have a great idea on how to solve to make everyone happy as of yet, and we have bigger societal issues for Trans people that are more pressing than fucking sports. Like protecting their existence and making sure they aren't further marginalized.
Get a grip with this bullshit.
No one ever talks about all those times Benedict Arnold didn't betray the US.
Lol are you kidding??? Now he's Benedict Arnold. My fucking God. It's like it's impossible to help yourself to be reasonable and understand not everyone will agree with your exact definition or view of everything, and STILL not be against that. Totally okay for you do that though...
Yeah, he would've had to pretend to be an ally in order to betray people.
This isn't just about trans people in sports. He is giving his platform to bigots who are anti-trans people existing in hopes of getting their support in 2028. It's gross.
"It’s a complicated issue that nobody seems to have a great idea on how to solve to make everyone happy as of yet, and we have bigger societal issues for Trans people that are more pressing than fucking sports. Like protecting their existence and making sure they aren’t further marginalized."
Giving platforms to bigots make this much harder. Why give them greater access?
“Deplatforming” people is explicitly the reason why the far right has gained so much power. We used to bring the KKK to tv and they always embarrassed themselves. When you deplatform people you in fact send them to platforms where they can control the narrative, and where everyone agrees or won’t disagree with them (like Joe Rogan). Instead platform them and put them in a position in which they have to defend their views against someone who disagrees with them.
Forbidden ideology is as alluring as forbidden knowledge.
Bro, you’re saying we should give racists microphones so they can recruit more racist shit bags, what the fuck are you smoking?
Im saying that shunning everyone from the right is giving the racists a platform, a stage and an audience in which they can still recruit more racist shitbags but without any opposition and even more disimformation.
They built an entire eco system under your noses, and they have as much reach and influence as the “mainstream” ecosystem. That would have never happened without this whole deplatforming people bullshit for even the smallest disagreement with the agenda mentality. This is why far right ideology is spreading more than ever. You cannot suppress ideology, when you do you only make it more appealing to the kind of people who are already susceptible to it.
You know there’s a difference between letting someone’s objectively garbage opinions watch adults do the right thing and validating those opinions on large platforms?
It’s not a difference in opinion anyway, it’s a huge lie fueled by high-octane hate. They aren’t serious people and are not coming to the table with any intention of talking in good faith. If they even slightly cared about reality they wouldn’t have these views and as the old saying goes “you can’t logic someone out of an argument they didn’t logic themselves into”.
The reason this has gone on for so long is because Americans are spineless and enable this behaviour. They are thoroughly afraid of upsetting the status quo and so the best they can do is weak centrism while validating and giving confidence to the worst people you know. It isn’t the right-wing echo chambers, those have always existed and will continue to exist, it’s the fact that the public at large allows those echo chambers to grow by doing literally nothing about it or even helping because “balance”.
OH AND ALSO the right owns most of the mainstream media, like the enormity that is FOX-FUCKING-NEWS, and loves to deplatform progressive opinions. They enact huge amounts of censorship all the time and consider words like “cisgender” a slur while asking for trans people to live in silence and fear. Don’t come in here acting like they’re poor little oppressed babies.
You’re a clown.
It’s not validating them it’s about not letting them fester in the shadows where they can create social unrest like they are doing now. And it is a difference in opinion in a few ways, like I don’t hate trans people but I for the life of me no matter what cannot state that trans women are the same as a assigned at birth women. The fact that I had to sit and think for a moment there about which words to use so that it cannot be twisted through rhetoric highlights that. I have no hate against trans people though, I’ve even been involved with one. But to say that they are the same? I can’t trick my brain that way especially if they don’t pass. So you might say that it is a fact that trans women are women, but due to the lack of hard scientific evidence of that (and of what my own two eyes tell me) Im just gonna call it an opinion and disagree with you.
Also the reason the echo chambers are allowed to grow is because you live in a country in which freedoms of expression is a right, an almost holy one one would think, so it’s legal to say whatever hateful thing you want and be a part of hate groups. It’s enshrined in the constitution and that’s not gonna change. There’s no legal basis to disrupt them unless they act on their rhetoric.
The best you can do is not let them control the narrative and give them the spotlight a little in places where they will meet resistance so they can embarrass themselves like they always do. We used to bring the KKK on tv and they basically stopped existing for a long while after that.
This idea that letting someone speak in a forum is validating their opinions is ridiculous and is the reason we are where we are.
Not offering someone a guest spot on your show isn't deplatforming them. They aren't the same thing.
But it wasn't just sports, he also agreed that minors shouldn't be allowed to transition. Forcing a minor to go through one type of puberty when they wish to go through a different kind IMO is torture. Regret rates for transitioning are extremely low, and even if you do regret it you're no worse off than someone who regrets not transitioning.
In some cases, sure I'll grant it can be unfair for newly transitioned women, i.e. on hormones for less than a year. After that, any potential advantage is for a large part nullified (which is overly simplistic as a timeline but whatever). Also, let's be real honest on just how many people this affects. The amount is so staggeringly small that even if we put aside that there is only a temporary advantage, there's really not much of a problem, just a handful of individuals.
But, and this is vitally important to understand, sports are not a core, vital governmental interest and thus do not need to be legislated. To be very plain, games are not important to the functioning of society. Individual leagues can come up with their own policies if they feel it so necessary to exclude the small number of trans women who want to participate.
The entire "debate" just shows we are not a serious society. God forbid trans women want to exist and pursue their interests.
As for Gavin Newsome, this really shows he's trying a bit too hard to start a presidential run with a theory of "let's be Republican Lite." That worked so well the last time.
Then why you keep passin' the hot mic to people talkin' shit about trans athletes? Why amplify that voice on your government podcast? Thats literally Nazi shit. The Nazis made all this "traditional family" bullshit we are drowning in. So no, he shouldn't be saying it and isolating the already vulnerable. Theres like 10 trans althetes in the fucken nation, leave them alone and fix the fucken markets.
He not only burnt his state down literally, but also now speaks to anti-LGBTQ+ pundits.