‘It is an issue of fairness—it’s deeply unfair,’ the Democratic California governor told Republican Charlie Kirk in a podcast interview.
In his new podcast “This is Gavin Newsom” on March 6, the California governor, a Democrat, told his first guest Charlie Kirk, a Republican, that he agrees it’s unfair to allow males to compete in female sports.
“It is an issue of fairness—it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said in the 70-minute podcast.
When Kirk asked Newsom if he would speak out against a high school transgender athlete from California, Kirk said he could see Newsom wrestling with the question.
Newsom countered, “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”
Charlie Kirk: It's 890 medals and trophies that we know of in the last five years. That's a lot.
— TheThinkingConservative.com (@TnkConservative) March 7, 2025
Gavin Newsom: No. So, I'm going to, let me step back, say completely fair on the issue of fairness, I completely agree. So that's easy to call out the unfairness of that.… pic.twitter.com/w3OdZcBQmm
Newsom noted that it was in 2014—years before he was sworn in as governor in 2019—that a California law went into effect allowing athletes to participate in female sports according to their gender identity.
The governor said he felt empathy toward the transgender population.
“The way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with as well, so both things I can hold in my hand,” he said. “How can we address this issue with the kind of decency that I think is inherent in you but not always expressed on the issue, and at the same time deal with the unfairness?”
Kirk, a co-founder of Turning Point USA and host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” told The Epoch Times in a text message after the podcast that if Newsom was serious, he should “immediately issue an executive order preventing men from being in women’s sports.”
“Anything short of that shows he is a fraud on this issue,” Kirk said.
Newsom has described his podcast as a platform for “honest discussions with people that agree and disagree with us.”
During the episode, Kirk referred to a recent poll showing a large majority of Americans don’t want men competing in women’s sports, telling Newsom that Democrats are handing Republicans “an 80-20 issue” that could provide a political advantage.
The New York Times/Ipsos survey of 2,128 respondents conducted between Jan. 2 and Jan. 10 found that 79 percent of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don’t think male athletes who identify as female should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
“I agree with you. We’re getting crushed on it. Crushed. Crushed,” Newsom replied, saying that even people within his own friend circle were concerned about the issue.
“People say, ‘What the hell is going on? Why aren’t you calling this out?’”
By Brad Jones
