In the words of Bonnie Tyler, trans people are holding out for a hero right now, and we might be in for quite the wait. While townships and cities in blue states everywhere are trying to create sanctuary spaces for their trans citizens, Gavin Newsom is deciding to throw in his lot with professional transphobe and Baby Herman lookalike Charlie Kirk on the first episode of Newsom’s new podcast.
As reported by Erin in the Morning, Kirk engaged Newsom on such topics as “should trans people play sports in America?” and “should taxpayers fund gender-affirming care for incarcerated trans people?” You know, the real issues. The two also discussed the much-debunked fake science resource The Cass Report, as Kirk brought forth bad faith point after bad faith point concerning trans lives and futures. Newsom seemed to agree, declaring himself to be in “alignment” with Kirk on several issues.
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Was anyone asking for a government website specifically to report DEI in schools? Nope, but the Trump administration just created one anyway.
So what does this mean for transgender Californians, and especially for trans kids and families considering moving to the state to avoid anti-trans bans in their own states? Well, it ain’t good.
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“CA should be taking the lead in defying Trump and showing how independent and powerful a state like CA is.” one Redditor said in response to Newsom’s disappointing capitulations.
“Newsom is pivoting to typical democrat moderate in preparation for his presidential run because he’s term limited a governor anyways,” another poster stated. “It’s highly unlikely anything anti trans would get past the General assembly even if the governor vocally supported it.”
Still, it doesn’t feel amazing when the leader of one of the few states that’s felt life a relatively safe place to live as an openly trans person is lending his ear to an anti-trans crusader and platforming him as someone with real points to make and genuine insight to offer. But I guess that’s the prevailing theme of right now: we can’t trust cis people in power to stick their necks out for us, especially when they’re interested in getting more political power in the future.
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