Gavin Newsom calls males playing in female sports ‘deeply unfair’

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at East Los Angeles College on February 26, 2025 in Monterey Park, California. / Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

National Catholic Register, Mar 10, 2025 / 11:15 am (CNA).

Males who identify as transgender women shouldn’t be allowed to play female sports and the Democratic Party should make room for pro-lifers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on a podcast Thursday.

Newsom, 57, governor of one of the most Democratic states in America and often lampooned by conservatives as an unhinged left-winger, made the comments during an 82-minute interview with an unlikely guest: conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk.

Newsom, widely considered a likely presidential candidate in 2028, is a strong supporter of legal and publicly funded abortion, despite being a baptized Catholic. As mayor of San Francisco in 2004, he ordered the clerk’s office to issue same-sex civil marriage licenses, which was against state law at the time.

But his comments during his "This Is Gavin Newsom" podcast have drawn widespread attention.

Newsom’s newsmaking statements came in response to Kirk’s prodding, which was spurred on by Newsom’s repeated pumping of Kirk for political advice.

“But what do you do? Seriously, Charlie Kirk, give us some advice,” Newsom said at one point.

“Get better ideas, Governor,” Kirk said. “… Like for example — you have an opportunity to, like, run to the middle and seize this mantle. Obviously you’re talking to me about people. 

"You right now should come out and be like, ‘You know what? The young man who’s about to win the state championship in the long jump in female sports, that shouldn’t happen.’ You as the governor should stay up and say, ‘No.’ Would you do something like that? Would you say, ‘No men in female sports’?”

“Well, I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said.

Kirk, the co-founder of the politically conservative advocacy organization Turning Point USA, noted that a recent poll found that 80% of Americans oppose males playing female sports. He said he could see Newsom wrestling with the issue.

“No, I’m not wrestling with it, the fairness issue. I totally agree with you,” Newsom said.

Newsom also seemed to downplay the value of using alternative pronouns for people who identify as other than male or female, saying he has only seen it happen once during a meeting during his time as governor. He also said no one in his office has ever used the purportedly gender-neutral term “Latinx.”

Again under Kirk’s prodding, Newsom praised as “brilliant” a Trump campaign spot before the presidential election last fall saying that “Kamala is for they-them. President Trump is for you.”

“Devastating. Devastating. Devastating. And she didn’t even react to it, which was more devastating,” Newsom said.

Kirk also raised the issue of abortion. He said the Democratic Party has what he called “an unhealthy purification process” that leaves the party “a bunch of people who are talking to each other.”

“For example, if there’s a pro-life Democrat, is there a place for a pro-life Democrat in the party?” Kirk asked.

“There should be,” Newsom said. “That’s principle. There should be. That’s a deeply held personal point of view. God bless.”

“And I say this as one of the biggest champions for reproductive freedom on the planet,” Newsom said.

Newsom, who still identifies as a Catholic, praised Kirk “as a man of faith, and I deeply admire that about you.”

Kirk occasionally chided Newsom for taking the Lord’s name in vain, which he did several times during the interview.

At times, Newsom sounded as if he were doing what is known in politics as opposition research — but with the goal not of discrediting his opponent but rather learning from him.

“These things are important — and by the way, it’s the reason we’re having this conversation,” Newsom said. “This is very illuminating and helpful to me, to understand sort of the animus. What is it about, you know, that animus?”

Newsom said his own 13-year-old son wanted to skip school on Thursday so he could meet Kirk, 31, who makes popular online videos based on his frequent visits to college campuses. Kirk often debates liberal students outside, while inviting them to ask him anything.

Asked by Newsom how often he talks to President Donald Trump, Kirk said, “Once or twice a week.”

The conversation between Newsom and Kirk was cordial, bordering on friendly, but the two clashed on certain issues, including whether what Kirk called “pornographic” books should be eliminated from elementary schools, which Newsom called “book banning.”

On another matter, Kirk said teachers should be fired if they withhold a student’s gender transitioning at school from the child’s parents. Newsom responded: “There’s so much extreme rhetoric in this space.”

Kirk said Democrats will lose on that issue.

“Sometimes you lose on principle. It’s one of those things; everything’s not political, is the point,” Newsom said.

Newsom said Kirk and Republicans are on the unpopular side on abortion and same-sex civil marriage, which Kirk acknowledged.

But Newsom said he agreed with Kirk that Democrats are hurt by their stance on gender-identity issues.

“I deeply am mindful of the politics of this, which are very unhelpful personally,” Newsom said. “It’s unhelpful more broadly, professionally [to] the Democratic Party and our brand and one of the reasons — to your point — the Democratic Party brand has just been crushed.”

This article was originally published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s news partner, and has been adapted for CNA.