Pandering Podcaster Gavin Newsom's Wife Recently Partnered With Pro-Transgender Athlete Group

California Gov. Gavin Newsom seemed almost glib as he carved a deep chasm in his own political party Thursday over the issue of biological male trans athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports. But Newsom’s seemingly off-the-cuff remarks deeming the issue one of “fairness” during his debut podcast episode is not just dividing the Democratic Party. It may have left his own personal house divided as well.

Newsom, a longtime, committed champion of LGBT rights who was one of the first prominent politicians to defy state law and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is now siding with conservatives with his stated opposition to biological men participating in women’s sports.

“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 in his deputy podcast episode “This is Gavin Newsom,” in response to MAGA-world influencer Charlie Kirk’s questions. “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”

It’s not clear what impact, if any, Newsom’s comments will have on his own decisions regarding state policy. When asked if Newsom planned on issuing an executive action barring transgender athletes in women’s sports in California, a spokesman wouldn’t speculate. California is one of 24 states in the country that allow transgender athletes to play on sports teams that match their gender identities and enshrines such protections in the state education code.

Newsom’s newly stated opposition to his own state policies puts him squarely at odds with national and California LGBT groups and his wife’s very public support for “sports equity” – a euphemism for encouraging all children, including children in lower-income areas, minorities, as well as trans athletes, to compete in sports.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, known as the gender-neutral “first partner” in California – an acknowledgment of her commitment to LGBT issues – partnered with the group Positive Coaching Alliance to organize and speak at a “sports equity” event last month. Along with touting the benefits of sports for all children, regardless of race and income level, the Alliance also has long advocated against bans on allowing trans girls (biological males) to participate in girls’ high school sports.

The Positive Coaching Alliance lists a report on its website titled “Equal Opportunity for Transgender Student Athletes,” which states that high school trans athletes should be allowed to compete on teams “consistent with the student’s gender identity” even if the student hasn’t undergone any hormone treatment or gender-altering surgery.

“It is also advisable that high school athletic programs adopt a different policy for including transgender student athletes than college athletic programs,” the report states. “Specifically, this report recommends that high schools permit transgender athletes to play on teams consistent with the student’s gender identity, without regard to whether the student has undertaken any medical treatment.”

The report was the result of a “think tank” of participants that included the “National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National High School Federation, transgender athletes, and an array of “experts on transgender issues from a wide range of disciplines – law, medicine, advocacy and athletics. It was written by Dr. Pat Griffin, former director of It Takes a Team! Education Campaign for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in Sport, Women’s Sports Foundation, and Helen J. Carroll, sports project director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Siebel Newsom, acting on behalf of the governor’s Advisory Council on Physical Fitness and Mental Well-being, appeared at the “sports equity” event on Feb. 25. It was sponsored in part by Positive Coaching Alliance as well as the Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport, another nonprofit. Organizers posted several X.com and Instagram photos and videos of her with participants and organizers.

Siebel Newsom’s partnership with a strong advocate for transgender athletes in women’s sports comes as little surprise considering her long record of gender-justice advocacy, as my co-author and I detail in our book, “Fools Gold: The Radicals, Con-Artists and Traitors that Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All.”  

Siebel Newsom founded The Representation Project nonprofit to battle “sexism through film education, research, and activism” and refers to itself as “the nation’s leading gender watchdog organization” that “embarks on social media campaigns that hold corporations, content creators, political leaders and others accountable.”

The first partner writes and produces these gender-justice films through her for-profit operation, Girls Club Entertainment, that then licenses them and charges for screenings in public schools. According to Fox News, Siebel Newsom raked in $1.4 million by charging schools to screen the films.

Corporations with pressing business before the governor, such as PG&E, which has been found guilty of sparking the most deadly and devastating wildfire in California history, have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit that produces the films, according to an analysis of the nonprofit’s 990 tax forms.

The films, which include “Miss Representation,” “The Mask You Live In,” and “The Great American Lie,” contain some sexually explicit imagery and push students to question their gender identity and to feel “shame and sorrow” about American society, which the films argue is split by privilege and oppression, according to research documented by Open the Books founder Adam Andrezejewski, whose watchdog first discovered the materials.

The films aggressively push students to question their gender identity. In the curriculum accompanying“The Mask You Live In,” the materials introduce the “genderbread person,” which shows middle and high school students how biological sex, “gender expression,” “sexual attraction,” and gender identity exist across a spectrum, which can be mixed and matched.

Curriculum for another Siebel Newsom film for students, “The Great American Lie,” which “examines the roots of systemic inequalities through a unique gender lens,” includes instructions to teachers to provide a “privilege walk” for students. The walk instructs students to offer admissions about personal information, comparing themselves to peers inside and outside the classroom. Such suggested “privileges” include being “a cisgender man,” being “white,” “born in the United States,” “straight,” and speaking English as a first language.

Two of Siebel Newsom’s films, “Miss Representation” and “The Great American Lie,” feature her husband cast as a women’s rights champion. In one of the films, Newsom touts his record as San Francisco mayor, noting that he appointed a woman police chief fire chief as one of his first acts in office.

Newsom has long championed transgender rights and, in recent years, argued that Republicans were weaponizing an issue that should be focused on acceptance and preventing transgender suicides.

While in the spin room at the Reagan Library after a GOP presidential debate in the fall of 2023, a reporter asked Newsom why he opposed allowing teachers and school administrators to tell parents when their children are transitioning at schools.

“It’s a helluva thing,” Newsom told RealClearPolitics. “You’re talking about 1% of the population when climate change, which impacts 100% of the population, wasn’t even brought up [in the debate]. And we’re talking about trans issues?”

“This is one of the greatest distractions and it’s classic,” he remarked, telling reporters they should be “ashamed” for asking the questions.

Yet, when Kirk pressed Newsom on this issue during his podcast, the governor readily acknowledged that allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports is “deeply unfair.” He also agreed that Trump’s campaign ad featuring Kamala Harris’ role in spearheading the provision of taxpayer-funded gender medical transitions for detained immigrants and federal prisoners was highly effective.

“She didn’t even react to it, which was even more devastating,” Newsom said, noting that upward of 90% of Americans disagree with Harris’ position. “Then you had the video [of Harris] as a validator. Brutal,” he added. “It was a great ad.”

Newsom, during that discussion, also expressed concern that transgender people are more likely to commit suicide and have higher rates of anxiety and depression. “The way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with – so I hold both things in my hand,” he stated.

That wasn’t enough to assuage influential groups whose leaders expressed dismay yesterday over Newsom’s break with the Democratic Party on transgender athletes playing in girls’ and women’s sports.

“Our message to Gov. Newsom and all leaders across the country is simple: The path to 2028 isn’t paved with the betrayal of vulnerable communities. It’s built on the courage to stand up and do what’s right and do the hard work to actually help the American People,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson.

The largest state LGBT organization, Equality California, which has worked alongside the Newsom administration on many issues, also lit into Newsom over his comments to Kirk.

“We are profoundly disappointed and angered by Governor Newsom’s comments about transgender youth and their ability to participate in sports,” said Tony Hoang, the group’s executive director. “… Right now, transgender youth, their families, their doctors, and their teachers are facing unprecedented attacks from extremist politicians who want to eviscerate their civil rights and erase them from public life. In this moment of crisis, they need leaders who will unequivocally fight for them.”

“Instead of standing strong, the governor has added to the heartbreak and fear caused by the relentless barrage of hate from the Trump administration,” Hoang added.

The statements from the long allies of Newsom are even more striking considering that his administration provided a $630,000 grant to Equality California in 2023 as part of a program aimed at combating hate crimes against transgender, Muslim, and black people.

That year, Newsom signed a bill declaring California a sanctuary for transgender youths seeking gender-altering drugs and surgery. The designation provides legal protection for transgender children and their parents who flee conservative states that have restricted access to such medical care.

Equality California has worked alongside the Newsom administration’s Superintendent for Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, who has issued state guidance and helped pass new laws, with Newsom’s strong backing, that prevent state public elementary schools from notifying parents if their child’s gender is changing at school.

The group has been at the center of the fight for keeping secrets from parents about their children’s gender-transitioning at schools. Equality California has fiercely opposed the parental rights movement, labeling it homophobic and transphobic, and argues that notifying parents amounts to “forcibly outing” gender-transitioning children, which could lead to physical or emotional harm for these young people who already experience higher rates of depression, mental health, self-harm, and suicide than their peers.

Equality California staff have attended school board meetings and appeared alongside Thurmond as he answers questions from the press. Parental rights advocates have argued that the grant is inappropriately boosting the group’s lobbying efforts opposing parental rights policies at local school boards.

In 2023, Newsom started issuing threats of civil rights investigations and $1 million-plus fines for school boards, including one in Temecula, that refused state-mandated DEI curriculum.

“Demagogues who whitewash history, censor books, and perpetuate prejudice must never succeed,” Newsom posted on X.com. “Hate doesn’t belong in our classrooms, and because of the board majority’s antics, Temecula has a civil rights investigation to answer for.”

Within weeks, the Democrat-controlled state legislature in 2023 passed a bill that would legalize hefty state fines for school boards that rejected state-determined curricula and other state DEI policies. The state attorney general also sued a different school district in Chino for requiring parents to be notified when their children begin identifying as a different gender in California public schools.

Yet, even in late 2023, Newsom demonstrated limits when it came to how far he was willing to take the transgender rights debate. The governor surprised LBGT activists by vetoing a bill requiring judges to consider children’s gender identities in custody disputes. In his veto message, Newsom attempted to sidestep the underlying political controversy, warning against allowing the government “to dictate – in prescriptive terms that single out one characteristic – legal standards” for judges to apply. He argued that courts could already consider parents’ views on the gender identities of their children.