Medical Professionals Denounce Newsom’s Embrace of Anti-Trans Bigots
The California governor has betrayed young constituents and caused them “extreme harm,” they said, by cozying up to the right to lift his own presidential aspirations.
by Valorie Van-Dieman
Gavin Newsom, whose new podcast has platformed a parade of bigoted, right-wing guests, is causing “extreme harm to the mental health and well-being of tens of thousands” of young trans people, a group representing dozens of medical providers has said in a letter to the California governor.
“You have a responsibility to stand up for the rights of marginalized groups,” the group wrote in its letter, noting that Newsom’s podcast is widely seen as signaling his 2028 presidential aspirations. It called his embrace of right-wing provocateurs a “betrayal.”
The letter writers were responding specifically to Newsom’s inaugural episode, in which he hosted conspiracy theorist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk. Throughout Newsom’s fawning interview, he professes respect for many of Kirk’s hard-right, anti-trans stances.
In particular, Newsom endorsed his guest’s anti-trans position on sports participation, calling trans inclusion “deeply unfair,” and highlighted his own opposition to providing gender-affirming care to incarcerated trans people. Newsom’s comments are cast in a discussion of perceived Democratic Party weaknesses, a favorite trope of anti-trans commentators who assert that support for trans people costs the party votes.
What Newsom and Kirk ignored, said Sarah Burdge, the letter’s primary organizer, “is how much research there is out there about how best to support gender expansive youth.”
“There are hundreds and thousands of articles that give us information about best practices for supporting gender expansive youth,” added Burdge, a clinical psychologist. The letter’s signatories, now numbering more than 100, “practice according to those standards,” she said.
Newsom “basically let himself get steamrolled by all the hateful things Kirk was saying,” said Veronica Esposito, a licensed therapist who helped organize the letter, which was sent on Monday. Esposito, who is also a contributor to Assigned Media, urged Newsom to do a better job standing up for young trans people, saying “he just threw them under the bus.”
Could the Kirk interview have been just a one-off for Newsom, the governor’s allies initially asked. Perhaps he was just unprepared, they wondered.
Newsom provided an immediate answer. His next guest was the right-wing commentator Michael Savage, who asserted that kindergartners are “being brainwashed” to accept transgender ideology, a fallacy of the far-right that was met with no skepticism or pushback from Newsom.
Wednesday’s guest? Steve Bannon, convicted felon, Trump crony and founder of the hard-right website Breitbart News. Bannon showed off his radical street cred by giving the Nazi salute at last month’s convention of the Conservative Political Action Conference.
On the surface, Newsom’s embrace of the right-wing seems at odds with his history of advancing LGBTQ+ rights in California, notably his support for same-sex marriage.
But Newsom’s record on trans issues is inconsistent. On one hand, he signed into law a bill prohibiting schools from outing trans students without the student’s express consent. On the other hand, he vetoed a bill that would have widened requirements for insurers to cover gender-affirming care and another bill that would have instructed judges to consider gender affirmation when determining custody and visitation.
Shortly after the Kirk episode aired, health professionals specializing in gender-affirming care in the San Francisco area, many of whom are members of the group Mind The Gap, began drafting the letter to Newsom, The letter denounces Newsom for his comments, calling them a “betrayal of gender-expansive youth and the broader trans community.”
The letter lays out the benefits that gender-inclusive policies bring to youth sports, noting that “participation among cisgender girls in school sports increased by 14 percent compared to the decline in participation in states with gender-exclusive policies.”
The letter also highlights the harsh criticism of Newsom by his fellow Democrats in California. “We woke up profoundly sickened and frustrated by these remarks,” Assembly Member Christopher Ward said. State Sen. Scott Weiner added, “Charlie Kirk is a vile bigot, and standing with him on this issue is profoundly disturbing.”
Valorie Van-Dieman (she/they) is the editorial assistant at Assigned Media. @valorievandieman.bsky.social