The Resistance Brief: This week in the fight for justice

Dropping the ball

Blog by Ricardo Martinez (he/him), Executive Director

I was in Palm Springs last week when I started hearing about California Governor Gavin Newsom’s podcast and his comments on how he believed that transgender girls and women participating in sports is “deeply unfair.”

I had heard about the launch of his podcast and was excited about the premise: having honest, nuanced, and curious conversations about issues people feel strongly about.

But what transpired did not seem curious, nuanced, or honest – it felt like a political calculation at the expense of a small, vulnerable community who are already under significant threat.

I’ve spent a large part of my career working with lawmakers – educating them on issues that impact our community, answering tough questions, and sharing constituent stories that illustrate how policy and laws affect real lives. I’ve been in rooms where lawmakers have told me that they can’t support specific LGBTQ+ issues because polling is not on their side. And I’ve been in meetings with lawmakers who express empathy and understanding but, when it comes time to cast their vote, have been unwilling to show uncommon political courage.

I’m no longer surprised by politicians who determine their support based on political calculations. But what I struggle to understand about Governor Newsom’s comments is the answer to the questions why now, and why with a right-wing media personality like Charlie Kirk?

Here was an opportunity for conversation. Rather than cowering to pressure or prioritizing politics over principles, I thought – as I know many others did – that Governor Newsom would lead a nuanced discussion. He didn’t. Instead, he disregarded constituents he once celebrated and to whose struggle for recognition and survival he once drew awareness – noting the importance of protecting transgender people because they deserved no less.

I’m most flabbergasted by the timing. The Governor’s remarks seem especially reckless, given the relentless attacks transgender Americans are currently under – attacks that go far beyond sports and are driven in no small part by anti-LGBTQ influencers like Kirk.

There is room to have conversations about people’s genuine concerns and questions about fairness and safety in girls’ and women’s sports. GLAD Law and others in our movement and community have been engaging in those conversations, with the public and with policymakers, to understand why people feel conflicted, and to propose workable policies that ensure fairness and opportunity for all girls, including transgender girls.

This approach is reminiscent of what worked nearly 15 years ago when I worked with GLSEN. I often heard stories from our chapter network about administrators, parents, and coaches coming together to figure out how all students could experience the joy of physical education, sports, and play in an environment where they feel safe, valued, and included.

Yes, these conversations were happening in 2010, and schools were figuring it out on their own. That’s what our public schools and educators do on a whole range of issues, because of their deep commitment to making sure every student is supported and has an opportunity to learn. It wasn’t until anti-equality lawmakers began pushing “bathroom bill” copycat legislation and spreading disinformation about trans folks to create fear and manufacture outrage that schools became epicenters for conflict rather than collaborative solutions.

If Governor Newsom was reaching for dialogue and collaboration with the premiere of his podcast, he fell far short of that mark. At a time when LGBTQ+ people are facing a full-scale attack – from being banished from federal websites, to having our lives and families deleted from school libraries and classrooms, to encountering threats to essential healthcare, to being branded dishonest, lacking in integrity, and unfit to serve in the military, to having our basic right to exist and function in society questioned – our community needs and deserves better than fair-weather allies.

What to know, what to do: 

Donate Today

Read more editions of the Resistance Brief.