Gavin Newsom could stop men competing in women’s sports today

On Saturday at the California Interscholastic Federation State Track and Field Championships, the biological male athlete AB Hernandez won gold in both the girls’ high jump and triple jump. The medals came at the expense of female athletes, sparking outrage from parents, local leaders and former collegiate athletes. As Sophia Lorey put it: “Girls deserve fair and safe sports. It’s time for adults to stand up and do something.”

This is just the latest injustice created by the extreme Democrat ideology that has forced itself on California, the state that will be hosting the 2028 Olympics. It’s a cruel irony that a state set to showcase the world’s commitment to fair competition on the global stage allows policies that rob its own female athletes of fairness and opportunity.

Last year, San Jose State University women’s volleyball team was awarded five victories by forfeit, not because of competition, but because opposing teams refused to play against a biological male out of fear of injury. And who can forget Payton McNabb, a high-school volleyball player who suffered a traumatic brain injury when a transgender athlete spiked a ball into her face?

These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re the predictable result of policies that put ideology before common sense or fairness, and girls’ safety and opportunity at risk.

A majority of Californians agree: according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released in April, 65 percent of Californians support requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams that match their biological sex. And California Governor Gavin Newsom agrees – or at least, claims to agree. Months ago he told my friend Charlie Kirk that allowing biological men to compete in girls’ sports is “deeply unfair.”

Soon after, Newsom had the opportunity to actually do something about all this by supporting Assembly Bills 844 and 89 put forward by Republicans in the state legislature.

But just as with rising homelessness, exploding crime, failing schools, the scandal of free taxpayer-funded healthcare going to illegal immigrants – all of which Newsom has condemned in forceful terms – he actually did… nothing.

Now Gavin Newsom is now putting federal funding for California at risk with his deer-in-the-headlights passivity. President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold billions of dollars, possibly permanently, if California continues to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports. Now that there are consequences to unchecked ideology, Newsom admits that he has “been struggling with this for some time. I mean, we’ve been exploring this for a couple years quietly behind the scenes, and we… couldn’t land.”

Well let me help our struggling governor. There is in fact a simple, straightforward way in which he could remedy this “deeply unfair” situation.

The scandal of biological males allowed to compete against girls, take their scholarships, and enter their locker rooms is enabled by a law enacted in 2013, AB-1266, now enshrined in California’s Education Code.

This ideological extremism turned our daughters into second-class citizens in their own schools. Girls who have trained for years are losing races and opportunities to biological boys. Young women are being forced to undress in front of male classmates. And those who speak out? They have been bullied into silence.

Democrats call this “progress.” That’s an obvious lie. It is in fact reversing decades of hard-fought progress on gender equality and women’s rights. It is state-sponsored discrimination, unfairness, cruelty and absurdity – and it will end when I am governor.

Here’s how I will turn things around. The provisions of AB-1266 relating to biological men in girls’ competitions and spaces violate the California state constitution in two key ways. First, they violate Section 28(f)(1), which guarantees the right to a safe school environment. Second, they violate Section 31(a), which bans gender discrimination. Forcing girls to compete against biological males and surrender their privacy is the definition of discrimination.

As governor, on day one I will demand that the legislature repeal AB-1266, this cruel, dangerous and unconstitutional law. If they refuse, I will file suit to invalidate this statute. It is an approach in line with Governor Pete Wilson’s successful effort to overturn racial preferences in California.

The Golden State was once renowned as the land of fairness and opportunity, a state where every child could dream big and succeed. But that promise has been shattered by an out-of-touch political elite that has lost its grip on common sense and is in thrall to the most extreme ideological fringe.

And as usual, we see a total absence of leadership from Gavin Newsom and a cynical gulf between his words and actions. He said he was getting tough on homelessness, but his recent “announcement” was just a weak list of ineffective suggestions. He said he was going to rein in free taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants, but actually increased spending on it in his recent budget. Now we see the same pattern of empty promises when it comes to protecting California’s girls, Gavin Newson pathetically wringing his hands instead of taking action.

I will not sit back while California’s girls are robbed of fairness, dignity and opportunity.

This is about basic decency and common sense. It’s about standing up for girls, for women, for everyone who believes in fairness, opportunity and the California Dream, all of which have been destroyed by fifteen years of Democrat one party rule. It is way past time for change in California, on this as on so many other issues.