Gov. Gavin Newsom has come under fire from the LGBTQ community for having the conservative commentator, Charlie Kirk, on his podcast, and especially for saying that he (Newsom) considers girls and women participating in female sports leagues “deeply unfair.”
I’m weighing in on this because while the topic doesn’t specifically relate to Oakland, many of my readers feel very strongly about these things, including trans rights. I want to point out that I’ve known and respected trans people for decades, and long ago undertook to understand how they feel and why they do what they do. I wrote a series of articles on transgendered people and drag queens in the 1990s for the East Bay Express, in which I got to know trans people well. No one will ever convince me that trans people are “sick” or don’t have the right to choose their own gender. They do! The anti-trans movement is fueled by right wing religious maniacs, and I will resist them as long as I have breath in my body.
At the same time, the question of allowing male-to-female people play women’s sports certainly is debatable. I know people, including in my very liberal family, who think it’s wrong. While I myself haven’t made a decision, I can see both sides of the question.
But this isn’t about me, it’s about Newsom. Should he have had a MAGA extremist like Kirk on his podcast? The answer is, Yes. The Governor enjoys a good, brisk conversation. With reference to those who have criticized him, he asks, “What has happened to us [Democrats] that we can’t talk to the other side?” Some of us—me included—do tend to siphon ourselves off from the opposition, but I think a little rational thought will indicate how unproductive such an approach is. If I had a podcast, I’d want to have opposing viewpoints on it.
I remember decades ago doing a story on neo-nazis for the East Bay Express. As part of my research I reached out to them and, after suitable guarantees of anonymity were made by me (I only used pseudonyms), they let me hang out with them, and were very open and honest with me. I actually became “friends” with one, although I use the word “friend” advisedly. I loathed their anti-semitism (being Jewish it was particularly offensive to me) and, being gay, I loathed their homophobia. I thought they were idiots, and I also deplored their tendency toward violence; in fact I suspected (but had no proof) that they were involved in some synagogue bombings in the 1990s (and so reported to the local FBI).
But at the same time I saw no reason not to listen to them and to try, if possible, to get them to see that they could actually like and respect a gay Jewish man. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I think Newsom is right that he not only has the right, he has the responsibility to have guests on his show that hold vastly different opinions from him.
Besides, Newsom has demonstrated his support of the LGBTQ community over and over. We all know he began marrying same-sex couples when he was Mayor of San Francisco in 2004, the first time in American history a mayor had done so. Less known is that in 2022 Newsom appointed the first openly transgender person to the judicial bench in California. Little known also is that Elon Musk moved both X and SpaceX from California to Texas because of trans protections Newsom signed into law, laws that the crypto-nazi Musk violently opposed. I don’t know if Newsom knew in advance that California would lose those two companies if he signed the new laws, but I believe he would have supported them even if he had known. So it’s ridiculous to say Newsom is backtracking on his previous positions. The LGBTQ community has never had a greater friend than Gavin Newsom.
Elon Musk may be a great entrepreneur but he’s a vicious homophobe and probably a White supremacist to boot. His Hitler salute revealed his true self, if there was even any doubt before he gave it. That the Trump regime shares and promotes his loathsome views is deplorable. We should unite in solidarity against MAGA hate, instead of criticizing our best friends just because they occasionally say something we don’t agree with.
Steve Heimoff