TWIBS: Governor Newsom May Be a Threat to Trans Americans
Gavin Newsom has spent a lot of time declaring himself the greatest hero of the queer community to ever live, but his words and actions rarely seem to align these days.
Governor Newsom gleefully readies himself to do violence upon seeing a homeless encampment full of innocent people he has failed to help. Please do not @ me for doing the laser eyes joke twice in one week. Thank you.
Humor by Aly Gibbs
This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s longest running column! Every Friday, Aly Gibbs digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
I guess “politicians are dishonest” is such a ubiquitous maxim that I should never, ever be surprised when the things an elected official, or somebody hoping to become one, says don’t line up with the things they do.
Enter Gavin Newsom.
On October 1, Governor of California Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 86, a simple bill that would have brought Kindergarten and first through eighth grade curriculum on health education up to the same standards as high schools. The bill was opposed by Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, whose primary concern seems to be ideas such as gender and genitalia not being concretely linked, and who described such notions as “controversial gender theories” that “most Californians support, nor want to see happening in our schools.”
I suspect Jones hasn’t taken a poll, or has forgotten that California is broadly a very liberal state, thanks to the fact that many of the nation's largest urban cities filled with blue voters are located in southern California. Regardless, these ideas aren’t novel or offensive; on a basic cultural level, we understand that a not insignificant number of people define their gender without consideration for what’s between their legs.
Newsom’s defense of the veto? He believes the bill should wait until a state study scrutinizing health curricula is completed.
What I find so egregious about that veto is that Newsom gave an interview on, of all the places he could possibly have turned up, YouTuber ConnorEatsPants’ Fortnite Friday show where he regularly interviews celebrity guests while playing, you guessed it, Fortnite. Let me assure you, reader, before Gavin Newsom appeared on Mr. EatsPants’ show, I was fully aware of its existence, because I’m hip and young and with it.
Thank you for understanding.
I would not have expected Mr. EatsPants to be particularly up to date on the trans community, or even willing to prod Newsom about his crappy treatment of trans Californians, but hey… egg on my face, apparently! Connor explicitly points out that trans athletes do not dominate sports by any stretch of the imagination, and that Newsom’s willingness to engage with the lie as a valid political stance is harmful in and of itself.
Newsom defensively refers to himself as “a champion of LGBTQ rights,” says that he has a trans godson (which, I guess, immunizes you from doing transphobia), and insists that he “hates the way the [trans] community has been exploited and weaponized by Trump and by the right.” This, he says, breaks his heart, because trans people “just wanna survive.”
His track record when it comes to trans athletes and trans healthcare suggest his heart may not be broken, actually, because it’s unclear that he even has one. Never mind Newsom’s clear and documented hatred of homeless Californians, whose encampments he regularly breaks up himself like some sort of supervillain. Let’s not forget the hugely increased rate and risk of homelessness among trans Americans.
Newsom insists to Connor that trans people competing in sports must be a nuanced issue, and that he and others are not bigots for simply having some reasonable concerns about our right to exist and thrive in normal society. He says, “In my heart, I know I’m not bigoted… and it hurts me, it’s not just offensive, as a guy who literally put my political life on the line for the community for decades … that people think I’ve somehow sold the community out.”
To Newsom I say, fuck you, eat shit and go to hell you smarmy loser. You aren’t owed good boy points or queer accolades for doing your job and standing up for your marginalized constituents, which you don’t even do. I don’t know what he’s put on the line, exactly, by occasionally pushing through pro-LGBTQ legislation in one of the queerest, most liberal states in the union, but this tantrum about hurt feelings on a Fortnite podcast is not particularly endearing.
To you, my dear readers, I say this: Newsom, I think, realizes he’s made a misstep with his core demographic. As ever, pressuring this annoying windbag to support queer Californians is imperative, and if you happen to be one of his voters, make sure you don’t let him play the weasel on this.
We all know Newsom is eyeing a 2028 bid for the presidency, and if he has any shot of earning queer votes, he needs to stop with the woe is me crap and start supporting trans Americans, full stop. Otherwise, he’s just another politician making promises he intends to break, and he isn’t worth anybody’s time or energy.
Aly Gibbs (She/They), formerly Alyssa Steinsiek, is a trans writer who reports on news important to the queer community.
