Equality California on Governor Newsom's Comments on Transgender Student Athletes

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - March 6, 2025 Equality California released the following statement from Executive Director Tony Hoang in response to comments made about transgender student-athletes by Governor Gavin Newsom on his podcast:

"We are profoundly disappointed and angered by Governor Newsom's comments about transgender youth and their ability to participate in sports. Transgender kidslike all kidsdeserve the chance to play sports alongside their teammates and learn important values like leadership, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Transgender young people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

Right now, transgender youth, their families, their doctors, and their teachers are facing unprecedented attacks from extremist politicians who want to eviscerate their civil rights and erase them from public life. In this moment of crisis, they need leaders who will unequivocally fight for them. Instead of standing strong, the Governor has added to the heartbreak and fear caused by the relentless barrage of hate from the Trump Administration.

In California, we have strong policies in place that protect transgender youth and ensure a level playing field for all studentspolicies that have allowed students to participate in school sports here for over ten years without incident. We all want sports to be fair and student-athletes to be safe. Athletic associations already make rules about who can participate in different sports at different levels across a range of issues, including this one.

Studies show that participation in sports provides kids with invaluable life skills such as teamwork, leadership, discipline, and cooperationfundamental lessons that every young person deserves the chance to experience. Beyond the field, sports also contribute significantly to students' overall well-being, fostering better mental health, boosting academic performance, and enhancing self-esteem and confidence. We should all encourage every student in California to participate in school sportsand that includes the Governor.

His comments are all the more harmful in the context of the continued attack on the rights and dignity of transgender people happening at all levels of government across the country. We are coming out of an election cycle where extremist politicians spent hundreds of millions of dollars spreading hateful disinformation about transgender people and have a federal administration that unleashed five anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders in its first two weeks. California and our leaders have an obligation to fight back and protect transgender people who are just trying to live their lives.

Throughout his career, the Governor has been a leader on LGBTQ+ issues, and we demand that he continue to safeguard and vigorously defend the rights and dignity of LGBTQ+ and especially transgender Californians and support efforts to strengthen protections for our community in the coming legislative session and beyond."

Equality California is the nation's largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ+ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ+ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating, and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org