Over the past month, California Governor Gavin Newsom has been making headlines for all the right reasons: he's led an effort to respond to Texas Republicans' push to further gerrymander their state, used his profile to pressure Border Patrol and ICE, and found a very effective-and hilarious-way to get under Trump's skin through his Press Office's parodies of the president's writing style. All of these actions have catapulted him to national stardom, where he's taken on the role of leading the fight against the Trump administration.
However, to the trans community, his rise only brings fear. Because before these developments, he was trying to win over potential voters in a very different way: by abandoning the LGBTQ+ community.
In the United States, California has long had a reputation. And not just for its stereotyped sunny weather, surfer culture, and affluent, snobby culture, but for its liberal politics as well. California Democrats are synonymous-especially in more Republican-leaning areas-with the liberal style of politics conservatives detest. It's so difficult to overcome that despite California's large population and plethora of Democratic figures with a national profile, of the three presidents from California, none of them have been Democrats.
Evidently, Newsom is facing an uphill battle. So he's set off to appear more palatable to conservatives, starting with LGBTQ+ issues. Beginning in 2024, he started attempting to suppress pro-LGBTQ+ bills while they were still in the legislature in order to keep him from having to either veto them-losing progressives-or sign them-angering conservatives. Then, he went public with his new opinions during a conversation with Charlie Kirk on his podcast earlier this year, calling trans athletes' participation in girls' and women's sports 'deeply unfair.' And more recently, he signalled he changed his stance on gender-affirming care for minors as well.
Keep doing what you're doing then. Seems like it's working!
The last time we had real progress in this country was when Democrats held power for over 30 years. The entire country moved to the left. It took the right 60 years to convince you that coalitions are bad and compromise is evil. They're winning and it's because they're united while convincing us not to be.
How has the Democrats strategy been working out? I find it curious that you think the best progress that we had was over 30 years ago, yet the Democratic party we have now is massively to the right of the Democrats back then. Maybe they should try what has been proven to work, rather than what is obviously not working.
Blaming the homos for the state of everything is nothing new, but congrats on finding a “progressive” spin for it.
Again, if the queer vote is world endingly important, then fucking act like it. Go scream at Newsom to suck less, not at queer people about how they should shut up and take it.
https://i.imgur.com/FjYcCCt.mp4
Not sure why you posted this in reply to me, and I’m left to guess since you didn’t say anything. It’s not news to any trans person that we’re politically targeted to drum up the Republican base, not because anti-trans policies are popular.
I shared it because I think it's important that we understand how the right organizes to weaponize our beliefs against us. Trans people may understand it intimately, but not everyone on the left does.
The republicans have been very effective in hiding what they truly believe to get votes. It's working extremely well for them, in fact, as we can see now. They read the room, then keep quiet about certain policies that would cause voters to shy away from them.
I'm not saying that's the tactic the left should take, but it's worth study and thought. If harm reduction and generational policy shifting is the goal, we may need to be a little more coy about messaging. If harm reduction isn't the goal, then I'm going to need to be brought up to speed on the plan for revolution.