(LifeSiteNews) — It is abundantly clear that California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to be the next president of the United States. Earlier this month, he flew to Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos. According to Axios, he was “hounded by reporters” who wanted to speak with him.
Newsom will likely announce his candidacy for the White House after the midterms later this year. While the exact date of the launch of his campaign is obviously known, what is obvious is that Newsom is going to be a champion of the LGBT agenda, even though he has been coy about his support for it in recent years.
During an interview with the late conservative influencer Charlie Kirk in March 2025, Newsom admitted that gender-confused male athletes playing against women is not fair. “I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair,” he said.
During an interview with liberal New York Times contributor Ezra Klein in December 2025, Newsom reiterated that allowing males to compete with girls is something that “no one wants to hear about” but that he still wants to be a champion of gender-confused Americans. “I want to see trans kids. I have a trans godson. There’s no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation than I have. And no one has been a stronger advice for the LGBT community,” he said.
Just this month on his This is Gavin Newsom podcast, Newsom spoke with Ben Shapiro. Newsom struggled mightily when pressed by Shapiro to explain how a boy can become a girl. Ultimately, he tried to minimize the issue by saying that the percentage of Americans who are LGBT is so small that it’s not something that he thinks about all that much.
🚨 BREAKING: Ben Shapiro grills California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) over whether he believes that girls cannot become boys and boys cannot become girls
Newsom refuses to answer the question
Newsom says: “Yeah, I just, well, uh, I think, uh, I’m for the grace of God. Yeah.” pic.twitter.com/w0Gc7cKvec
— Ryan Saavedra (@RyanSaavedra) January 16, 2026
Now comes news that the Trump administration discovered the California Department of Education has been pressuring school officials in the state to conceal information about the gender that students “identify” with.
The Daily Wire is reporting that the Department of Education found that California created “powerful state directed pressure” on school officials to withhold information about students who are confused about their gender to parents. The policies violate various privacy laws.
Journalist Margaret Mary Olohan quoted Secretary of Education Linda McMahon as having blamed Newsom and his “failed leadership” for the matter.
That California officials are doing this shouldn’t be surprising. In 2022, Newsom designated California the country’s first “sanctuary” state for gender-confused children while approving the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021, which requires public schools to have free menstrual products in at least one male bathroom. AB 727, meanwhile, requires contact information for the radical pro-LGBT Trevor Project Suicide Hotline to be put on public school student ID cards. Assembly Bill 108 similarly speeds up the legal process for minors who want to change their name.
Newsom has backed the LGBT agenda in other ways, too. He signed the “California Freedom to Read Act,” which prohibits the removal of books from libraries that contain “inclusive and diverse perspectives” or may “include sexual content.” The move essentially bans local communities from voting to keep out pro-LGBT content from libraries. And has also failed to act in response to criticisms made by President Donald Trump about a high school female athlete named AB Hernandez. Hernandez, who says he is a female, has won multiple state titles in recent years, causing outcry from parents as well as competitors. In July 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) followed through with its threat to sue California for refusing to keep gender-confused athletes like Hernandez out of female sports.
As 2026 progresses, it will be interesting to see how Newsom continues to tiptoe around the issue. The Democratic Party’s base obviously wants their leaders to be more aggressive and double down on the issue, but that would spell doom for anyone seeking national office. Newsom is aware of that and is trying to please all parties. Time will tell if he does that successfully.
