Imagine for a moment that you were the Dem governor of the most populous state in a country that just elected an openly fascist government that is actively using a moral panic to criminalizing the existence of a highly vulnerable minority group while conducting a much broader pogrom against that vulnerable and targeted minority group; in this case trans people. What is the most pathetic, craven, cowardly, selfish, irresponsible, and openly collaborationist (with fascists) thing you could possibly do? I guarantee that no matter what your brain just came up with, it's not worse than what California Governor and potential 2028 Dem presidential nominee Gavin Newsom just did:

erininthemorning.com/p/ca-gov-…

"On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom launched his new podcast, This is Gavin Newsom. His first guest? Notorious anti-LGBTQ+ extremist Charlie Kirk. The episode covered a wide range of grievances Kirk and other far-right activists have with Newsom, touching on topics from Black Lives Matter to COVID policies. However, the issue of transgender rights surfaced repeatedly. At one point, Newsom stated he was "completely aligned" with Kirk on transgender participation in sports. He also appeared to express agreement with restrictions on medical care for incarcerated transgender people and limits on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth."

Yes, you read that correctly; the Dem Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, celebrated the birth of his new podcast by inviting Charlie fucking Kirk on to his show and stridently agreeing with him about various aspects of the GOP's fascist war on trans rights and by extension, their efforts to threaten the existence of trans people entirely. I'm sure some Dem apologists reading this are already calling me an alarmist, but before I explain why you can't have just "a little" fascist persecution of trans people, I'd like to make something abundantly clear. Charlie Kirk is a professional fascist propagandist, who is actively employed in the task of creating ideological arguments to support, and popular support for, a real as fuck pogrom against trans people. That's what he is, that's what he does for a living:

"Newsom’s invitation and capitulation to Charlie Kirk on his podcast will alarm LGBTQ+ advocates. Kirk has a well-documented history of extremist rhetoric and hostility toward the LGBTQ+ community. In a 2023 video, he stated, “These people are sick… I blame the decline of American men. Someone should have just ‘took care of it’ the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and 60s, but as you have testosterone rates going down and men acting like women, well…”—seemingly advocating for violence against transgender people. Kirk has also repeatedly used the slur "tr*nny" and has encouraged its normalization. He once called transgender people “a throbbing middle finger to god.” In the last election cycle, TPUSA’s PAC, which he leads, spent millions on anti-transgender ads, making his presence on Newsom’s platform all the more striking."

Given that, hosting Charlie Kirk on your podcast in the first place is a profoundly craven and dangerous act of fascist collaboration. Enough so that even if Newsom and Kirk were chatting about the weather, he should still be forced to resign immediately from both the party and the governorship. Of course, they weren't just talking about the weather; Governor Newsom, who btw has one of the safest seats in all of US government and thus has no electoral need to pander to, again, fascists who want to criminalize and ultimately end the existence of trans people, invited Charlie on his podcast to spew transphobic propaganda in service of an active fascist pogrom targeting trans people and in particular young trans women; and then agreed with him. There is no wiggle room or nuance to be had here, Newsom just helped the fascists make trans people less safe in America and his actions absolutely *will* have a body count associated with them down the line. This isn't about women's sports, or gender care in carceral settings because those are just the wedge arguments the fascists are using to criminalize trans existence; what Newsom is doing here is agreeing in principle that trans people are a danger to women/girls, and that their medical rights should be subject to legislation - all that's left to argue about at that point is to what degree trans people aren't people and thus don't have the same rights as other Americans.

Folks, this isn't some backwater school board rep straying off script; Newsom is probably one of the five most powerful people in the entire Democratic Party and clearly has designs on the presidential nomination for the 2028 US election. If liberals want to prove folks like me are wrong when we say Dems would trade trans lives for ten suburban white votes in an election they'll lose anyway, you need to DO something about Gavin Newsom; immediately.

#Fascism #Trump #CharlieKirk #GavinNewsome #TransRights #Pogrom