California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has been the talk of the town recently. His social media trolling of Donald Trump has captured national attention and has skyrocketed his popularity among Democrats both in his home state and around the country.

With many wondering if this social media strategy could catapult him into the next presidential race, journalist and activist Erin Reed made it clear that many trans people are less than thrilled by the possibility.

Related

Analyst shocked by voter response to Gavin Newsom’s Trump trolling: “My goodness gracious”

“Newsom inspires discomfort at best and outright hostility at worst,” Reed wrote. “Their reaction is telling. In recent years, trans people have learned how quickly politicians can turn on them, and many see Newsom’s brand of politics as a flashing warning sign.”

Reed acknowledged that Newsom’s trolling tactics have indeed been effective. “He’s gaining followers, driving news cycles, and picking fights where he knows he can land punches,” she said.

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

“On substance, he’s also taking steps Democrats should applaud—leaning hard into California’s redistricting fight after Texas’s mid-cycle power grab, and pressing California universities not to cave to Trump administration demands for monetary payments to the government and policy changes, including those for transgender people. These moves are good, or at the very least, refreshing.”

But she also reminded her readers that Newsom has made it clear he believes trans people can be sacrificed to win over moderate voters.

She mentioned the fact that in March, aides in his office were busted trying to discourage Democratic lawmakers from introducing any pro-LGBTQ+ legislation.

There was also the appearance of right-wing extremist Charlie Kirk on Newsom’s new podcast. In the episode, Newsom ceded to aligning with Kirk’s views on transgender athletes in women’s sports, claiming that trans women and girls participating in sports matching their gender identity is “deeply unfair.”

“Newsom also joined Kirk in targeting transgender incarcerated people and agreed that society must be ‘more sensitized’ to what Kirk called the ‘butchery’ of transgender youth—right-wing shorthand for gender-affirming care,” Reed explained.

She also brought up his appearance on the far-right podcast, the Shawn Ryan Show, where he expressed skepticism about allowing trans young people to transition before age 26 and said he is still “trying to understand as much as anyone else the whole ‘pronoun’ thing.”

“Newsom is following a pipeline transgender people have seen time and again,” Reed wrote. “Transphobia rarely stays confined to one small corner; it’s almost never just a one-off statement. Those who embrace it even slightly almost always end up sliding further into opposition to nearly every facet of transgender existence.”

She pointed out that we’ve seen many people become radicalized before our eyes, like JK Rowling and Elon Musk.

“It’s a pattern so well known that even anti-trans activists acknowledge it,” Reed said, quoting Terry Schilling of the Republican American Principles Project, who said, “The women’s sports issue was really the beginning point in helping expose all this because what it did was, it got opponents of the LGBT movement comfortable with talking about transgender issues.”

Reed said she knows the counterargument to all of this is that Trump is worse, but she thinks there is more nuance to it than that.

“Right now, the community has one thing going for it: one major political party still passes protective legislation and has not joined the litany of anti-trans policies escalating in red states. If that fragile dichotomy collapses—if Democrats too decide that transgender people can be sacrificed for political gain—the result will not be a lesser evil. It will be a political consensus that our rights are gone, and that outcome could be even worse.”

“Transphobia inside the party is not a treatable wound inflicted by the far right—it is a malignancy, slow-moving but devastating, one that threatens to hollow out decades of progress from within,” she added. “If it spreads unchecked, it could mark the end of so much our community has fought to preserve.”

Reed said that for many trans people, Newsom’s rise “provokes as much fear as the Republican party itself” because “in a political environment where both left and right agree that your existence is negotiable, there is no one left to fight for you.”

“It is untenable—and if such sentiment takes root inside the Democratic Party, it could take generations for transgender Americans to claw back even the most basic of rights.”

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.