California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is now saying that his state should consider rolling back its law allowing trans students to participate in school sports as their gender, while he argues that he isn’t transphobic because he has signed many pro-trans rights bills and also has a trans godson.

“I disagree with all the vitriol, but I agree on the issue of fairness in that respect, that it is unfair in these circumstances, and I haven’t been able to reconcile it,” he told KQED this past Friday about the issue of trans student-athletes.

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California’s previous governor, Jerry Brown, signed a law in 2013 that allows trans kids to participate in school sports as their gender. This law barely drew attention from the right for years – the current president didn’t try to get schools to defy it during his first term, as he’s doing now – but ever since Republicans made trans kids’ rights part of their national strategy in 2021, the law has faced criticism.

In March of this year, Newsom told late rightwing podcaster Charlie Kirk that it’s “deeply unfair” that trans girls get to participate in school sports.

In July, he repeated the sentiment on another podcast, saying that he has heard complaints about trans girls participating in school sports from “good human beings,” not just conservatives.

“Because you oppose sports does not make you a bigot, doesn’t make you homophobic,” Newsom said at the time. “And my party needs to stop saying that.”

“There’s some nuance here,” Newsom said last Friday on KQED when asked about his past statements. “I don’t roll people under the bus, quite the contrary. But when it comes to sports, that’s impacting other people’s rights.”

He claimed that there are many people who “have a similar point of view, but don’t say it publicly.”

He was asked about his state’s law allowing trans kids to play school sports as their gender, a law that has been key to California’s stance against the administration’s attempts to force states to ban trans kids from school sports. He agreed that it should be changed, but didn’t say how.

“I think we have to figure this out,” he said. “It’s a difficult- This is not the issue. And what I hate about the other side, they’re making a- They’re coloring this in as it’s a major issue.”

Newsom also argued that he’s not transphobic.

“There’s not one person you’ve had on-air who has a better record on trans rights than this person you’re talking to, period full stop,” he said. “I have signed more bills protecting trans folks than anyone you’ve ever had on this air. I have appointed more people to positions of power and influence as it relates to trans than any other major elected official, from judicial appointments to significant appointments. I just made a decision in terms of our retirement system just a few weeks ago.”

“It’s a point of pride that I’ve done that.”

He claimed that, as mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, he “was attacking [major LGBTQ+ rights organization] HRC because they weren’t including trans rights back in 2004, 5, 6.”

It’s unclear what he was referring to there. HRC famously supported a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in Congress that didn’t include protections for gender identity in 2007, but he didn’t explain how or when he criticized them for that.

But, he said, sports are different from other trans rights issues. “That’s impacting other people’s rights.”

“And I say this with a trans godson,” he continued. “I have only one godson, who’s trans. And so with love and grace in my heart and in that exact exchange with Charlie [Kirk], I said, these people just wanna survive.”

“I disagree with all the vitriol, but I agree on the issue of fairness in that respect, that it is unfair in these circumstances, and I haven’t been able to reconcile it.”

The relevant exchange starts at about 18:30.

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