I’m not a transphobe and it frustrates me, especially the “because I have standards” line. I think my standard is to not help really awful people (the GOP) get elected.
I’m not a transphobe and it frustrates me, especially the “because I have standards” line. I think my standard is to not help really awful people (the GOP) get elected.
Transphobes ARE really awful people, whatever other opinions or policies they hold.
I get your point, I should say, and I respect your motives. But when it comes to Newsom, I can see why decent people refuse to vote for him.
I have a trans kid. I can’t afford to be a purist.
I have a trans kid, too, and it’s why I want to see a primary where we have choices, rather than endowing the person who’s social media team is tweaking Trump’s ear three years in advance.
I hate that you’ve been put in such a rotten position.
He hasn’t. He has jumped headfirst into hatred of trans people.
Wait until you find out who you're arguing with!
My guy this was not the thing to say. "I have a trans kid ao I'll support someone adamantly opposed to my kid's existence" ain't the own you think it is
can you afford to have a fucking spine? Voting for a blue transphobe is still a slap in the face to your kid
No you fucking don’t. If you did you wouldn’t support taking away trans people’s human rights.
You a 💩 parent for throwing your transgender 🏳️⚧️ child under the bus. Fucking cisgender supremacist.
You should be, otherwise your trans kid is going to lose their rights.
i dont believe you you have a trans kid and you somehow think supporting a dem who agrees with fascists about trans ppl will help your kid?
OMG - I can see why you would vote for him IF he was the nominee. BUT HE IS NOT YET. And I do not understand WHY you would be pushing others to support him as the nominee if your child is actually trans. The parents of trans kids and trans adults that I know are 100% against Newsom.
You think it’s being a purist to not want to ever vote for someone who agrees with fascists about your child?
I have a trans kid who is now in his young 20s and you are wrong. Transphobia is absolutely a red line. My child deserves to feel safe and be allowed to be who they are without worry of retribution, especially from the government. You're okay with electing people who would limit your kid's rights.
Your kid can't afford for you to NOT be a purist on their rights. What kind of fucking parent are you
Newsom is a bad candidate and has been a bad Governor. Why not choose someone better than that? And I'm nonbinary. I can't afford to back the American Keir Starmer.
I don't believe you. You've just started posting in the past week about your "trans kid," who almost certainly doesn't exist.
I guess that’s your response.
Because you don't have a trans kid. You're making it up to use as a shield. You're a liar.
He might actually have a trans kid, but since it's his trans son, apparently trans women are still disposable.
Oh he might. My hateful dad who believes furries use litter boxes has me. A queer nonbinary furry lol. Anyways if he isn't lying, and does have a trans kid, I feel so bad for that kid.
i have a trans kid and i’m terrified about the future and i will never vote for gavin newsom or any other transphobe so help me god
Same.
Newsom has already quietly blocked and shut down pro-trans legislation. He is anti-homeless, anti-immigrant, anti-trans. If we wins, those things will not change - it will simply help to establish a political consensus on BOTH sides that trans rights should be rolled back. Look at Labour in the UK.
If you care about your trans kid, you need to understand that right now the struggle isn't between pro-trans Democrats and anti-trans Republicans - it's between a minority of pro-trans Democrats and a rising majority of anti-trans Democrats. If the Democrats pivot on this, trans rights are doomed.
I'd like to hope pro-trans Democrats are a majority, but sadly you likely are correct. It's disheartening.
For what it's worth, voters tend to be much more progressive than elected officials - that's part of the problem, that the Democrat party itself is out of touch with its base.
Indeed. Very out of touch.
I do too, which is why I’m not going to vote for a transphobe. What better way to say you don’t give a fuck about your kid than to vote for someone who hates them.
I was a trans kid. Were I in the US I would not vote for this Newsom character under any circumstances. He seems like someone who’d send me to a death camp.
Human rights are not a purity test. They are a baseline. If the Democratic Party can not produce anyone better than GN, then the party needs to be dissolved. Luckily for all of us, it can and has produced better, so no one needs to swear fealty this far out.
This much. If this is all they have, it's time to come up with a new party.
I hope you have the humility to recognize this moment for what it is when you find yourself wondering under a Newsom presidency how you are going to keep your child safe from his cruelties.
You have a trans kid, which is why you're going out of your way to defend a politician beginning the laziest choreographed pivot against trans rights we've seen from anyone not on the right?
You will vote for Trump Lite then.
Why are you asking trans people to vote against their very existence? What the fuck is wrong with you? Just support someone else the election isn’t for 3 years. Don’t support a transphobe and then we don’t have to worry about the transphobe losing
my standard is not to help really awful people (GOP or otherwise) get elected. why is that so high a bar now, in 2025, when there is so much runway between here and 2028? there's a false urgency surrounding Newsom and the push to accept sacrificing some for the sake of his supposed candidacy. why?
Have you considered that “not being a transphobe” & “having standards” = insisting we nominate candidates who uphold the human rights of everyone, ESPECIALLY the most vulnerable and marginalized?
Transphobes ARE really awful people. And until cis people can find it in their souls to agree with that, we are all lost.
I'm telling, as a tran, that advocating for a transphobic politician is transphobic. You're being a transphobe. full stop.
You’re literally helping really awful people getting elected by pushing an awful person to get elected.
If you'll support a transphobe you are a transphobe.
the root of this disagreement is that, based on your framing, you seem to think that “democrats” and “really awful people” are mutually exclusive categories, rather than overlapping venn diagrams that sports team thinking will fail you in nuanced discussions every time
i think my standard is to not help really awful people (the DNC) get elected. i dont want to be forced to accept blue sewage any more than i want to be stuck with red sewage. democrats are lazy & hypocritical. i'm fckng sick of them all.
Newsom is a really awful person, so clearly that isn’t your standard.
Very convenient that all the bad people joined the same political party, guess i do have to hand it to em
Newsom (the former Mr Guilfoyle) is GOP lite; absolutely doing whatever to grab power regardless of who it hurts. It's easy to pick on the homeless and trans folks and others with little political clout. A person who stands up for the bullied and downtrodden instead is one I might vote for .
"I'm not a transphobe" Well with allies like you, who needs 'em?
Unfortunately the umbrella for really awful people seems to be expanding beyond just the GOP. Considering how not only is newsom transphobic but hes antagonizing the homeless as we speak? It seems to me he doesnt quite care enough to not go after a symptom.
here! I put our point in a fun little protest sign format for you ^-^
The ONLY thing I support about Newsom is he pisses Trump the fuck OFF. beyond that, he's a preening, overweening asshole who is just as bad for LGBTQA+ and other minority groups as Trump himself. He has ZERO chance of being President. His own STATE hates him.
Or rather, he allows his social media team to piss Trump off. He lacks the sauce to do it himself.
Newsom is an awful person. Just because he's shit posting against the current regime doesn't change that.
If you don't want the GOP to get elected, pressure the Democratic Party to grow a spine and morals.
then i’d suggest a uniting opposition candidate. problem solved.
Your problem is assuming the gop are the only awful people. People backing Newsome now are deliberately trying to drown out any better options so you can vote for a lesser evil practically indistinguishable from the bigger one.
The problem is we need somebody with the balls to stand up to Trump, and so far really only Newsom has consistently shown that. I also like Walz, and he's got *a little bit* of fire, but he's so boring and vanilla.
Walz, Pritzker, and Beshear have all stood up to Trump far more than Gavin Newsom. Newsom isn’t doing anything of substance. He is trolling. You just want to attack trans people. We see you, aashole.
What has Newsom actually done? Besides having a new social media policy. Be specific.
But we also need someone who can appeal to everyone, not just leftists and tankies. So there's a 99% chance it won't be Newsom because most of the country hates California. So why do people keep virtue signaling how they won't vote for the guy who probably won't get the nomination?
Because you want him to get the nomination and the establishment is signaling they want to shove him down our throats. Also, learn what the word “tankie” means, dumbass.
Most of California hates Newsom. He is not a popular governor. It is not virtue signaling to say “I will not vote for anyone who openly agrees with fascists about the rights and dignity of vulnerable groups.”
It’s incredibly annoying that the centre has started using terms that the right fomented to make it seem bad to care about stuff tbh.
The only people who use that term are soulless people who lack the imagination to understand that some people truly care about others.
When people regularly post on social media about all the candidates they'll never support, but not post nearly as much about who they actually will support, it feels weird. Huge swaths of people didn't vote in 2024, & it sort of looks like they're coming out early this cycle to announce the same.
It’s a bit early for declaring allegiance to the next president though. Like, you don’t have to jump on the first shark grinning cunt that comes along.
Because they are specifically talking about the candidate who agrees with fascists about their right to existence. Do you have any evidence to suggest that the people talking about Newsom didn’t vote in 2024? Or is it just a flight of fancy?
Would you commit, today, to voting for Chesa Boudin in the general election if he won the primary? What about Cori Bush?
I will vote for whoever runs against the GOP in 2028. But realistically, I doubt Cori Bush has a chance given her socialist-sympathies and her "healing" claims. And Chesa would presumably have the same problems as Kamala and Gavin: they're from California, and too many people hate California.
It's kind of like a kid refusing to eat, and their parent keeps suggesting different things? Pizza? No. Pasta? No. Ice cream? No. Tell us specifically what/who you want, so we can work on getting you that. But saying no to every suggestion that the rest of the family thinks of does nothing.
It’s the same all over the world. We don’t want lesser evil voting, try finding good candidates instead.
Specifically what they want is a candidate who does not agree with fascists about their right to exist with dignity. Trying to portray that as childish reflects incredibly poorly on you.
Then you can't help people who agree with MAGA get elected. This isn't hard. We've got two years before primaries even start, and a crowded field of better options.
So you agree not to vote for Gavin Newsome a really awful person great!
Didn't even mention your name and you appeared with a whole ass transphobia apologia.
If you concede your values to the GOP by voting for someone who agrees with the GOP, then what do you even win
Not conceding shit. I voted for Obama when he was against gay marriage. I knew it was the best vote. I stand by it.
Comparing this to Obama shows you have no fucking idea what this entire debate is about. Obama promised to make progress on the gay marriage issue. You are supporting Gavin Newsom, who is promising to take rights AWAY from trans people, aashole.
Oh hi, hope you're doing okay
You know you just conceded that, yeah
I suppose the litmus test is, would you vote for someone who agrees with you on literally everything besides they want to massively harm this one minority? Because if yes then that minority clearly is not important to you and that's a you problem.
My kid is trans. I don’t think Dems will massively harm trans folks. Any Dem. I guess we should check in with each other in a few years. See who was right.
Oh i'm sorry for your kid then
Don’t be. I kicked ass as a parent of a trans kid. He’s very happy and doing well. He is equally pissed about people on our side on trans issues who didn’t vote for the Dem nominee in 2016 and 2024.
You just used past tense.
Newsom has said that he will
Newsom *already is* harming transgender people That’s the whole point
Newsom is a really awful person who is agreeing with the fascists about trans people
Also - if you think it is ok for ANY Democrat to say that trans people shouldn’t have the same rights as everyone else then, by fucking definition, YOU ARE A TRANSPHOBE!
Why are you pushing people to support Newsom when we aren’t even in the primaries yet!!! FFS - are you not able to actually listen to the people who are now at risk and will still be at risk in your quest to figure out which centrist fucking asshole might win in the future?
How about... Hold better standards over who becomes the key voice of the Democratic party then? Do better.
It's entirely possible that electing a transphobic Dem will result in things being even worse for trans people than they already are under Republicans. Just look to the U.K. for an example of how that happened bsky.app/profile/park...
This is such an absurd take and I can't take you seriously.
You follow matt yglesias, so no one cares.
I also follow many trans journalists. What’s your point?
you're not very intelligent or well-informed, and so your opinion is irrelevant (that's what following matt y means)
I follow a wide variety of people, therefore that means I’m uninformed. Good stuff.
Please. You don’t believe that. Google: “shit the GOP has done to trans folks with Trump in White House.” My kid is afraid to travel to certain states now.
Okay, are YOU yourself, trans? Don't tell trans people to gamble with their lives to make yours better. Period
Instead, we should let them gamble with our lives?
One of us is gambling with the stakes being life and actual death on the line, the other, comfort.
Dismissing everyone else's concerns as "comfort" is not going to win anyone over and only further alienate people.
understand that if your position is "it's good and right to sacrifice this marginalized group for the greater good of the party," you should be alienated
Okay, is trump signing EOs with the express purpose to kill you, specifically? Yes or no
This is a hypothetical about a Newsom presidency in 2029 where he signs EOs with the express purpose to kill you.
hm, i wonder how on earth we ever might identify how newsom would legislatively target trans people. if only he ever said, on the record while knowingly being recorded, what he thinks should be done
"People should not be allowed to transition at 25" Literally a paraphrased quote from Newsom a few months ago. Literally taking what trump is doing but WORSE! He's expanding upon what Trump is DOING
Oh wait, did it become illegal for you to have an accurate passport? Is the government trying to criminalize your medicine? Have any states banned you from public restrooms? Are you not allowed to play sports with your friends?
Is Newsom doing this right now?
He literally said that he agrees that trans people shouldn't be allowed to transition until 25, EXPANDING ON TRUMPS OWN BAN. HE IS LITERALLY AGREEING THAT WHAT TRUMP IS DOING IS RIGHT AND WANTS TO DO IT BUT WORSE!
If you actually watched that exchange, he didn't say that. Just said that he understood the concerns.
He's with the fascists on trans sports bans, and he goes further than them on banning transitioning. Furthermore, there's zero legitimate reason for those stances, he's just trying to appease fascists. Fascists can't be appeased, they'll always push for more, so Gavin will get pushed further.
Newsom has suggested that trans people shouldn't be allowed to transition until 26, has said he completely agrees with the right when it comes to sports, and that's absolutely just an excuse to erase all rights. I have eyes. I saw what happened in the UK when they elected transphobes.
From Erin Reed's own article, that isn't what he said about 26. He doesn't completely agree with the right on sports. Your position is that electing Newsom in 2028 would be worse than Vance (or whoever) because while Republicans are going to be awful, Newsom just "might" be awful? Insane take.
you want to vote for a democrat who agrees with fascists about trans people and you think this will protect your trans kid?
You live in a world where the Democrats don't think embracing transphobic policy is an important path to victory. Once that's no longer the case, your kid will be afraid in every state.
If the choice is GOP or GOPlite I'm voting for Daffy Duck
As someone from the UK - please don't vote for the lesser evil, because eventually they WILL become the greater evil, and one so much worse than the original greater evil you were worried about.
THIS
Absolutely, but I hope it's plain that in the US, our voting system at the federal level prevents the electorate from choosing the greater good I support what you're saying, but I don't know what else can help pave the path towards making better choices other than fixing how we vote, first
Who's running on fixing how we vote?
These ppl at the federal level, but idk who is doing that as a presidential candidate 😅 fairvote.org/our-reforms/...
Cool, well since Newsom is trying to position himself as a Presidential candidate, we should probably not treat him like one of those people, yeah?
I'm not sure I understand - I don't live in California and I don't support Newsom
If we can get more people to come out to vote for a range of good choices and make those choices count (and a bunch of other things), we'd have a stronger democracy The spoiler effect has really done a number on us
It's also possible he'll "evolve". After all, we elected Obama who was pretty firmly against marriage equality in 2008.
That is not a risk anyone should have to take. No trans person should have to risk their lives on the faint hope that a man who has been violently transphobic for years will "evolve".
And even if the time came in November and we did vote for him, why would I give his ass cover now? If I say, "Well, you get my vote no matter what" why would he do anything but shift right?
Newsom is not going to evolve. And there are plenty of other reasons not to vote for him anyway.
Yes - lets not forget how he's decided the best way to solve homelessness is to engage with a stage photo op where he's dismantling a homeless encampment.
He is evolving, the wrong way, into a fucking bigot.
Gamble with your own rights, then, instead of mine.
he did evolve: he changed his mind to support fascist policies about trans people
It's 2025. He vetoed two bills regarding trans health and custody matters here in California on this matter backed by a majority of the California State Legislature.
Yup.
Then don't boost newsom; call him on his shit and make it a redline for yourself b/c it's not "only some of us should be safe" it's "we all should be safe" and picking who gets thrown out now is self-defeating and cowardly. Be strong.
So many of us fell for this in the UK. And now we’re fucked. No votes for transphobia. You want my vote, don’t be transphobic. Yelling at me, and others, will not change this. Give us someone not transonic to vote for. They do actually exist.
Argh! Stupid typo.
Transonic would make a great name for a queer club night.
Helping a transphobe get elected does not meet your standard.
If you’re willing to compromise on our fucking rights you are
Gavin Newsom is part of the really awful people dawg
Gavin Newsom is a really awful person
Fuck your standards, Vichy lib
Good day to you too, Sir.
So instead you'll help a greasy conservative wrapped in blue win. Brilliant plan dipshit
But, you seem to be suggesting that, because candidate A is better than candidate B in all regards apart from a willingness to persecute a particular minority, members of that minority who loudly protest 'Hell NO' are somehow wrong? I'm not American, but wouldn't vote for Newsom if I were.
What frustrates us is your framework that just because someone has a D next to their name means they're somehow magically incapable of ALSO being an awful person even if they hold the exact same opinion about marginalized people as NAZIS
Chasing the GOP to the right, as the Dems have been doing for decades, is a surefire way to get more GOP elected. Just look at what hugging and kissing on Dick Cheney got Kamala Harris last year.
And yet dems are literally half the problem. Half the police spending, half the corporatocracy, half the genocide, half the anti-immigration, etc. Thats not "lesser," it's just evil.