In early March, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) broke with his party on transgenderism after he said biological men playing in women’s sports leagues are “deeply unfair.” A Washington Examiner review of California grant records, however, shows that Newsom’s administration spent roughly $5 million on programs supporting youth transgenderism between 2022 and 2024.
Projects supported by the Newsom administration included directly funding so-called gender-affirming care for youth, directing vulnerable youth toward transgender resources, and providing funding to organizations that administer sex-change treatments to minors. Political observers who think Newsom is attempting to adopt a more centrist image believe he is doing so with an eye on the presidency in 2028.
While Newsom may have taken a more centrist stance on the transgender sports issue, his administration has historically been supportive of transgender youth, transferring $1.4 million to health centers to provide “gender-affirming” care to minors.
The first of the grants, worth $600,000, went to a nonprofit clinic called the “Gender Health Center” to “provide immediate access to gender-affirming mental healthcare and other supportive services for transgender and gender non-conforming youth.” The clinic states on its website that children 12 and older can attend mental health counseling sessions without parental consent. Topics discussed during the “confidential” meetings include “gender exploration,” emotional distress, and “LGBTQ themes/issues.” The counseling is “rooted in Queer-Informed Narrative Therapy for people of all ages,” and attendees must wear masks for in-person sessions.
Non-mental health services offered by the Gender Health Center include providing children with detailed instructions on how to access sex-change hormones and transgender surgeries. The center also partners with University of California Davis Medical School students to write sex-change hormone prescriptions through a program called “Haus of Hormones.”
CommuniCare Health Centers received the remaining $800,000 in taxpayer funding to “support workforce development in Yolo, Napa, and Solano counties around gender and sexual affirming healthcare” to serve “2S/LGBTQ+ youth and young adults” in the area better. The clinic provides “letters for pre-surgical medical clearance,” referrals to specialists, and transgender legal assistance, according to its website.
Though Newsom’s administration has funded these efforts to expand transgender healthcare for minors, the governor himself has taken some actions that cut in a different direction. In September 2023, for instance, Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required courts to consider affirmation of gender identity when making child custody and visitation decisions.
By far, the largest transgender youth-related grant disbursed by the Newsom administration between 2022 and 2024 was a $3.1 million award to Sacramento County as part of an effort to assist juvenile offenders. The state paid Sacramento to establish a program based within its Office of the Public Defender’s Juvenile Division to work with youth entering the justice system and, if deemed appropriate by “community partners,” to connect them with “gender-identity” services. The initiative began in June 2023 and will continue until June 2026.
Newsom’s pivot on transgenderism goes deeper than his comments this month on a podcast, according to Politico. Senior officials in the Newsom administration reportedly discouraged Democrats in the state’s legislature from introducing bills related to transgenderism weeks before the podcast aired.
“We woke up profoundly disappointed and sickened, when you have someone who has been thoughtful and has been a very unwavering ally release a statement like that,” Democratic state Rep. Chris Ward said in response to Newsom’s comments on biological men participating in women’s sports.
NEWSOM SAYS HE NEVER SUPPORTED ANTI-POLICE ‘LUNACY.’ GRANT RECORDS TELL A DIFFERENT STORY
The Newsom administration also awarded roughly $400,000 to the Los Angeles LGBT Center to “support for target hardening and other physical security enhancements” because it determined the clinic was “at high risk for violent attacks and hate crimes due to [its] ideology, beliefs, or mission.” The center offers “hormone therapy, including education and management; pre- and post-surgical care; trans-sensitive pap smears, pelvic exams, prostate exams, and more.”
“The Governor has acknowledged fairness concerns in youth sports before, while also emphasizing the importance of dignity and respect for transgender children,” Newsom’s office told the Washington Examiner.
