California Governor Gavin Newsom suggested during an interview this week that California’s law requiring gender-neutral toy departments was something that his political opponents were weaponizing.
Newsom made the remarks during a Friday interview with Bill Maher on HBO’s “Real Time” while talking about the numerous regulations that the state has, which are often criticized.
“I think we have way too many regulations and laws,” Maher said. “And this one, I think, says, if you’re a department store with over 500 employees, you have to have a gender-neutral toy department.”
“That’s an interesting one because the department stores came to us supporting that and they were the ones making a case for that,” Newsom claimed in response. “They were making us — they were already moving in that direction.”
“They wanted you to make a law about them?” Maher asked.
Newsom responded by saying that the department stores wanted the legislation and claimed that his office did not initiate it.
“It wasn’t legislation that was initiated from my office, but it was legislation that came up with interesting support from the industry itself,” he claimed. “But I understand how that’s exploited and good people can disagree, but that’s not something we woke up and said this is a top priority for the state, when we know the top priorities are homelessness, housing, the issues of crime, quality of life, and issues related to regulation and taxes, which are all top of mind. But I get how those things are weaponized.”