California state Sen. Scott Wiener had a message for women fearful of males in their locker rooms: Trans women are women.
Mr. Wiener, the favorite to succeed retiring former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, made his stance clear after being quizzed on women’s privacy by Tish Hyman, the singer-songwriter kicked out of Gold’s Gym in Los Angeles last week after a viral confrontation with a transgender gymgoer.
Ms. Hyman began by reading a prepared statement to the Democratic state legislator during a Monday gathering.
“As a lesbian woman who was attacked in a women’s locker room at Gold’s Gym this week by a self-identifying trans woman with a documented history of domestic violence, I’m deeply concerned about women’s safety in female-only spaces,” Ms. Hyman said.
“What would you say to women who are seeking assurance that their safety will be protected from men who by California law can self-identify as women in women-only spaces?” she asked, as shown on a video posted Tuesday on her X account.
Mr. Wiener replied: “We want everyone to be safe, and we also know that we have trans people, both men and women, who are men and women. So if you’re a – trans women are women.”
Unfortunately for the San Francisco Democrat, Ms. Hyman persisted.
“I’m telling you as a woman first and foremost that this is dangerous and we need your help, because you’re in the office,” Ms. Hyman said. “You’re going to go into [Mrs. Pelosi’s] spot. I want to support you. I have millions of people behind me watching this right now, and we want to know, are you going to protect women?”
She added: “Not trans women: women. Trans women are a different thing. Women, women. Listen, we need to protect women’s safety.”
Someone in the crowd shouted, “Trans women are women,” to which Ms. Hyman responded, “No, they are not. They are men.”
Mr. Wiener gave it another shot, saying that “I appreciate your point of view. I’m so sorry that you were harassed. I appreciate you talking about it.”
“I think we need to protect the safety of all women, and obviously that’s incredibly important,” he continued. “I also know that trans women are also brutalized in this country. So women and cisgender women are brutalized in this country, and we have to protect the safety of all women.”
Had a chance to have a conversation with Senator Weiner. It was an honest one. I am hopeful that this is the first of many conversations we will have regarding women’s safety .
Senator Weiner said he likes working with fresh young people and that he is open to ideas.
And… pic.twitter.com/qEWcuh6DXJ
— Tish Hyman (@listen2tish) November 11, 2025
Mr. Wiener’s response was hardly surprising.
He sponsored the 2020 bill that ushered transgender inmates into women’s prisons by requiring that they be housed according to gender identity.
Ms. Hyman drew national notice last week for her locker-room skirmish with Alexis Black, formerly Kyle Grant Freeman, who was sentenced to a year in prison in 2022 for breaking the jaw of her then-wife.
Ms. Black denied harassing or assaulting Ms. Hyman and accused her of being the instigator.
“The truth in the moment is far from what she is purporting it to be. Literally every time that she’s done that I’ve had women in the locker room comforting me because of how aggressive she was towards me,” said Ms. Black in a Nov. 4 interview with TMZ.
Ms. Hyman left the gathering after Mr. Wiener’s response, but not before delivering a few parting shots about transgender access to women’s single-sex spaces.
“We cannot be raped in bathrooms by men who want to say they’re women. They’re not women. They’re not women,” she said.
She said Mr. Wiener had sponsored legislation she supports on issues such as housing, but that “this thing with the trans – it’s not right.”
On her way out the door, Ms. Hyman said: “Don’t let them use our blackness and our civil rights as a reason to pass weird laws for children to transform. My sister’s in jail. She can’t get free tampons or soap. But she can get free transformation medication. Big Pharma at its best. Tired of it!”
California law prohibits businesses and other public accommodations from discriminating on the basis of gender identity.
Mr. Wiener is considered the frontrunner in the race to succeed Mrs. Pelosi, who announced last week she will step down at the end of her term after nearly 40 years in office.
His biggest competition for the congressional seat is tech millionaire Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat.
The congresswoman’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, announced Monday that she will run for the state Senate seat being vacated by Mr. Wiener.
