Democrats Need to Stop Fumbling the Women’s Sports Question

I have never cared about anyone’s sexual preference or identity. As long as you were not breaking the law or hurting somebody, it was none of my business.

I really feel most people I know felt the same way. There are always a few fringe people who make jokes or feel differently, but most people could care less.

I lived through the 1980s. Boy George was almost as much a part of New York as Donald Trump was. We had drag performers, burlesque shows, and hit movies like Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire built entirely on men in dresses. So many of us remember the famous bar scene in Crocodile Dundee. Some of it would not fly today. But the general attitude was: So what? Live your life.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I went to the gay pride parade in West Hollywood because everyone said it was a really fun time. Guess what? It was. Funny, fun, crazy, and not political in the slightest. Besides, who doesn’t like drinking beer and having a good time? That’s half of American life: tailgates, outdoor concerts, ballgames, bars, barbecues. Fun is fun. Nobody there was making a political statement. We were all just having a good time.

Nobody cared. Nobody was fighting.

Then biological males started competing in women’s sports, and suddenly it became a national political fight.

This is where Democrats need to decide whether they want to be a serious political party or a support group for every activist who walks through the door with a list of demands.

It is not complicated. Biological males should not compete in girls’ and women’s sports.

That is the whole answer. It does not require a 45-minute seminar, a glossary, three apologies, and a panel of consultants.

In my world, this is a 99-to-1 issue. I know there are polls claiming otherwise. I do not believe them. Ask the question plainly and almost everyone lands in the same place: treat transgender people with respect, and do not let biological males compete against women.

Apparently saying that out loud is too difficult. Stop pandering to the one in a hundred and start representing the other ninety-nine.

Trump knows it. He has already made clear he will run this play all election season. He did it before, with what is known as the 80/20 issues: crime, the border, police, language, gender. Most Americans on one side, the activist left dug in on the other, and Democrats in the middle refusing to answer, changing the subject, or calling the questioner a bigot.

Brilliant strategy. How did that work out?

Let me be clear about what this is not. Nobody here is taking away anyone’s basic rights. Transgender Americans should be able to work, find housing, get medical care, and live their lives without harassment. Full stop.

But having rights does not mean getting everything you want because you feel you deserve it.

I wanted to play varsity basketball in high school. I was decent. Friends better than me got cut. None of us could announce that we felt like varsity players and demand a roster spot. Sports have rules: tryouts, age groups, weight classes, and separate categories for men and women. Those categories exist for a reason.

I can have real sympathy for someone who feels born in the wrong body. That must be extraordinarily difficult. But feeling you should have been born female does not mean you were. And when the question is a protected female athletic category, the body is the whole point.

That is not cruelty. It is a practical matter. Compassion does not mean pretending biology can be erased.

If there are ways to include transgender athletes through rec leagues, coed teams, or open categories, fine, let’s discuss it. What is not up for discussion is taking roster spots, medals, and records away from women, and then telling them they are hateful for objecting. Women fought for decades for their own athletic opportunities. Protecting those opportunities is not discrimination.

Democrats need one clear answer, and it fits on an index card:

Transgender people deserve respect and equal protection under the law. Biological males do not belong in girls’ and women’s competitive sports.

Say it clearly. Say it without apologizing. Then move on to the thousand other problems this country needs solved.

Because every time Democrats fumble this question, Republicans are standing right there, waiting to pick up the ball and run it into the end zone.