Why are the Democrats so eager to lose the trans sports debate?

The Democrats are hellbent on handing President Trump win after win when it comes to the issue of biological men competing against women in sports. 

Their desire to die on this hill is baffling especially considering Trump’s November mandate. Generous souls that they are, now progressives are ensuring their arch nemesis can make the most of his winning message during his presidency. 

During his joint address to Congress last night, Trump introduced Payton McNabb, a former volleyball player who, in 2022, suffered a traumatic brain injury after a man was allowed to compete against her in a match. She received a standing ovation from Republicans as Trump vowed to protect female athletes.

He didn’t stop there. The president also called out public schools for what he described as “indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology” before calling on Congress to pass a bill “permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children.” 

His administration’s message to every child in America? “You are perfect exactly the way God made you.” Those are not the words of a man who thinks he is on the losing end of an argument. 

By contrast, Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin’s forgettable rebuttal address steered clear of this cultural issue altogether. There was not one mention of the word “trans” or “transgender” in her speech. 

Are Democrats finally folding their cards on this fight? Not quite. In fact, Lee DeVito of the Detroit Metro Times chastised Slotkin’s silence: “If Republicans are going all in on this, Democrats need to do a better job of defending the rights and dignity of transgender people.” 

Slotkin, a moderate by today’s standards, is likely well aware that the Democrats need to move on from this battle. But like her colleague Massachusetts representative Seth Moulton, she is learning the hard way that her party is far more interested in hating Trump than they are in winning elections. 

As with so many of Trump’s current stances, the numbers are on his side. According to a recent poll from Pew Research, “About two-thirds of US adults support policies requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth.” A late February Harvard/Harris poll showed that 68 percent of Americans polled support the government declaring there are only two genders.

But polls have not dissuaded the party of ping-pong-paddle-carrying malcontents from quadrupling down. The Democrats kicked off the week by blocking a Republican-led bill that would ban biological men from competing in women’s and girl’s sports at federally funded schools. 

That move on Monday came on the heels of Maine governor Janet Mills’s contentious back and forth with the president over her refusal to abide by this administration’s executive order banning men from competing in women’s sports. After Trump informed the governor that she better comply, lest he pull Maine’s federal funding, Mills replied, “See you in court.” 

Digging in is an interesting choice, especially considering the fact that many members of the Democratic Party spent years dismissing Republican concerns about men competing against women as little more than a wedge issue. 

In March 2021, Kate Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel at the Human Rights Campaign told Politico, “This is an issue that’s completely manufactured.” She condescendingly added, “There are certainly folks who have daughters who are truly college-bound — and then there are parents who, let’s be honest, think that their daughters are.”

In other words: this is a bunch of noise from people whose daughters will likely never be good enough to even play college sports.  

“The time has passed for these arguments, and they’re going to fall apart really quickly,” Oakley forecasted. Four years later and it is safe to say that like so many leftist predictions, that one didn’t age so well.