California has clearly missed the memo on transgender athletes.

No one begrudges transgender men and women the opportunity to play competitive sports. But they should not do so at the expense of other athletes who deserve a level playing field.

There are one or two sports in which biological females have an advantage over biological males. Women often dominate in long-distance open-water swimming, for example.

But for most sports, male bodies have a considerable advantage. And when biological males compete against females, they tend to dominate. That is why we have separate male and female categories in the first place.

We have had a decade or so to digest the new phenomenon of males who identify as females competing in women’s or girls’ sports. Some may do so because they genuinely believe they are female. Others may do so simply because it allows them to win, when they otherwise could not. At the high school level, winning can be lucrative, as it can lead to college scholarships. 

Whatever the motivation, it is wrong. 

Even the International Olympic Committee, as “woke” as it gets, has barred transgender women from the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

There has been a nationwide backlash against the NCAA and against high schools that have allowed boys to compete against girls.

In fact, opposition to biological males participating in girls’ sports was a big factor in the 2024 elections. 

Comedian-turned-pundit Bill Maher, a liberal Democrat, has repeatedly blamed the transgender issue for President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. “As I always say to my woke friends, we voted for the same person. You’re just why she lost,” he quipped recently.

Even in deep-blue California, voters do not want boys competing against girls. 

Last year, a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California showed that 65% of Californians supported Trump’s executive order banning biological males from competing against females in school sports. 

You can’t get two-thirds of Californians to support Trump on anything — except, maybe that.

But Democrats haven’t received the message. At last week’s gubernatorial debate, all of the Democratic candidates backed the status quo in the state — i.e., the one voters don’t want.

And last weekend a a high school meet in Yorba Linda, AB Hernandez, a biological male who switched from volleyball to track and field, and who identifies as female, destroyed all female competitors in jumping events. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom could stop this madness right away. In fact, it looked like he might have come to his senses on the issue last year, when he told the late Charlie Kirk that men competing against women was “deeply unfair.”

Under attack from the LGBTQ+ lobby, he appeared to backtrack, and he has done nothing about it since then.

Not exactly presidential-caliber leadership — especially when so many of his own supporters would welcome a return to what used to be normal: Boys competing against boys, girls against girls. 

Can it really be this hard to find common sense among our leaders?

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