JULY 2026 – Politically moderate WaPo columnist Megan McArdle took a look at the recent Supreme Court decision that reaffirmed Trump’s 2025 executive order barring trans athletes from competing in women’s sports. Basically McArdle devoted the column to a single question: What were die-hard supporters of trans athletes thinking? McArdle’s column is one of the few in the mainstream media that has actually addressed the matter at all – most columnists have shunned it, for obvious reasons.
Among all the micro-rights that the American Left has preoccupied itself with in recent years, nothing has been as alienating to the broader American electorate than “trans rights.” Yes, that offends some true believers who say Lia Thomas had every right to smoke all the female opponents in the UPenn swimming pool. Yet, supporters seemed to ignore the issue’s impact on Democrats’ competitiveness in national elections – and the party paid a huge price. Historians will look back on the 2024 election cycle – and all Trump’s TV ads telling voters the left will force children to have sex-change operation – and conclude that no issue was more powerful in swaying everyday voters. McArdle was almost courageous in her assessment:
After Skrmetti, it looked unlikely that the Supreme Court was going to rule trans women had a right to participate in women’s sports. Lindsay Hecox tried, and failed, to moot her case by declaring she no longer had any intention of competing in Idaho sports. Lawyers for the trans athletes fell back on the position that while yes, there may be safety and fairness reasons for separate women’s divisions, it was unfair to exclude biological males whose athletic advantage had been reduced by puberty blockers or hormones.
These arguments at times bordered on incoherent — is any sufficiently unathletic male entitled to join the women’s team? And if not, why should these particular males be given that right? Advocates for the trans rights side had no good answer.
It is no surprise that the trans athletes lost Tuesday at the Supreme Court. It is more surprising that these cases were brought at all. Who thought this was a good idea?