Retreat From the Hill | Power Line

We, and pretty much everyone else, have expressed puzzlement over the Democrats’ choice of men playing in women’s sports as their signature issue–the hill they were willing to die on, in the face of 80% opposition from voters.

But now it appears that they are beating an orderly retreat. First it was Gavin Newsom, who said while inaugurating his own podcast with Charlie Kirk, that allowing men to play in women’s sports is “deeply unfair.” He also expounded at length on the political unpopularity of the Democrats’ position.

Newsom initially took heat for his acknowledgment that Republicans were right all along, but now it seems that the memo has gone out:

Senate Democrats want to leave the issue of trans athletes playing in women’s sports to state and local governments.
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In the Senate, their emerging strategy is to argue that one part of the issue is best left to the states, while acknowledging concerns about athletes gaining an unfair advantage.

“There are basic issues of fairness here,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) “There are really important issues that we should be discussing on the local level, within sports leagues and within conferences.”

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Duckworth is taking the lead, perhaps because she is gay and thus relatively immune to attacks from the LGBTQ world:

The Democratic messaging effort has been spearheaded by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), sources tell Axios.
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“Republicans in Washington are saying they know better than parents and local school districts,” she said in a statement. “They are wrong. I trust parents, schools and local sports leagues to make these decisions for their children.”

It is wonderful to finally see an issue on which Democrats trust parents and local schools more than Washington. So, what will states do if the issue is left to them? It depends, obviously, on the state. But in my state, Minnesota, House Democrats voted unanimously against a bill to bar men from competing in women’s sports. In most states, legislators will likely go along with the overwhelming majority of voters.

While I generally like to see issues resolved at the state and local level, there is a reason why men in women’s sports can properly be addressed at the national level: Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program or activity that receives federal assistance. It is not a stretch to say that allowing men into women’s sports discriminates against women–men have their own competitive environment, while women don’t–and Title IX was one of the statutory grounds for the executive order that President Trump signed at the beginning of his administration.

The bottom line, I think, is that Democrats are trying to get out from under an issue that is political poison for them, without antagonizing their gender-crazed base any more than necessary.