Once again, Liberals and Conservatives are locked in a bitter struggle over the irrelevant and the ridiculous. The issue now is whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete under their gender of choice, or their gender assignment of birth. Should a boy who wants to be a girl play with, and against, other boys or other girls? The reverse also holds true, should a girl “transing” to be a boy compete in sports as a male or a female?

Of course, the latter example is not as much an issue. Although there are undoubtedly many physically robust females, and no shortage of flimsy, wimpy males, it cannot be denied that as a rule, men are stronger, faster, heavier and more athletically competent than women. Or more charitably, it could be argued that most sports are conceived and organized to favor the male physique. The fact remains, that in most athletic activities, males have an intrinsic physical advantage over females, even if one recognizes there are very talented and capable individuals of both sexes, and considerable overlap between the two populations. How many males, after all, would be able to last 10 rounds against Rhonda Rousey, or out-ski Lindsay Vonn, or win a match against either of the Williams sisters?

But it simply would not be fair, in most sports, for boys and girls to compete against one another. I suspect that in some events this may not be the case {should male table tennis players necessarily be better than female ones?). The perceived gender differences in these sports may be purely cultural, not biological. In some sports, like competition driving, I have no doubt that female physical attributes exceed those of their male counterparts. I’m surprised that car racing isn’t dominated by women. But having said that, in most organized competitive physical activities, it is not fair for the two sexes to compete against one another. The male musculo-skeletal structure (not to mention their statistical advantages in height and weight) will always have the edge.

I remember well the Olympic scandals of the past, when male East German athletes were pumped full of female hormones and allowed to compete against women. This form of medical cheating didn’t always succeed, but it worked often enough to attract attention and deserve condemnation. It should be the same today. The surgical and endocrinological changes required by the transgendering process may not necessarily overcome the true and undeniable physical differences between the sexes.

Now, I have no problem with women competing on men’s teams or competing against men. If they have the ability, then I say ‘go for it’. But for biologically determined sexuality, I believe it is unfair for men to compete against women AS WOMEN. Perhaps in some sports (say, chess or curling) gender is irrelevant, but not in most. The current controversy isn’t really about sports at all, is it? Libs just love to point out how sexually repressed and bigoted Cons are, and the fascists are confusing their own sexual ambiguities and perversions with legitimate issues of fairness or their own religious biases. The question of showers and locker rooms is, of course, bogus. The boy turned girl athlete is not likely to sexually prey on his(her?) teammates.

Still, in this issue, THIS card-carrying radical socialist stands with the Cryptonazi Right.