Lucas: Let the girls play! Sideline politics
At least one Massachusetts Democrat has come to his senses.
That would be U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, 46, of Salem who has dared to be different when it comes to the men playing in women’s sports.
He is against it.
And the onery five-term maverick of the Democrat Party is taking a beating over his position from the zealots of the party who demand strict orthodoxy on its positions, as zany as they might be.
Having biological men compete with girls and women in high school and college sports is one of them.
Moulton, who once had no objection to the controversial proposal, said, “I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on the playing field by a male or formerly male athlete. But as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
Apparently, the thought of biological male soccer players stomping all over his two little girls at a high school match made him change his mind, although — given the reaction — it makes him a traitor to fellow Democrats.
The Democrat Party today is like Joe Stalin’s Communist Party of the old Soviet Union in the 1930’s. You stepped out of line at your peril.
Back then a good communist, like a good Stalinista Democrat today, had to swallow the party line hook, line and sinker lest you be shunned, purged, attacked and drummed out of the party.
Which is happening to Moulton, an Iraq War Marine Corps combat veteran. That is because the Stalinista Democrats from top to bottom tolerate no dissent. That is why they are losing.
It is so bad that the party’s rigid policy has trickled down to officials in the Witch City, who, led my Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo, have denounced Moulton, its former favorite son “in the strongest possible terms.”
The situation is so pathetic that it would come as no surprise if the city, known for its historic Salem Witch Trials, will hold a Salem Switch Trial for Moulton.
After all, he was once in favor of men playing in women’s sports before he was against it.
That was in August 2023, when Moulton joined other Democrats in the House to vote against the Republican-sponsored Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
The act would have prohibited biological males from competing in women’s sports
While the bill passed, only to die in the Senate, not a single Democrat voted for it, including Moulton.
In fact, eight of the nine members of the Massachusetts delegation to the House voted against it, with only Rep. Richard Neal of Springfield, the wizened dean of the delegation, not voting.
One of those Democrats who voted against the bill was Rep. Lori Trahan, 41, of Westford. Her vote is interesting because like Moulton she has two young daughters.
In Trahan’s case she won a women’s volleyball scholarship out of Lowell High School to Georgetown University. She won that scholarship by competing against high school girls, not biological men.
Would she had won that scholarship competing against boys instead of girls? Given her height, (6 feet) perhaps. But perhaps not.
If they are into sports, her daughters will be competing against biological boys for their scholarship, but that seems all right with Trahan since it is Stalinista party policy.
While not a voting member of Congress, Gov. Maura Healey also took a few shots at Moulton, accusing him of “playing politics with people” over the issue.
Healey, the first openly gay governor of Massachusetts who has no biological children, said, “We shouldn’t do that. We should have real conversations and not play politics with people, particularly young people, and folks who are vulnerable.”
Healey was a basketball star in high school and at Harvard. She also played professionally in Europe for two years.
She is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and played against girls and women.
One wonders what kind of a star she would have been if in women’s basketball she played against biological men who were 6 feet 4 inches tall and a hundred pounds heavier.
The question answers itself. She would have been stuffed.
But try telling that to a Stalinista Democrat.
Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com