Congressman Seth Moulton is under fire because he wants girls not to be hurt while playing school sports.

It’s hard to believe anyone would want girls to be injured, but Massachusetts has a whole cadre of sadists lined up against Moulton for saying that girls should be protected from broken bones caused by physically superior males who insist that they belong on the girls team because they identify as female. Moulton is not wrong.

Last February the girls’ team from a charter high school in Lowell suffered three injuries during the first half of a basketball game against a girls’ team that had a male player.

in September 2022, a female volleyball player from a high school in North Carolina suffered a neck injury when a male competitor spiked the ball in her face.

A year ago, a female field hockey player on the Dighton-Rehoboth high school team had her teeth knocked out and suffered serious facial injuries when a male player on the Swampscott team shot a ball at her.

It might hurt the feelings of a trans person to tell them they cannot play on a girls team, but feelings do not trump a mouthful of bloody teeth.

This issue has nothing to do with kids calling themselves male or female — or Lassie for that matter. People can identify as they see fit, just as they can practice whatever religion they choose, or none at all. But forcing girls to accept biological males on their sports teams means that girls’ safety doesn’t matter. This same evil attitude is harming women prisoners forced to live with male criminals who claim to be women. In addition to causing an uptick in rapes of incarcerated women, this practice is distorting the official data on how many males are raping females behind bars.

It’s common sense to care about the well-being of trans people, but it’s unconscionable to do so at the expense of women’s and girls’ safety. When a trans woman was killed a few years ago alongside her female friend, Gov. Maura Healey immediately held a press conference to talk about the trans woman and the suffering of trans people. She said little about the fact that a biological female was also killed, and she said nothing about the fact that the trans woman was killed only because she was defending her female friend from male domestic violence. Healey’s odd handling of the situation made it harder for the public to understand that domestic abuse was behind the violence and is epidemic in Massachusetts. The killer, like most abusers, was sexist not transphobic.

Before you send letters to the editor calling me transphobic, know that I have three (one recently deceased) trans people in my family — all of whom are loved and supported. And my doctor, whom I adore, is trans. Almost everyone is accepting of trans people but they want to be supportive without harming females. For example, the Boston Marathon does not allow biological males to compete in the female category — but to accommodate trans people it created a third non-binary category. Nobody accused them of being transphobic. To the contrary, the decision was celebrated by the trans community as progressive.

Seth Moulton isn’t transphobic, but the brutal public attacks on his views beg the question: how should Moulton express concern for girls without opening himself up to public scorn? Politicians on both sides of the aisle agree with Moulton, but they’re afraid to speak up because of the Orwellian culture cops. Female athletes are also afraid to complain, even though playing against males means they play less well because they are worried about injuries. In turn, female athletes are inhibited from playing sports at all, because it isn’t worth it.

Pretending that male and female categories don’t matter simply because some people feel like they don’t belong in either category regardless of their body parts does nothing to help trans people. Countless Americans are mixed race, but so what? We don’t force Black people to accept the claims of white people who say they identify as Black, no matter how sincere the claim. Just ask Rachel Dolezal.

A person’s identity is important but it’s not more important than the immutable biological reality of femaleness. And it never justifies a mouthful of bloody teeth.