Massachusetts Gov. Healey Supports Transgender People in Women’s Sports

Whether biological men belong playing on women's sports teams is as divisive an issue as we as a nation have encountered in a while. The crux of the debate is whether athletes should be able to compete in sports that align with their gender identity, regardless of their sex assigned at birth.

Female athletes have suffered injuries while competing against trans women, and opponents of biological men in women's sports say trans women have an unfair advantage.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning biological men from competing in women's sports. The order is facing a challenge in court.

Liberal Massachusetts Democrat Congressman Seth Moulton raised eyebrows in a recent New York Times interview when he said he doesn't want his two daughters "getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete."

"But as a Democrat, I'm supposed to be afraid to say that," Moulton told the Times.

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State House News Service reported that when asked about Moulton's comments during a recent appearance on Boston Public Radio, openly gay Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey referred to the debate over men in women's sports as a "Republican game."

"This has been the Republican game, is to pick a really discrete issue – the number of transgender people in the country is very small, the number of transgender athletes in this country is even smaller – and blow that up into something," she said.

While never pressed about the fairness of biological men playing in women's sports, Healey shifted to the issue of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), saying the term "DEI" has been "completely caricatured," which is why she no longer uses it.

"It's wrong to exclude somebody" based on sexual orientation or because of a disability, Healey said. "So let's move on."