Video 'Zero-sum game': Inside the battle protect women's sports Four states voted on ballot measures to ban transgender athletes from women's sports in the 2026 midterm elections. The measures passed in Arizona and Nebraska, while results in Colorado and Washington remain pending.
MS Now host Rachel Maddow says the trans sports debate is a made-up issue. She claims those pushing it are participating in a "repulsive" political campaign.
Maddow discussed the topic this week on the "Pablo Torre Finds Out" podcast.
"It turns out the trans athletes thing, I mean, there are a lot of actual, very serious elements of it. No. 1 is just seeing this national, insistent, now years-long political project to scapegoat and vilify and try to direct violence and hate toward a tiny, disfavored minority, which is trans people," Maddow began.
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"That is something that has a profound, profound impact on some of our fellow Americans. And it is repulsive. It is politically as transparent as any other exercise like this has been from any other authoritarian movement in politics, in any country, in the last century and a half."
Author and television host Rachel Maddow appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Sept. 28, 2017. (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
"And politically, it is a fantasy to invent a fake problem, to invent something that has literally no contact with the real lives of 99.9999% of Americans and say this is the problem that the American government must be reorganized to prioritize and to never solve for you, so we can continue to run on it forever.
"It is pitiful, a sign of profound political weakness, and something that I think has now been exposed as the fantasist BS copout that it is."
During the 2026 midterms, left-leaning Washington state and Colorado approved measures requiring transgender athletes to compete in school sports categories that match their sex.
National polling from Gallup found that around 78% of voters oppose allowing men who identify as women to compete in female athletics.
California high school girls' athletes wear 'Protect Girls Sports' shirts at a postseason track meet at Yorba Linda High School on Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Courtesy of Reese Hogan)
The Democrats currently have some winning messages on their side. The results of the midterm prove that, particularly amid concerns about the ongoing war in Iran and everyday costs in America.
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However, defending males competing in female sports is not one of them.
No honest person argues that keeping males out of female athletics is voters' greatest concern. It isn't. Fuel prices, grocery costs, and housing affect far more Americans directly. But voters do care.
In September, polling from The 19th/YouGov found that around half of voters favor candidates who support trans sports bans. Many respondents worried that ignoring the issue would allow it to become more common.
Some voters prioritize the issue because they want to prevent it from affecting them or their children.
That is what Maddow misses when she claims trans sports has "no contact with the real lives of 99.9999% of Americans."
Parents do not have to wait until their daughters lose a roster spot or share a locker room with a male to object.
MS NOW host Rachel Maddow has scaled back her workload since 2017. (Screenshot/MSNBC/)
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Further, there's something eerie about adults like Maddow telling young girls they need not worry about competing against males in female athletics.
Perhaps telling girls to "shut up and change next to this biological male" is what is, to use Maddow's term, repulsive.
