I once wrote an article about something, I don't even remember what anymore, but it wasn't about transgender issues, and I mentioned that girls and boys should play together on the same teams in Little League baseball. Because obviously? There's no general physiological difference between 10 and 11 year old girls and boys.

Most people didn't react to that, because it's fairly non-controversial, and because Little League is to some extent gender integrated these days.

But several people who claimed to be fathers of young girls reacted with something approaching outrage. I was a bit confused, and responded to ask why girls shouldn't be competing with boys in baseball when they're that young.

"Because they'll get hurt, and we have to keep them safe," seemed to be the consensus of the objectors.

I refrained from saying "sexist claptrap" out loud, but I'll say it now.

This idea that women are generally weak and in need of protection is widespread and powerful, even when it is obviously not based in reality.

I can imagine people responding even more viscerally to teenage girls wanting to compete with boys in hockey, which is seen as a dangerous sport, probably because it is, or at least more dangerous than some sports.

But that doesn't mean that teenage girls shouldn't play it! At least no more than teenage boys shouldn't play it. Obviously there are arguments to be made about general safety in sports, but the sexism at the base of barring women and girls is more than apparent, based on the sexist notion that women and girls are very weak.

Which brings us right back around to the transgender women in sports hoopla.