This is a subject that’s been coming up more and more lately, not that you’ll see much of it on cable news. It’s the question of whether or not competitive female sports organizations, both scholastic and otherwise, should allow “transgender women” (who were born male) to compete against natural, biological women. Most recently we looked at a transgender powerlifter who broke four world records at a single competition but later had those titles rejected because he was determined to be a male by the commission overseeing the sport.

So are Americans paying attention to this debate? And if so, how do they feel about it? Scott Rasmussen tackled the question recently and the results are pretty clear. A majority of voters find such participation to be unfair to women and only a small percentage support the practice.

Twenty-three percent (23%) of voters believe a person born as a male but identifying as a female should be allowed to compete in women’s competitive sports events. A ScottRasmussen.com national survey found that 56% disagree and 21% are not sure.

Voters under 35 are evenly divided on the question. Older voters do not believe such athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s events (see crosstab results). Thirty-two percent (32%) of Democrats believe such athletes should be allowed to compete. That view is shared by 22% of Independent voters and 12% of Republicans…

Thirty-two percent (32%) of voters have followed recent news stories concerning transgender athletes at least somewhat closely. That includes 10% who have followed the stories Very Closely.

The survey also dug a bit deeper to learn why people are opposed. Strong majorities supported three different conclusions about allowing biological males to compete against women. First, male athletes tend to be “stronger and more athletic” than comparable females. Second, allowing them to compete is unfair to the actual women. And finally, this practice will eventually lead to men dominating women’s sports. All of that seemed rather obvious to me, but it’s worthwhile to know where the majority of voters are coming down on the issue.

The party line breakdown is kind of stunning also. For any Democrats and liberals thinking of hitching their wagon to this issue, they should be aware that less than one-third of Democrats support this idea. Those numbers plummet further among independents and Republicans.

Too many supporters of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports are trying to turn this into an LGBT issue and that’s false. This is strictly a “T-issue.” Nobody is complaining about gay or lesbian athletes competing. Thankfully, for a significant majority of the country, nobody particularly cares who you are sleeping with. This is a question that revolves around the reason that we have separate competitions for men and women in the first place. We do it because women would be locked out of the top levels of most sports if we didn’t. And we don’t define the two sexes for these purposes based on how you feel or how you “identify.” We define the categories based on your basic physiology.

It’s time for all of the major women’s sports leagues to wake up and deal with this situation. Otherwise, they’re going to wind up woking themselves out of existence.