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WASHINGTON -- A madness swept the nation during President Joe Biden's term in office: the unfettered promotion of gender transitioning, even among children and, oddly, in the wide world of sports.

President Donald Trump quickly put an end to that. On his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an executive order, "Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government."

The order called out "ideologues who deny the biological reality" and "socially coercive means (used) to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women's domestic abuse shelters to women's workplace showers. This is wrong."

Amen. And Amen to Trump for standing up for the order last week.

I have empathy for transgender individuals who suffer from gender dysphoria and are trying to navigate a way forward. But the politics of the issue have ignored simple common sense. Under the law of unintended consequences, a movement that started with good intentions to protect transgender students has been used to shortchange women and girls. If a male says he is female and wants to be in the girls' locker room or on the girls' team, there's little that girls can do about it.

A biological male spiked a volleyball into the head of Payton McNabb, then 17, during a women's match. Later, the New York Post reported, she was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, a brain bleed, partial paralysis and loss of peripheral vision on her right side. As a college student, she has been sidelined from college softball.

That's one story.

The White House estimates that female athletes have lost nearly 900 medals to men competing against them in women's sporting competitions.

I can't understand what kind of man would want to compete against women in contact sports. It's not a fair fight.

Or as professional golfer Alison Crenshaw put it, "There have been numerous incidents where female athletes have had their hard work and potential stolen from them because male athletes were allowed to compete in the female division. It's wrong, it's cheating, and female athletes deserve to have their rights as athletes fought for."

Oddly, many on the left defend letting men play on women's teams.

But the American public is not on board. A recent New York Times/Ipsos survey found that 18% of Americans believe transgender female athletes -- aka men -- should be allowed to compete on women's teams.

So it's a good thing that, after Trump's order, the NCAA announced it was changing its transgender policy to restrict women's competition to female student athletes.

When the National Governors Association met at the White House on Friday, Trump returned to the issue when he singled out Maine Gov. Janet Mills and asked her if she was going to comply with his executive order.

"I'm complying with state and federal law," Mills responded. That was a no.

"You better do it; you better do it because you're not gonna get any federal funding at all if you don't," Trump countered.

"See you in court," Mills replied.

Some hailed Mills for standing up to Trump on his own turf. Author Stephen King tweeted, "Thank you, Governor, for standing up to the bully."

It's nice the Democratic governor stood up for herself, but it's outrageous that she did not stand up for young female athletes.

On X, GOP Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby posted side-by-side photos of a Maine high school pole vaulter who tied for 5th place last year as a boy but won the Class B state indoor pole vault title this month as a girl, igniting this controversy anew. "Another day, another instance of an unremarkable biological male athlete (who couldn't win against other males) dominating girls' sports," Libby observed.

If King thinks Trump is a bully, what is his view of biological males who compete against biological females? Or do female athletes not matter?

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.

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