This past week, I've been called a transphobe and a moron, and told that I deserve to lose my job.

All because I had the temerity to write about a taboo topic: the participation of transgender women and girls in female sports.

Every sneering email I received drove home the point: Do not talk about this. If you do, we will shut you down. What they lack in numbers — 66% of Americans believe that transgender people ought to compete on the teams that match their gender assigned at birth, according to the Pew Research Center, while only 15% disagreed — these activists make up for in vitriol.

Thankfully, I also received thoughtful, kind responses from people who disagreed with me, as well as from conservatives, who, not surprisingly, were pleased to see their views reflected in print.

Even more surprisingly, a number of liberals agreed with me.

Pauline Schottmuller of Washington County considers herself a moderate liberal and has voted blue since President Donald Trump's arrival on the scene. She wrote that she has witnessed the emotional agony of those struggling to decide whether to transition, including a young man who was married with children. Yet Schottmuller doesn't support transgender female participation in female sports.

"I told liberal friends that this was an issue that will drive people into the Trump camp. They were outraged, but I do believe that it did," she said. "We need more research and better understanding of what transitioning at different ages actually means in terms of athletic abilities."

Dave Porter, a Minneapolis attorney, said he has wrestled with how to feel and respond to transgender females competing in sports with their differential and unfair advantage.

"I do believe this conflict was enough to switch the electoral results this last time around," he said. "Right before the election, we were blasted with repeated images of swarthy males crowding into 'team' pictures. Only for a second or two, but enough to inspire deeply felt revulsion. It worked."

He sympathizes and supports transgender people but draws the line at allowing them to compete against women.

Aaron Butler, formerly of St. Paul and now of Osceola, Wis., said he'd rather see athletic leagues decide whether to allow transgender participation instead of a statewide ban. Still, he would support one if necessary.

"I agree that athletes that were born male have an unfair advantage in women's sports, and should not play," he wrote. "I wish they had not pushed this silly issue to the point where they forced people to formally ban them."

My attempt at irony in complimenting conservatives in finally taking an interest in women's issues fell flat. Butler was one who pointed out that he sees bigotry and hatred in driving conservatives to transgender bans rather than sincere concern for women and girls.

"Conservatives wish to subjugate/eradicate/discriminate against many groups, including gay and trans," he wrote. "They just happened to get lucky in this case where progressive people agree with the end result, creating for the conservatives pretty safe cover to get to their desired end."

Many readers said there are so few actual cases of transgender athletes participating in sports that it didn't pay to write about the issue. Last year, NCAA President Charlie Baker said he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes in college athletics, yet despite their low numbers, transgender women athletes have done quite well in their fields.

  • New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was the first openly transgender woman to compete in the Olympic Games. First competing as a male, she returned to the sport after transitioning to female. She did poorly at the Olympics, but took gold in multiple other competitions. Several female athletes criticized her participation as unfair.
  • Veronica Ivy, a Canadian competitive cyclist, became the first transgender world track cycling champion by winning the UCI Women's Masters Track World Championship in her age bracket.
  • Tiffany Newell set a Canadian record in 2022 while winning the women's indoor 5,000-meter race.

The issue of transgender participation in women's sports seems to be a situation where kindness runs up against fairness.

"How kind is it to prevent a child from playing in a sport, or possibly even learning to play a sport because they are different?" wrote Kris D. McCoy of Clarkfield, Minn., whose transgender wife lives to play volleyball. "Sports should be an opportunity to come together and have fun."

His wife plays in amateur leagues and pickup games, both mixed-sex and segregated leagues.

"She's better than some of her female counterparts, and she's worse than some of them," McCoy wrote. "But this is what will happen one day now that Trump has given people license: There will be a tournament. Her team will win fair and square. Someone on the losing team will be a sore loser. She will be picked out as the reason for their loss."

I did hear from more liberals who don't support transgender women participating in women's sports, but they asked that I not use their names. "The thought of that makes my heart race with panic," one wrote.