Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.

I'm writing in response to Ken Sims latest passionate (and certainly not creepy or obsessive) opinion about trans rights ("Men don't belong in women's sports," May 3). I commend Mr. Sims for putting his opinion out there, but I do feel the need to correct a few misconceptions that he seems to have.

First, it is illegal for the Department of Justice to withhold federal funds from Minnesota for not complying with our beloved leader's executive order.

I am somewhat surprised that so many people seem to have forgotten this fact, but executive orders are not laws. They are not passed by Congress, they do not have court cases providing precedent, they are little more than memos from the president stating what he wishes to be laws. The federal funds allocated to our state through acts of Congress, on the other hand, are legally binding. Attorney General Ellison is performing his responsibility admirably by choosing to sue to protect our federal funding.

Sims seems to take it as a given that trans women participating in women's sports makes it inherently more unfair and unsafe for cis (not trans) women. In some cases, this can be true. There are some sports where trans women, if they have transitioned after going through male puberty, will, in general, have some advantages over the average cis woman, similar to how particularly tall women may have an advantage in some sports over shorter women.

However, there are other sports where trans women, on average, seem to have a disadvantage, as it is not always beneficial to have larger frame while having decreased muscle mass, which occurs as a result of medically transitioning. These nuances are why most professional sports organizations have specific guidelines regarding trans women's participation, such as how long they need to have been on HRT.

There are many reasons people choose to play sports: mental and physical health benefits, community, some people (I am told) even find it fun. There are also real dangers to ostracizing and demonizing entire minority groups, especially amongst children.

Beyond the increase in suicidality among trans teens, isolated queer teens are especially vulnerable to monsters like Holmberg. While we all may have very different political beliefs, I'd like to assume that we are all against children being isolated from society and preyed upon by abusers.

Over the past decade, we have seen the religious right, the Murdoch media empire and every right-wing political party on the planet spend a seemingly endless amount of resources to convince society that trans people should not exist, despite us only making up 1-1.7% of the population.

This is likely the reason that Sims cannot think of any examples of trans men playing in men's sports: those stories are not blasted on repeat on Fox News.

Trans people should be allowed to participate in sports, because trans people, like all people, should be allowed to participate in society.

Sims is certainly free to believe that being trans is merely a mental illness (although among some people, declaring an entire marginalized minority to be the result of mental illness would be seen as being indicative of a small and incurious mind), but I am deeply uncomfortable with the idea of the federal government illegally pressuring states to declare that some minorities are not allowed to participate in society.