Congress is preparing for the Monday inauguration of Donald Trump. The process of moving bills forward will ensure that President Trump doesn’t get bored in his first days as president.

 

The “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” is one of those bills that has been passed by the House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis — two Democrats have voted in favor of the bill.

 

Sorry Democrats, that’s not what bipartisanship means.

 

Two House Democrats voted with Republican legislators to ban male athletes from playing on girl’s school teams.

 

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, sponsored by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), would amend federal laws to require that student-athletes participate in school sports teams that correspond with their gender at birth.

 

 

Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Vicente Gonzales (D-Texas) were the only Democrats to vote in favor of the bill, which passed by a margin of 218 votes to 206. Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., voted “present.”

 

All three won re-election on razor-thin margins in districts that have trended redder over the years.

 

Quibble: Gender is a linguistic word. The operative term is “sex,” which is genetically determined at conception, not at birth. I’m a biologist, not a Supreme Court Justice.

 

Please note where these two Democrats come from. Texas is not going blue, despite the feverish dreams of liberals and Democrats (but again, I repeat myself). It’s possible that Rep. Cuellar, Rep. Gonzales, and legacy media are not voting for this bill because they have sincere beliefs. But it is also likely that their political survival will be at stake.

 

 

Now, the bill will be sent to the Senate where it is hoped that a similar outcome will occur.

 

Senate Republicans have indicated that they plan to consider the bill soon.

 

If we’re lucky, President Trump will sign the bill on Monday. It could be the first of many. The last four years in the White House have been an exercise in incompetence and nitwittery.

 

The vote counts are:

 

 

Here’s the real issue: Why was it necessary to pass this bill?

 

As a country and a culture, we’ve repeatedly discussed this issue. Certain facts are undeniable and irrefutable; boys and men have had physical advantages from the start over girls and women. These are advantages of speed, strength, and stamina as well as the ability to cope with external hardships. It’s hard to believe that Congress has to pass a law to say that girls are not girls, but boys and that sports in school must be differentiated accordingly. Otherwise, sports would never have needed to be separated by gender.

 

Here’s the pass. My father, a World War 2 second lieutenant, bomber navigator, and former officer, would joke that it was an act of Congress that made him a gentleman. It seems that it now takes an act by Congress to acknowledge that boys are still boys and girls remain girls.