National Public Radio legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg previewed oral arguments in two Supreme Court cases involving transgender females (i.e., males) participating in female sports on NPR’s Morning Edition Tuesday. Even as the liberal editorial board of the Washington Post hops off the transgender train in a surprisingly strong editorial, the transgender athlete echo chamber still resounds in other outlets, ringing with distorted language and discredited arguments, as shown by Totenberg’s word choice. Totenberg approached the issue as if the Supreme Court started this skirmish in the “culture wars,” as opposed to the radical “gender-affirming” side that believes boys have the right to compete against girls in women’s sports. This text version tracks closely with the broadcast version: The Supreme Court dives back into the culture wars full steam on Tuesday with oral arguments in two cases that test laws banning transgender girls and women from participating in women's sports at publicly funded schools. Transgender participation in sports, though extremely rare, has become the newest flashpoint in both politics and law. Especially in 2024 when the Trump presidential campaign aired attack ads on the subject more than 15,000 times, putting Democrats decidedly on defense…. For something “extremely rare,” the media certainly spends a lot of time defending the “rights” of transgender females to compete alongside actual females and steal their athletic trophies. To date, 27 states have enacted laws barring transgender participation in sports. Supporters say the laws are needed to ensure fairness in athletic competition and to prevent athletes whose assigned sex at birth was male from having an unfair advantage in women's sports. Opponents of these laws say they discriminate based on sex, in violation of both federal law and the constitution's guarantee to equal protection of the law. This next sentence was surprising: Has tennis great Billie Jean King changed her mind since September 2023, when she sounded opposed to males in female sports, saying that once athletes get to high school, “you really have to have rules” about participation? Navratilova has long drawn the line against males participating in female sports, but it seems King now favors it. For athletes at every level, the issue is deeply personal, with tennis greats Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova on opposing sides, along with hundreds of other high-profile athletes. Totenberg told the story of Becky Pepper Jackson, “apparently the only openly trans girl in the state seeking to play school sports,” and used the distorted, anti-scientific language of the radical trans movement to bolster “her” side of the case. Though her assigned sex at birth was male, she says she knew from a very young age that she was a girl, and by third grade she not only presented herself as a girl, she joined the girls running team in school. … And while Becky's case began when she was in fifth grade, as McCuskey observes, "By the time she was a high school freshman, at age 13 or 14," she "is the third best shot putter in the entire state. And that includes 15, 16, and 17-year-olds, and 18-year-olds." The same kinds of physical advantages, he says, are clear in other sports worldwide. "Every single women's swimming world record, all of them, have been beaten by a boy who's 16 or younger," he says.  But Becky's lawyer, Josh Block of the ACLU, counters that there are always winners and losers in sports, as well as special advantages. .... While Block concedes there is a difference between intramural sports and varsity sports at the college level, he sees this case as potentially punitive for trans individuals overall. Totenberg again used the distorted descriptors favored by trans activists, noting the Supreme Court “has also required passport applicants to list only their assigned sex at birth.” While Totenberg doesn’t hang an ideological label on the left-wing ACLU, another party in the case, the Alliance Defending Freedom, is called “a powerful conservative group.”