I typically have a strict policy against calling specific, individual humans names. It’s a no-no. It’s absolutely, 100% beneath me. Slam-dunk guaranteed.

Enes Kanter Freedom is a dope.

Oops.

I don’t mean that in a mean, degrading way. Just in a matter-of-fact way.

He was a dope when he was the third overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, selected by the Jazz. He was a dope when he played for the Jazz, back before he added Freedom to his moniker. He was a dope when he was sent packing by the Jazz, spewing the negativity he spewed about the club and about Utah on his way out the door. He was a dope when he got kicked out of a WNBA arena recently, approaching the court after a WNBA player yelled at him. He may be a perpetual dope, I dunno.

Either way, there, I said it.

What Mike Lee, the U.S. senator who supposedly represents all of Utah, is … is … is … well, that one, I’ll leave to you. Complete the following sentence: Mike Lee is … [fill in the blank].

The fact that each of these guys is making an issue of transgender athletes playing in the WNBA when there are no transgender athletes playing in the WNBA, nor has there ever been a transgender athlete playing in the WNBA, nor is there a trans woman currently trying to get into the WNBA, is made-up rage aimed at a problem that isn’t a problem.

If it isn’t a real problem, what is authentic about it?

Could it be some kind of social slant, a political statement, in the case of Lee, meant to make hyperbolic a position that at present affects nobody in, no part of, a certain professional league that he seems to think is unpatriotic?

An overblown position that affects such a small — but valued — number of people, but can be inflated as somehow significant, can be used as a cudgel against the marginalized and as a kind of rallying cover for so many other political positions and policies that are unpopular and failing?

It’s enough to make you wonder.

I get it. Transgender participation in sports is worth further discussion and discovery. No need to run from it. There’s disagreement among scientists and geneticists, doctors and researchers who thus far have offered varying views about the biological and medical complexities involved. Study is always a good thing, even if things remain unsettled. Study on!

But that’s not usually the way it goes down these days. It’s reached a point where the science — and the research within it — is being interrupted by strong emotional conclusions already drawn.

The way it’s flung about is as a divider, as a weapon. In the present and past, I’ve been on the side of those individuals and families who are so adversely caught in the vice of the matter, those who are batted around in the course of public opinion, some of it educated, some of it not so much. (And I don’t draw that line straight between those who agree or disagree with me.)

What I do disagree with is the swinging of the hammer.

Note: Calling Kanter Freedom a dope and Lee a [fill in the blank] is a mere pat to the side of the head.

The fact that the topic has become as big a deal as it is, when it pertains directly to such a small number of people, is evidence that there’s more at play here than just whether a trans woman should be allowed to compete against a cisgender woman.

You’ve heard the shouts, from people like the aforementioned. And, conversely, from people who see children and adults in the transgender community as people to be valued and protected. I’ve talked with those folks, heard their stories, felt their pain, some of it the kind of pain that no person, no parent should ever experience.

And, yeah, I hear the absolutes screamed from people who declare they want to be watchdogs for girls’ and women’s sports, the marginalized be damned. They often take no thought to those who are living through the complexities of the issue.

Boys shouldn’t compete in sports against girls! Men shouldn’t compete against women! Pay no mind to the complicated intricacies of the subject! That’s what is so often heard, plain and simple.

It’s not plain, nor is it simple.

Kanter Freedom can have his opinion. Lee can have his.

You can have yours; maybe you think I’m a dope. I can have mine; I think Kanter Freedom’s a dope. As for Lee, he’s a [fill in the blank].

Whatever. For the time being, though, leave the WNBA out of it.

Who’s right and who’s wrong?

Study on!