Democrats boycotted a GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday on protecting women's sports from male participation by gender identity, offering no witnesses of their own, after its top Democrat's opening statement wrote off the hearing as irrelevant and dangerous.

This subject isn't in the top 10 or maybe even 20 issues Americans want Congress to tackle, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said after Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, gave his opening statement, saying more people care about removing "damn cell phones" from kids in school.

He said NCAA president Charlie Baker, the former liberal GOP governor of Massachusetts, told Durbin there were fewer than 10 known transgender athletes among half a million college athletes.

"This vendetta against a small number of people in the trans community affects everyone" because even "cisgender girls," an invented pathological term for girls without gender dysphoria, will endure "inappropriate gender verification checks" to keep male athletes out of their sports, Durbin claimed.

The real threats to female athletes are unequal pay and resources, rampant sexual abuse and other Title IX violations, Durbin said. He said he won't ask questions at the hearing because it's not a "responsible" use of the committee's time, and got up to leave as Grassley swore in the witnesses.