Indiana Fever reserve guard Sophie Cunningham ruffled feathers across the WNBA when she voiced that she felt that transgender girls should not compete in sports with other girls, and then doubled down on the stance.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’”Cunningham said. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
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“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense,” she said after facing backlash for her initial comments. “And I think I’ll always believe in that. I think it’s really important to protect children, and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category. I stand on what I said.”
Surprisingly, one of Cunningham’s teammates on the Fever from a season ago, Brianna Turner, who now plays for the Aces, took to social media to defend trans rights and youth, and shockingly, had quite the allegation from her Fever days when she played alongside Cunningham and superstar Caitlin Clark.
“A tiny minority of the population identifies as trans, yet they are always a trending topic unfortunately. I’m in my 8th season as a WNBA player. To date there’s been one out trans player in the league. They caused zero problems,” Turner posted.
“An issue that has caused problems though? Last year on my WNBA team a male staff member was fired for sexual harassment, but we were encouraged to keep quiet about it. That is an issue. Sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and racism are all issues.”
In light of Turner’s post, the Fever released an official statement:
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“Protecting our players and employees and maintaining a respectful, professional workplace is our top priority. Our policy is to take concerns seriously, investigate thoroughly, and act promptly when appropriate to protect the people in our organization and ensure everyone is treated with professionalism and respect. Fostering trust and safety in that process means we do not comment on personnel matters involving former employees.”
Many fans felt Indiana missed the mark, and they weren’t shy about making themselves heard on social media.
“This is such a bad look for the fever,” one fan posted on X.
“Fever organization got exposed and can’t even release a proper statement. Don’t expect much from the same people who were hiding the seriousness of Caitlin’s injury all last year just so they could still sell tickets in hopes of seeing her play,” someone else added.
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“It is so easy for the fever organization to skirt any accountability because all they have to do is release a statement and it never gets brought up again,” one fan added.
Hopefully, if anyone was harmed or is a victim, they received the support and resources needed to move on.
The post ‘Organization got exposed’: Fever face criticsm for response to alleged sexual harassment while Caitlin Clark was on team appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.
