With another rally supporting Sophie Cunningham planned for the Indiana Fever‘s visit to Minneapolis on Sunday, Cheryl Reeve defended the demonstrators’ right to assemble while also declaring the need to find common ground in the debate over transgender participation in women’s sports.
The Minnesota Lynx coach spoke extensively on the controversy now swirling around Cunningham, the Fever guard who recently said excluding transgender athletes from women’s sports is “common sense,” and stressed the need to be inclusive while talking to reporters Saturday.
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“I don’t think we should feel like our safe space is being threatened,” Reeve said of the demonstrators. “That’s what I enjoy about the WNBA. And I think we have to continue to safeguard that. I don’t think these demonstrators are not being peaceful, or not that I’ve seen.
“… I haven’t heard everything that’s happening, but everyone has a right to peacefully assemble, right?”
The Lynx (24-6) boast the WNBA’s best record as they prepare to host the Fever (19-10), who own the fourth-best record. But much of Reeve’s talk after practice Saturday centered on Cunningham and the rallies supporting her outside Fever games in Seattle and Portland earlier in the week. A third is planned for Sunday in Minnesota.
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The rallies were sparked by Cunningham’s comments in a recently published ESPN profile, where she said she wanted to protect “young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
Reeve pushed back against the “biological men” part of those comments Saturday, but also didn’t outright dismiss Cunningham’s views.
“We have some issues,” she added. “Number one, we need to protect trans kids. Every kid — to me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports regardless of (being) gender diverse, transgender.
“… Now, what gets nuanced is when you’re beyond puberty, when you’re in Olympic sport, when … we have scholarships at stake and that sort of thing. That’s where I say that common-sense people get together, and you find common ground to find a way to be inclusive. The answer isn’t no. It is not the case that we have ‘biological men in girls’ locker rooms,’ the way it’s being phrased, the innuendo there that somehow transgender women are predators. … There’s a lot of narrative that is problematic that we need to address. That is simply not what’s happening.”
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Reeve, a 17-year head coach in Minnesota with four WNBA titles, placed the onus on WNBA leadership to ensure the league remains an inclusive space while also maintaining safety amid increasingly divisive conversations.
“I’m quite sure that they have eyes on and ears on to make sure that it’s a safe space for everyone,” Reeve said. “And that’s what makes our league beautiful.”
In the wake of Cunningham’s comments, the rallies have created tension between demonstrators and figures around the league.
Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was suspended and fined by the WNBA after two teenage girls wearing shirts depicting XX and XY chromosomes said Keaton cursed at them. The Storm later apologized in a statement, saying in part that “everyone who attends a Storm game deserves to feel welcome.”
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On Saturday, Reeve said she urged league leadership years ago to proactively establish where it stood on transgender participation in women’s sports, rather than reacting after it became a national conversation.
“I encouraged the WNBA leadership: What’s our stance? What are we going to do when this occurs? Are we going to be ready? Are we going to be reactionary? And so I think it would make sense for our league to be leaders in this space,” Reeve said. ” … I’ve chosen to educate myself about the space. I’ve chosen to listen to transgender families, and what I know is exclusion is not the answer.”
Reeve also expressed a desire to shift more attention toward issues she believes affect more people.
“The (transgender) issue isn’t as big as the issues that we have in women’s sports,” she said. “Whether it’s cisgender men that have held us down for years in spaces like being able to have access to facilities and uniforms and locker rooms, all the things that these young girls that are sitting at games with anti-trans signs, do they understand actually what the real problems are and how they’re being marginalized?
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“We’re still not in a space where we have equality. We don’t even have the Equal Rights Amendment in all 50 states, right?”
Reeve eventually circled back to Sunday’s game, and her wish that the league she’s called home for decades can be a welcoming space for all, regardless of viewpoint.
“I think Minnesota Lynx fans are some of the best fans in the WNBA, very diverse fans,” Reeve said. “It is my hope that we demonstrate leadership in this space. You can voice your opinion, have a strong opinion, but it’s a safe space for everyone regardless of whether or not we agree.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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