The Women’s National Basketball Players Association said Friday that its membership of more than 200 players holds different lived experiences, cultures, lifestyles, and opinions.
“We embrace justice equity, diversity, and inclusion,” the statement read. “Those are the values that unite this Union and allow it to protect women’s sports while creating transformational change. Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm. We will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.”
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No player, coach, or team is named anywhere in it. The statement arrived 17 days after ESPN published a profile of Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, written by Hallie Grossman, in which Cunningham said she wanted to keep young girls from competing against biological men.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,'” Cunningham told ESPN. “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.”
Cunningham held to the position a day later, before Indiana‘s July 22 game against the Connecticut Sun, calling it common sense.
The Department of Education posted a meme of Cunningham on X. Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News host Laura Ingraham he would encourage her to keep speaking her mind. President Donald Trump has also spoken about transgender participation in women’s sports.
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A few dozen demonstrators gathered outside Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on July 28, backing Cunningham and promoting Washington ballot measures that would bar transgender students from girls’ athletics. Counterprotesters supporting transgender inclusion gathered as well. Indiana won that night, 105-95. Another rally formed outside the Moda Center in Portland three days later, where fans inside waved pink, blue, and white transgender flags and booed Cunningham during a 112-98 Indiana win over the Fire.
The WNBA suspended Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton from the team’s next five home games and fined her an undisclosed amount, the league confirmed on July 30, after she directed expletives at two teenage fans seated courtside in XX-XY Athletics shirts and holding a sign thanking Cunningham. Storm leadership apologized the day before the discipline came down.
“We respect the league’s decision to fine and suspend co-owner Celeste Keaton,” the team said in a statement.
Storm center Stefanie Dolson wore a shirt reading “Trans rights are human rights” to that game.
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Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said on Aug. 1 that she comes from a space of inclusion, and that the framing of transgender athletes as the biggest problem in women’s sports is itself the problem.
“We need to protect trans kids,” Reeve said. “To me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports.”
Reeve said the question requires nuance at competitive levels beyond puberty and that the answer is not no. She coached the following afternoon in a shirt reading “Trans Kids Belong” as Minnesota beat Indiana 108-100.
Fever coach Stephanie White took the question on July 31 and said she did not consider herself scientifically informed enough to give a definitive answer.
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“I don’t ever believe that exclusion is an answer,” White said. “I just don’t. I do think, when we think about various levels of sport, various governing bodies of sport and things that go into that, as I said, I’m not educated enough at the different levels. I know growing up I played with the boys all the time. There weren’t girl sports.”
Fire coach Alex Sarama said the same night that the transgender community has his team’s full support.
Valkyries guard Gabby Williams said in comments that circulated Thursday that transgender rights are the next fight for athletes, and she pointed to Layshia Clarendon, who became the first openly transgender and nonbinary active player in league history after undergoing top surgery in 2021.
“I would welcome a trans athlete on my team or against my team, anytime,” Williams said. “I don’t think it’s a problem in the world. It’s just another way to kind of attack trans people.”
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The collective bargaining agreement signed in March states that only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA. It does not define the term further, and the league has published no policy governing transgender or intersex eligibility. No publicly known transgender woman has played in the WNBA. Two nonbinary athletes, AD Durr and Clarendon, played in the league, and the birth sex of both is female.
The WNBPA issued a statement in 2022 supporting the participation of transgender athletes in the sport of their chosen gender. Friday’s closing lines are directed at fans at games, online, and at home.
“Support the players. Support the fans,” the statement explained. “At games, notify security if you witness hateful, violent, or abusive behavior. Online, report abusive posts and drown out the bots and bad actors. At home, tell your elected officials to strengthen Title IX.”
Illinois state senators Steve McClure and Jil Tracy wrote to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert on Aug. 5, saying they feared for Cunningham’s safety and asking for detailed information on the steps the league is taking to protect players.
