I know exactly why Sophie Cunningham is being – Latest News
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham expressed a mainstream opinion in a very compassionate approach, nevertheless it’s been twisted past recognition by the ultra-illiberal world of girls’s sports activities.
In a long ESPN profile two weeks in the past, she said that whereas she desires to “extend love” to everybody, organic males figuring out as girls don’t belong in woman’s sports activities or locker rooms.
About 15 years in the past, this may have been essentially the most banal assertion of all time.
Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has come out in opposition to organic males taking part in in girls’s sports activities and has acquired backlash for her common sense stance. @salltweets/X
But in 2026, Cunningham’s reality-based declaration has made her Enemy Number One within the WNBA universe, the place one should solely maintain the authorized set of progressive politics.
There, the backlash has been huge.
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The courageous hooper is now being booed by followers, branded hateful and even known as “anti-black” in a Guardian piece.
All she did was reply a query from a reporter truthfully.
Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wears a “trans kids belong” shirt as a response to Sophie Cunningham’s public declaration. AP Photo/Abbie Parr
Now she should face the wrath of loud activists, who use phrases like “transphobe” or “bigot” to close down a a lot needed dialogue. Such labels — defanged by overuse — are deployed merely to launder their lunacy.
It’s a lunacy that calls for organic males have entry to girls’s areas or sports activities.
Cunningham’s assertion is not anti-trans; it’s professional common sense.
It isn’t a ring wing perception and even controversial. It’s an opinion that cuts throughout political strains. Maybe it’s simply the righties who’ve the abdomen for being harassed by activists, so they’re those most prepared to talk up.
Don’t ask for sanity from the league coaches.
A demonstrator protests earlier than the WNBA sport between the Indiana Fever and Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis on Aug. 2, 2026, after Fever star Sophie Cunningham mentioned she opposed transgender athletes taking part in girls’s sports activities. Getty Images
During a Sunday matchup in opposition to the Fever, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a “trans kids belong” shirt as a response to Cunningham.
And Golden State coach Natalie Nakase supplied comparable ineffective language.
“I’m all about women, little girls deserving to play, and that includes trans women,” she mentioned. “So, I’m all about inclusivity.”
Sure. But trans girls aren’t girls. They are organic males and biology issues in each competitors and security.
Then there’s Katie Nolan, who mentioned that Cunningham doesn’t “have critical-thinking skills” or she’s not “interested in employing them.”
It’s Nolan being willfully ignorant right here. In a latest episode of her podcast “Casuals,” she mentioned Cunningham has “approval, as a result of people keep saying sentences like, ‘I don’t need little women to must go in opposition to organic males.’ Because on its face that seems like one thing is common sense.
Katie Nolan mentioned Sophie Cunningham lacks “critical thinking skills.” Getty Images for Activision/Call of Duty
“That’s not what anybody’s asking for. Nobody is saying we should get rid of, for example, the WNBA and the NBA, and everybody should just compete together.”
She is proper. I haven’t heard activists screaming for the eradication of girls’s classes. I’ve solely heard them demand that males figuring out as girls be in these classes.
This is a demand that has dominated our discourse during the last decade. There’s been story after story about women being crushed by organic males in any respect ranges of competitors, most prominently in high faculty.
Do we need to go back to when boys ran in women’ monitor in Connecticut and, predictably, dominated? A gaggle of 5 women sued the state arguing their Title IX rights have been violated. The go well with was initially tossed earlier than appeals courts allowed it to maneuver ahead.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has bravely taken a stance in opposition to organic males in girls’s sports activities. IMAGN IMAGES through Reuters Connect
We additionally noticed grownup males with boobs cleansing up in girls’s biking and weightlifting.
And, of course, Lia Thomas’ UPenn teammates have been advised by the varsity to hunt counseling if they’d points with a 6-foot-4 male and his penis of their locker room — and of their competitions.
Anyone who spoke up was punished, and dissent was crushed. In 2023, a Vermont high faculty women basketball staff was suspended from state play after forfeiting a sport in opposition to a faculty with a male on the women’ staff. A 12 months later, 5 center faculties in West Virginia who protested in opposition to a trans athlete have been benched.
Sport governing our bodies have been pressured to confront the matter, because it turned so widespread throughout worldwide competitors. Here organic males competing in opposition to women has been banned in 27 states. And these bans have been upheld by the Supreme Court. Even although one of these Justices couldn’t offer a definition of a girl solely a few years in the past.
Golden State coach Natalie Nakase mentioned she is for the inclusion of “trans women” in girls’s sports activities. OliLondonTV/X
But sure, it’s not a factor.
Last week, Seattle Storm’s co-owner Celeste Keaton was suspended for 5 video games after she berated two younger women who held a signal thanking Cunningham. One of them was Ahnaleigh Wilson, a 16-year-old from Washington who competed within the 1600 meters on the 2024 Junior Olympics, ending second to a trans athlete. She has competed in opposition to not less than 4 more males.
Wilson is aware of what it’s prefer to lose out to a boy — and to be cursed out by somebody within the “be kind” brigade.
But why hearken to a woman who was really affected by these anti-female insurance policies?
It’s simpler to call these younger women names and say it’s a fringe challenge that merely doesn’t exist.
