The WNBA players who support trans athletes

A great deal of media attention has been devoted to the transphobic comments of Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player Sophie Cunningham. In a recent ESPN interview Cunningham misgendered transgender women, referring to them as “biological men” and stereotyped them as posing a threat to “young girls.” Since the interview, a male former National Basketball Association (NBA) player, Enes Kanter Freedom, has mocked trans women by applying to play for the WNBA.

Chicago Sky player Natasha Cloud confronted Freedom at a game with Cunningham’s Indiana Fever. Freedom’s abusive conduct led to his being ousted from the game and banned from future Sky games.

Freedom is a champion of right-wing causes, having used his former status as an NBA player to accuse countries in the crosshairs of U.S. imperialism — such as China, Venezuela and Cuba — of “human rights violations.” Now he has shifted his energy towards attacking transgender people, but his political allegiance remains firmly on the right.      

Media ignores pro-trans WNBA athletes

Those who haven’t drawn a great deal of media publicity are the WNBA players who have made strong statements in support of the trans community. 

“Existing outside of the binary for me is freedom,” now-retired, non-binary, Los Angeles Sparks player Layshia Clarendon wrote in a 2020 Instagram post: “I know that as Andrea Gibson says, my pronouns haven’t even been invented yet. I know that we all have masculinity and femininity inside of us and mine show up equally and wholly and fully. … To the trans community, I see you, I love you, I love us. We are whole, we are enough, we are fucking badass. ❤️” (them, Aug. 25)

“Transgender inclusion is so crucial for the health, safety and wellbeing of transgender kids,” said Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier in 2021.

Other current and former WNBA athletes who have made pro-trans statements include Gabby Williams, Candace Parker, Stefanie Dolson, Tina Mair, Myisha Hines-Allen, Brittney Griner, AD Durr, Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird, Brianna Turner, Sami Whitcomb and Anneli Maley. WNBA coaches Cheryl Reeve and Natalie Nakase have also come out in support of trans women athletes.

“Policies that single out transgender women and athletes with intersex variations do not protect women’s sports. They manufacture a scapegoat while the real challenges to women’s sports go unaddressed: unequal funding, limited access to training and facilities, pay disparities, male-dominated leadership, gender-based violence and harassment across race, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity,” Turner wrote in an op-ed piece published in April in USA Today.

These progressive athletes are all union members. Pride at Work, the LGBTQIA2S+ constituency group of the AFL-CIO, sent out “much love to our union siblings in the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) who have stood up against bad-faith right-wing attacks on trans people.” (Pride at Work email, Aug. 26)