Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever caused quite a stir when an ESPN profile of her included her ideas on what was necessary to “protect women’s sports,” which, in Cunningham’s estimation, means keeping transgender girls from competing in sports with other girls.
“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.”
Cunningham then doubled down when approached by local media about her comments in the ESPN profile.
“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense,” she said on Wednesday. “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.”
Cunningham’s take has received mixed reactions. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said that she is “a thousand percent right,” and called for transgender athletes to compete in their own league.
“Get a sport for trans athletes. Or a league, rather,” he said.
“You want to swim? Compete against other trans athletes. You want to box? Compete against other trans athletes. You want to play basketball or football? Compete against other trans athletes.”
Surprisingly, West Wilson, who co-hosts the Show Me Something podcast alongside Cunningham, took a different approach.
Okay, transgender athletes in American sports is such a borderline nonexistent issue that right-wingers have convinced a massive portion of people in our country that it— that these people are like a threat to sports in America when mathematically that’s not the case at all,” Wilson said.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed how U.S. President Donald Trump feels about the ongoing situation.
“I don’t believe he (President Trump) has reached out to her. I know he is following the story. As you know, this is something the president feels strongly about as well, and the American people do, too: that men should not be playing in women’s sports,” Leavitt said.
“It’s completely ludicrous that anyone could support that. It’s even more ludicrous you have Sophie Cunningham, a female athlete herself, very accomplished in her own right, coming forth and speaking that truth that men shouldn’t play in women’s sports — we want to protect women and girls — and the backlash she is receiving from Democrats and left-wing fingers across the country is astonishing. They are clearly very out of touch with the American public on this issue.”
With the public support she is receiving from places such as the White House and Smith, it may seem unlikely that Cunningham changes her stance, but Wilson and other people close to her may be able to get her to approach the situation with more nuance.
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