‘Horrifying and disgusting’: Reporter receives hate messages for denouncing Sophie Cunningham’s ‘transphobic’ comments

Another Indiana Fever player found themselves embroiled in an online controversy last week. Only this time, rather than standout Caitlin Clark, who is usually the center of intense media and fan scrutiny, it was reserve guard Sophie Cunningham.

In a profile of Cunningham published by ESPN, she touched on what she felt needed to be done to help “protect women’s sports.”

“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 was approached about her comments by local media and held her ground, despite the online backlash she was receiving.

“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense,” she maintained. “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.”

On Monday, one longtime WNBA reporter in the PNW area shed light on a rally that took place in Seattle in support of Cunningham’s comments on Tuesday ahead of a game between the Fever and the Storm.

The reporter, Roberta Rodrigues, who is an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, rebuked Cunningham’s comments and commended members of the Seattle community for pushing back against the rally and standing up for the vulnerable members of the trans community.

Unfortunately, in response, Roberta herself was subject to hate messages on social media.

I honestly can’t tell if your ugly *ss is a woman or a man. Maybe if mom wasn’t such a wh*re and f*cked everything in the jungle. I understand why you are for the mental Defects (YOU ARE ONE).

I honestly can’t tell if your ugly ss is a woman or a man. Maybe if mom wasn’t such a whre and f*cked everything in the jungle. I understand why you are for the mental Defects (YOU ARE ONE).

A post on X called for Rodrigues to be deported to Brazil. Another post resorted to calling a homophobic slur.

However, other users on X stood up for the reporter and called the hate speech out for what it was.

“Absolutely horrifying and disgusting. No one deserves this and yet the cowards in the W, the NBA, and here on this garbage app do nothing to even discourage it, let alone actually disavow it with anything other than blanket platitudes far too late and too general,” one fan posted.

“Xenophobia, racism, misogyny, and ableism,” another user wrote.

“Imagine speaking to someone like this and thinking you’re the good guy,” someone else posted.

Ultimately, judging from a photo from the rally shared by the group Women Are Real, one of the rally’s organizers, the turnout was small; indicating that more people in the Seattle community are focused on what unites us instead of what divides us than was anticipated.