Indiana Fever three-point specialist Sophie Cunningham has sparked tons of debate on social media with her comments on what she feels is necessary to “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 in a recent ESPN profile. “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.”
In the aftermath of her comments, fans who agree with Cunningham have organized rallies outside of the arenas the Fever are set to play in for their last two games, with another planned ahead of Sunday’s matchup with the first-place Minnesota Lynx.
“I come from a space of inclusion.”
On Saturday, Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve addressed the situation with local media, saying that she feels viewing transgender athletes as a threat to women’s sorts as problematic itself.
“I come from a space of inclusion. And the narrative that I think that is problematic is to suggest that, uh, number one, that transgender athletes are the biggest problem in women’s sports. And I think this is what’s bothersome, is that there’s a faction of people in our country that are making this a massive issue.”
Cheryl Reeve speaking on the trans rally that is planned prior to the Indiana Fever game Sunday and her views around trans athletes and Women’s sports
Full video below: I don’t feel it’s right to clip or cut out snippets for quotes, so if you have time, give it a listen. pic.twitter.com/56NAo30aPq
— Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) August 1, 2026
“Every kid has a right to sports”
The head coach emphasized what she feels real issues are, while acknowledging there are circumstances that call for nuance.
“Number one, we need to protect trans kids. Every kid— to me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports regardless of gender diverse, transgender. Every kid has the right to access.”
She continued, “Now, what gets nuanced is, you know, when you’re beyond puberty, when you’re in Olympic sport, when you’re— we have scholarships at stake and that sort of thing. That’s where I say that common sense people get together, and you find common ground to find a way to be inclusive.
“The answer isn’t no. It is not the case that we have, quote, biological men in girls’ locker rooms, the way it’s being phrased, the innuendo there that somehow transgender women are predators of some kind in the locker room. There’s a lot of narrative that is problematic that we need to address…
“The issue isn’t, isn’t as big as the issues that we have in women’s sports. You know, whether it’s, you know, cisgender men that have held us down for years in spaces like being able to have access to facilities and uniforms and locker rooms, all the things that these young girls that are sitting at games with anti-trans signs, do they understand actually what the real problems are and what they’re— and how they’re being marginalized? We’re still not in a space where we have equality. We don’t even have the Equal Rights Amendment in all 50 states, right? So there’s real issues.”
Reeve joins Cunningham’s own coach, Stephanie White, in taking an anti-exclusionary approach, and hopefully, WNBA leadership will soon take a similar public stance.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.