Following Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham’s controversial comments to ESPN on transgender athletes, former NBA player Royce White and conservative pundit Riley Gaines have made their opinions on the issue very apparent by advocating against trans athletes competing in women’s sports.
For his part, White, along with former NBA athlete Enes Kanter, has announced his self-identification as a woman and “declared” for the WNBA draft. The WNBA has written the declarations off as “publicity stunts” and stated that the league is “not going to give oxygen to efforts designed to mock the league or use this topic to demean and marginalize others.”
Gaines, whose agenda against trans women competing goes back to her collegiate swimming career, during which she tied for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle event with transgender athlete Lia Thomas, has also used her platform and outreach across media and politics to show support for Cunningham’s stance.
“It’s easy to say that men aren’t women, and men shouldn’t play in women’s sports. I’m here to tell you if you’re in Sophie Cunningham’s position, it’s not easy to say that. It’s incredibly difficult. It requires immense courage,” she said on The Riley Gaines Show.
“If you’re Sophie Cunningham playing in the WNBA, which is like the most woke league of all time in the history of ever, it takes immense courage to say exactly what she did. And it makes her really the first current high-level female athlete playing in a professional league that has said this.”
On Friday, both White and Gaines attended Indiana’s game against the Connecticut Sun, posing together while Gaines wore an “XX-XY” shirt and White flaunted a blonde wig.
Royce White met up with Riley Gaines at the WNBA game. Protect WOMEN at all costs 🙏 pic.twitter.com/3UmdeqS3Kg
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) August 29, 2026
However, White’s legal past calls into question the genuineness of their campaign to “protect women.” In February 2024, a judge granted White’s ex-wife and son a restraining order against him after he was “accused of making numerous threats and being both physically and verbally abusive toward his former partner and their teenaged son,” per MPR News’ Peter Cox.
“The order requires White to stay a quarter mile away from his ex-wife and their son, including at their home, her place of work and the boy’s school.”
The real goal
If Gaines’ singular focus is on protecting women, it begs the question: Why is she posing for photos with bad-faith actors who have been credibly accused of physical violence toward women?
All signs point toward the answer being that this was never about protecting women in the first place. A transgender athlete has never taken the court in the WNBA’s 30-year history. This campaign is about excluding transgender women, which threatens all women, and especially African American women. After excluding trans women, the agenda will move toward masculine-presenting women, and then toward homosexual women.
The people supporting this anti-trans crusade have made it clear that they don’t actually care about the WNBA or the championing of women’s sports. As Golden State Valkyries head coach said, “In the world and in sports right now, there’s too much hate that’s going on. Too much hate speech.”
It’s time to uplift the players in the WNBA, who have been overwhelmingly supportive of people from all walks of life, and to stop allowing agitators to co-opt the WNBA for their own nefarious purposes.
About Barry Hunter