The WNBA apologized after fans at last Sunday’s game in Georgia between the Indiana Fever and the Atlanta Dream were instructed by security to cover shirts communicating both pro- and anti-trans messages.
“This should not have happened,” the league said in a statement reported by the Associated Press.
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The controversy reportedly concerned three fans, two of whom wore shirts opposing trans women participating in women’s sports and one wearing a shirt standing up for trans rights.
The Dream emphasized in its own statement that it had nothing to do with security’s actions. “The Atlanta Dream believes in creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone,” the team said. “Unfortunately, at last night’s game, WNBA security took actions that fell short of that standard. At no point was Dream personnel involved in the decisions made by WNBA security.”
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In the aftermath of the incident, the pair in the anti-trans shirts, a mother and daughter, spoke to Fox News to express their outrage. Kasey Thomason wore a shirt from the anti-trans brand XX-XY Athletics, owned by former artistic gymnast Jennifer Sey. Her daughter, Annie, wore a Riley Gaines shirt with XX on the front and “For the Girls” on the back.
They said a security guard approached them as the game went into overtime and said they either had to cover their shirts or leave the building. Thomason told Fox Host Laura Ingraham – who called the XX-XY shirt “cute” and “adorable” – that the security guard didn’t understand the shirt but said someone complained it was offensive.
“I had no words,” Annie said. “Who is offended by a T-shirt?”
“And who is offended by science?” her mom added.
Of course, the offense no doubt came from the fact that the shirts represent a company and an activist who believe trans women do not exist and also should not be welcome in women’s sports. As such, the shirts communicated an inherently hostile message to any trans women who may have seen them. It is also not scientifically accurate to say that chromosomes only come in XX and XY or that they determine a person’s gender.
The T-shirt drama comes as the WNBA becomes the center of the controversy over trans women in sports – despite the fact that there has never been an active out trans player in the league. But last month, Fever star Sophie Cunningham sparked a national frenzy when she said in an ESPN interview that banning trans women from women’s sports is “common sense.”
Cunningham then doubled down on her beliefs, claiming that she doesn’t hate trans people but just wants “to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.” Now all eyes are on the league, with both pro- and anti-trans activists rallying to support or protest Cunningham, and players and coaches being pressured to take public stances.
Cunningham has also since aligned herself with virulently anti-trans activist Riley Gaines. The two were photographed together at a game earlier this month. In the picture, Gaines is sporting a T-shirt from XX-XY Athletics.
At that same game, Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wore a T-shirt declaring “Trans Kids Belong.” And ahead of the game, she told the press she comes “from a space of inclusion.”
“The narrative that I think is problematic is to suggest that, number one, that transgender athletes are the biggest problem in women’s sports,” she said, “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. We have some issues. Number one: We need to protect trans kids… To me it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports… What gets nuanced is when you’re beyond puberty, when you’re in an Olympic sport, when you have scholarships, and that sort of thing.”
She added, “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 ‘biological men’ in girls’ locker rooms. The way it’s being phrased, the innuendo there that somehow transgender women are predators of some kind… That is simply not what’s happening.”
Cunningham was also reportedly booed repeatedly throughout the game, which the Fever lost, and many in the stands were wearing trans rights shirts of their own and held hundreds of signs that Gaines described as containing “trans paraphernalia.”
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