Lorraine Ali: A culture war over trans athletes invades the WNBA, and ratings soar

Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times on Aug 20, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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File under “stupid publicity stunt that I shouldn’t even be writing about, but here I am, writing about it.”

Last week, former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White demanded they be officially declared eligible for the 2027 WNBA draft. White, who recently lost the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, has claimed to be transgender and argued that he should be allowed to play in the women’s league. “I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purposes of … professional basketball,” he told Fox News.

White also posted pictures of himself wearing a wig, stating that he was embracing his “feminine era.”

Designed to mock the trans community and troll the organization and its inclusion and self-identification policies, the former NBA players suggested they would take legal action if blocked from the WNBA draft.

They’re among the legions of attention seekers, influencers, news media and activists taking sides in a culture war over something that’s not even close to happening: the WNBA’s inclusion of transgender athletes. To be clear, no transgender players are slated to become part of the league’s roster. A right-wing uproar over an imagined threat. Where have we seen this before?

The debate was sparked not by an impending reality but instead by comments from a player who’s no stranger to controversy.

In an ESPN profile published last month, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham stated that “biological men” should not compete in women’s sports, calling the position “common sense” to protect young girls and Title IX. Agitation is nothing new for Cunningham. She’s been called “MAGA Barbie” since her college days, partly because of the conservative influencers she follows and engages with on social media. Cunningham has become a conduit for MAGA grievances, and her knack for garnering attention has been a boon for those championing right wing causes.

The remarks drew activist groups to rally outside WNBA games, heightening tensions inside arenas, and became grist for MAGA influencers such as competitive swimmer turned political activist Riley Gaines.

Capitalizing on the fear of transgender athletes participating in women’s sports and stoking outrage among conservatives about what The Left may do should they return to power has been a winning move for the Trump administration. In February 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order called “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” that was designed to withhold federal funding from organizations that do not abide by the administration’s view that a person’s sex is the gender they were assigned at birth.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last month that men should not be playing in women’s sports. “It’s completely ludicrous that anyone could support that,” she said. “It’s even more ludicrous that you do have 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 figures across the country is astonishing.”

The WNBA last week criticized those trying to create a false narrative about transgender women playing in the league. “There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others,” a league spokesperson said last week in a statement.

There is no league clause that states self-identification as a woman is sufficient to establish eligibility. Article XIII, Section 1(a) of the WNBA’s 2026 Collective Bargaining Agreement says, “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” The policy does not explicitly define the term “woman.”

Cunningham said she doesn’t have anything against the transgender community.

“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, I never once said that. I think that I am here to extend love,” she said in the ESPN article. “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.”

The vitriol around her comments has become so pronounced that the player’s name has reportedly been banned on the WNBA subreddit, where the league’s forum won’t allow the words “Cunningham,” “Sophie,” “sc,” “scunningham,” “soph,” or “sophiacunningham.”

But the attention on Cunningham’s comments, the contrived outrage over a fictional trans athlete draft and dumb stunts by former NBA players may have helped drive more folks toward watching the league’s games. ESPN reported its second-most-watched regular season WNBA game in 30 years when the New York Liberty-Indiana Fever matchup averaged 2 million viewers last week.

A culture war aimed at denigrating the league may be doing just the opposite, creating fans no matter how they identify.

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(Lorraine Ali is news and culture critic of the Los Angeles Times.)

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