WNBPA condemns players being used as political pawns

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The last few weeks have been a nightmare for the WNBA as the league has become the center of the culture wars once again.

The latest tidal wave of attention for off-the-court matters started when Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham made a statement about transgender athletes in an ESPN feature article. The comments echoing conservative calls in saying she wants to, “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

Predictably, the comments have stirred up the likes of Riley Gaines and culture warriors seeking to piggyback off Cunningham’s fame with their anti-trans agendas. Cunningham even did a photo op with Gaines, which has now drawn criticism from progressive voices.

At the same time, the movement has expressed frustration with not being able to draft her teammate Caitlin Clark into the same culture war.

Ever since Clark entered the WNBA, politics hasn’t been far behind, no matter how much she wants to focus on basketball. But this summer, the off-court controversies have reached a fever pitch.

In the midst of the firestorm, the WNBPA has issued a strong statement standing up against the abuse and demonization of any individual, including transgender people. It also makes a firm message that they will not allow their players to be “used as political pawns.”

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The statement reads in full:

To everyone who loves this game: The WNBPA represents 200+ individual people with different lived experiences, cultures, lifestyles, and opinions. We embrace justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Those are the values that unite this Union and allow it to protect women’s sports while creating transformational change.

Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm. We will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.

Support the Players. Support the Fans. At games, notify security if you witness hateful, violent, or abusive behavior. Online, report abusive posts and drown out the bots and bad actors. At home, tell your elected officials to strengthen Title IX.

To give the players union credit, it is a strong statement from the WNBPA. And if the WNBA and commissioner Cathy Englebert could be this unequivocal in their rhetoric, the league would be much better served than the leadership we have seen this year, or lack thereof.

But make no mistake about it, one of the WNBA’s own players decided to light the match, start the fire, and throw gasoline on it all at once when Sophie Cunningham first made those comments to ESPN. She had to know what was at stake and what was to come. And her calls to the media to encourage them to focus on basketball, while hopeful, are not realistic when it comes to the doors that she opened up for the griftiest of grifters to walk right in.

Now that we’ve reached the ridiculous phase of Enes Kanter and Royce White declaring themselves as transgender to play in the WNBA, hopefully it means we’ve reached the end of this cycle. But the scars created in the attempts to invite more mockery and hate will unfortunately be more lasting. And it will make it that much harder to celebrate their on-court accomplishments.

The post WNBPA condemns players being used as political pawns appeared first on Awful Announcing.

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