OPINION:
Liberal women spent decades fighting for sexual equality. Now they seem determined to destroy women’s sports in the name of a spurious transgender equality.
Basketball star Sophie Cunningham should not be controversial. The Indiana Fever player wants to protect female athletes from bigger, stronger and more aggressive biological males.
When it comes to transgender-identifying men in women’s sports, the world has gone slightly mad. Wherever Ms. Cunningham plays, there are rallies for and against her.
At one game in July, Celeste Keaton, co-owner of the Seattle Storm, cursed two teenage girls sitting in the audience supporting Cunningham. The Women’s National Basketball Association fined Ms. Keaton and barred her from Seattle’s next five home games.
Women and girls are being injured by those who support the so-called rights of transgender athletes.
In 2022, North Carolina volleyball player Payton McNabb was left unconscious when a transgender-identifying male opponent spiked a ball that hit Ms. McNabb in the head, leaving her with permanent injuries.
In 2023, a female field hockey player lost several teeth when a transgender opponent hit her in the face with a ball. There have also been injuries sustained by women playing against transgender competitors in soccer, rugby and mixed martial arts.
The Collegiate Charter School of Lowell, Massachusetts, was forced to forfeit a basketball game when its players refused to play against an opposing team that included a 6-foot-tall male player with facial hair.
In its last term, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of state laws that protect female athletes from competition by biological males. The International Olympic Committee has announced that it will impose biological eligibility rules and genetic screening for women’s sporting events starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The WNBA is way behind the times.
Ms. Cunningham came to public attention when she stood up for teammate Caitlin Clark in the face of bullying, relentless on-court physical attacks and referees’ refusal to protect her.
Ms. Cunningham herself recently took an elbow to the face from a player for the Minnesota Lynx, whose head coach has been an outspoken critic of Ms. Cunningham.
Ms. Cunningham has courage to spare and a determination to protect women. It is time for those in touch with reality to stand with her.
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