WNBA Coach Cheryl Reeve Wore “Trans Kids Belong” While Beating Sophie Cunningham’s Team

The crowd was equally indignant, reportedly booing whenever Cunningham touched the ball.

A picture can speak a thousand words—but sometimes, all that’s needed are three.

The Minnesota Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve was seen sporting a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt at Sunday’s match against the Indiana Fever. This comes after Fever guard Sophie Cunningham used her platform to reject the notion that trans girls deserve the same equal rights in sports as cisgender girls.

The crowd was equally indignant. “Sophie Cunningham is getting booed every time she touches the ball here in Minneapolis,” journalist Aaron Rupar of Public Notice reported during the game.

“I come from a space of inclusion,” Reeve told reporters. “The narrative that I think is problematic is to suggest that transgender athletes are the biggest problem in women’s sports. This is what’s bothersome. There is a faction of people in our country that are making this a massive issue.”

Sunday also marked the end of the Fever’s five-game winning streak, losing to the Lynx 108-100. (Cunningham scored a whopping three points.)

Afterwards, reporters asked the Fever’s point guard Caitlin Clark—arguably one of the most magnanimous figures in the league—her take on the matter.

“I think it’s for leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions,” Clark told reporters. “Our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins and obviously we didn’t do that tonight. So we need to find an area to improve in that way.”

Outside protestors also gathered in pro- and anti-trans camps.

On the court, Reeve was also seen talking to Cunningham, appearing cordial. “Both of us understand that we have platforms and we both talked about wanting to, more than anything, educate,” Reeve said, as per ESPN. “There are some things that we have in common, and maybe some things you differ on, just like any issues. I think it’s how you handle things. It was nice to be in person, for sure.”

As the ultra-right has openly stated time and time again, the manufactured crisis around transgender athletes is just a gateway drug for transphobia. It’s a wedge issue, conservative strategists have boasted; once they get people “comfortable” debating trans women in sports, it opens up endless possibilities for a full-scale attack on all trans rights, women’s rights, and the rights of the LGBTQ community at large.

Last week, a similar scene erupted outside a Fever game against the Seattle Storm, Erin in the Morning reported. A far-right sportswear brand founded for the purpose of promoting anti-trans ideology latched on to Cunningham’s comment to drive a wedge between WNBA players, seemingly placing a paid spokesperson courtside during the recent Fever-Storm game, with signs and shirts supporting Cunningham and promoting a subtly anti-trans message. They thanked her for “speaking up for girls.”

Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton allegedly confronted them and was suspended and fined because she supposedly called them “fucking insane” over the course of that interaction.

Keaton and Reeve’s acts of solidarity, however small, are far from the only resistance to Cunningham. Backlash from the WNBA’s overwhelming LGBTQ fanbase was swift. “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” Cunningham told ESPN. In the same interview, where she doubled down on calling trans women “biological men,” she insisted: “I think that I am here to extend love.”

Coach Reeve, on the other hand, used Sunday’s game to reiterate her support for the trans community. “We need to protect trans kids,” she said. “It’s a human rights issue.”

Support for trans youth remains widespread in the league. In fact, in 2021, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association filed an amicus brief before a federal court to protect transgender student athletes.

“At the WNBPA, we honor the diversity of identities and perspectives our members bring to the table,” said the group’s Executive Director Terri Jackson at the time. “The players believe in the power of sport to fundamentally change the lives of all young people. As attacks across the country continue to escalate, we want to send an unequivocal message to trans and nonbinary youth in sports: we see you, we are an ally and we will fight for you.”