{"id":851906,"date":"2026-08-11T22:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851906\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T22:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:30:11","slug":"the-cruelty-of-enes-kanter-freedom-and-royce-whites-wnba-anti-trans-stunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851906\/","title":{"rendered":"The cruelty of Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White\u2019s WNBA anti-trans stunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Culture war dopamine, that euphoric feeling that follows making an outrageous statement on the controversy du jour, is clearly a dangerous drug. Addicts are known to swap logic and reason for Fox News appearances. They become nonsensical, lend credence to the absurd and eventually stage full-blown clown shows.<\/p>\n

Take Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, two 30-something former NBA players who recently declared themselves eligible for the 2027 Women\u2019s National Basketball Association draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Citing the current WNBA guidelines, which state \u201cOnly players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA<\/a>\u201d (and don\u2019t explicitly exclude transgender women players in their collective bargaining agreement), Freedom and White have capitalized on the recent anti-trans comments made by Indiana Fever role player-provocateur Sophie Cunningham. Her anti-trans statements, which she claims are motivated by her desire to \u201cprotect young girls,\u201d<\/a> have led to small protests on both sides of the issue.<\/p>\n

Freedom and White have capitalized on the recent anti-trans comments made by Indiana Fever role player-provocateur Sophie Cunningham. <\/p>\n

\u00a0These aren\u2019t merely political stunts mocking the league and the women who play in it, but malicious attempts to demean a marginalized population in the apparent hope that a NewsNation or Fox News producer will call for an interview so these budding hot-takers can be given some attention on what is a non-issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the record, no openly transgender athlete has ever competed in the WNBA or any of the nation\u2019s other women\u2019s professional sports leagues. State bans on transgender athletes in women\u2019s sports have been held up by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Olympics now clearly forbids<\/a> transgender athletes in female events. And the number of trans athletes nationwide is infinitesimal \u2014 the NCAA reported that there were fewer than 10<\/a> competing among 500,000-plus student athletes in all divisions less than two years ago. So whether it\u2019s unfair for trans women to compete in women\u2019s professional sports\u00a0barely warrants a conversation, let alone a debate.<\/p>\n

But Freedom and White, obviously attention-starved culture soldiers,\u00a0have been all over right-wing media to troll the WNBA in cringey appearances that border on bigotry and misogyny.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPlay<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sporting an orange WNBA sweatshirt with a crossed-out Nike logo and with a WNBA\u00a0baseball cap beside him, Freedom sat upright in a TV studio and said, in a slickly produced video, he would be \u201cunstoppable\u201d as a transgender woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a woman,\u201d White began in a separate video<\/a>. \u201cI identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purposes of basketball, professional basketball.\u201d Get it? The joke is supposed to be that a man might pretend to be transgender just to dominate a women\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n

Hilarious, no, that a self-proclaimed activist like Freedom, and White, a Republican candidate running in Tuesday\u2019s primary for Minnesota\u2019s open Senate seat (he lost to incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar by more than 15 points in 2024<\/a>), crap on WNBA players and the trans community for MAGA applause?<\/p>\n

The WNBA Player\u2019s Association issued an excellent (imo) statement yesterday, stressing the league\u2019s values and stating that they won\u2019t be used as political pawns. The league and its individual teams might want to reach out to whoever is doing comms for the WNBPA. Just sayin.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kate Starbird (@katestarbird.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-08-08T15:36:20.813Z<\/a><\/p>\n

Grifters getting their 15 minutes is usually a nonstory. Yet there are mitigating factors here. For one, the WNBA, in the middle of one of its best and most enthralling regular seasons, has become\u00a0a\u00a0prism for many of the country\u2019s culture wars. There\u2019s sexuality (almost 45% of the league\u2019s all-stars are openly gay<\/a>). There\u2019s race (Caitlin Clark<\/a>, a pony-tailed straight, white woman<\/a> has become uber popular in a league that has always been more than 70% Black). And now there\u2019s gender warfare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMike Wise<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMike Wise is a sports journalist whose past employers include ESPN\u2019s The Undefeated, The Washington Post and The New York Times. He is writing a biography of Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills.\u00a0\t\t<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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