WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 The WNBA is facing renewed pressure to clarify its eligibility rules regarding transgender athletes after a league task force met Wednesday but stopped short of announcing any policy changes.<\/p>\n
The meeting comes amid growing public debate over transgender participation in women\u2019s sports, including comments from Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham. (TNND)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The task force, made up of WNBA team presidents and general managers, discussed transgender athlete participation as part of a broader meeting on issues facing the league. Following the meeting, the WNBA said discussions would continue in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA,\u201d the league said, while also denouncing what it described as \u201cbad-faith efforts\u201d to use the debate to \u201cdemean or marginalize others.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meeting comes amid growing public debate over transgender participation in women\u2019s sports, including comments from Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.<\/p>\n
Cunningham has publicly argued that women\u2019s sports and locker rooms should be reserved for biological females.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes just to protecting young girls in sport and women in sport, I feel strongly about that,\u201d Cunningham said in July.<\/p>\n
Other prominent figures in the WNBA have taken a different position. Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve has framed transgender participation in sports as a human rights issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery kid has a right to sports,\u201d Reeve said earlier this month, adding that transgender and gender-diverse children should have access to athletics. Seattle Storm center Stefanie Dolson has also voiced support for transgender athletes.<\/p>\n
The lack of a definitive policy has also drawn criticism from outside the league.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jennifer Sey, founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, a company that advocates for protections in women\u2019s sports, says he doesn’t understand why the WNBA is \u201cdigging their heels in\u201d on this issue.<\/p>\n
The controversy has also prompted two former NBA players, Royce White and Enes Kanter Freedom, to say they are declaring for the WNBA Draft in an effort to challenge what they characterize as a loophole in the league\u2019s eligibility rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext spring I\u2019m going to take my talents and join the WNBA,\u201d Freedom said during a recent appearance with Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl.<\/p>\n
Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith said the WNBA is to blame for being wishy-washy on rules. <\/p>\n
\u201cSure, the Right is maneuvering its way through the terrain and politicizing this issue,\u201d Smith pointed out. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t negate the fact that the WNBA left the door open for it to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, the debate remains largely theoretical at the professional level. WNBA officials say there are currently no immediate transgender athlete eligibility matters affecting the league, while discussions over its policies are expected to continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 The WNBA is facing renewed pressure to clarify its eligibility rules regarding transgender athletes after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-857129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}