{"id":861881,"date":"2026-08-17T23:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/861881\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T23:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:56:10","slug":"sophie-cunningham-banned-from-wnba-reddit-after-transgender-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/861881\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham Banned From WNBA Reddit After Transgender Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana<\/a> Fever star Sophie Cunningham got quite the unexpected birthday present on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The online backlash in the wake of comments she made about her feelings on transgender athletes being allowed to compete in women\u2019s sports keeps mounting.<\/p>\n

Cunningham has been called out by several fans and sports pundits with differing opinions, and Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve publicly threw shade at Cunningham when she wore a \u201cTrans Kids belong\u201d shirt during a recent game against the Fever.<\/p>\n

Read More on News<\/p>\n

\"Indiana<\/p>\n

Cunningham\u2019s comments sparked a social media firestorm, and though there\u2019s been no formal action taken against her by the WNBA, it appears she\u2019s since been banned from the WNBA subreddit, which is run independent of and has zero affiliation with the league.<\/p>\n

The r\/WNBA forum now prohibits users from using several words related to the Fever star including \u201cCunningham,\u201d \u201cSophie,\u201d \u201cSC,\u201d \u201cScunningham,\u201d \u201cSoph,\u201d or \u201cSophiacunningham,\u201d according to the New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reddit<\/a> user Adevnturous_Hope_101 shared their private DM with the r\/WNBA moderator, in which they explain why Cunningham\u2019s name has been banned from the forum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe filter content based on Sophi because it tends to being out trolls and people that arent fans of the W,\u201d they said in one message before adding: \u201cWe have chosen to filter content. If you want to post freely about Sophie you can go to a different sub.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the user pushed back on the ban, asking why the WNBA subreddit would prohibit fans from talking about a specific WNBA player, the moderator threatened to ban them too.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou arent even a contributor to this sub, so l suggest you go back to the other WNBA subs. This is our decision. If you keep messaging about this you will be banned,\u201d they replied.<\/p>\n

It seems that Cunningham\u2019s comments will prompt some sort of response from the league at some point. WNBA team presidents recently held a meeting to discuss the league\u2019s transgender eligibility policy after two male former NBA players declared for the 2027 WNBA draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham got quite the unexpected birthday present on Sunday. The online backlash in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[461,49,48,5904,2522,82,630],"class_list":["post-861881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-indiana","tag-reddit","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861881","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=861881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}