Sometimes satire exposes the folly of someone\u2019s position more effectively than the most pointed argument. Just look at what\u2019s happening in the WNBA.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, former NBA center Enes Freedom attended a WNBA game between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever. He wore a shirt that read, \u201cWoman: noun. adult human female.\u201d During the third quarter of the game, Sky guard Natasha Cloud started screaming at him. He stood up from his courtside seat, extended his arms and took one step forward. Security then kicked him out.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t going to be the last the WNBA hears from Freedom. This month, Freedom announced that he is a woman and declared his eligibility for the WNBA draft. There\u2019s no doubt that Freedom would physically dominate WNBA players. He stands 6 feet 10 inches and weighed 250 pounds when he played in the NBA. It would be like Shaq playing against middle-school students.<\/p>\n
The WNBA\u2019s collective bargaining agreement says, \u201cOnly players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.\u201d For the vast majority of human history, this would have made it obvious that Freedom isn\u2019t eligible.<\/p>\n
But leftists have decided that men who declare themselves to be women are women and must be treated as such. To not do so is discriminatory, they argue. This has led to a host of terrible outcomes. One of them is male criminals declaring themselves to be women and then raping female inmates.<\/p>\n
The most high-profile examples of the absurdity of this position, however, come from sports. Think Lia Thomas going from a mediocre male swimmer to winning women\u2019s NCAA events. In general, men are bigger, faster and stronger than women.<\/p>\n
One might think that the WNBA \u2014 and especially WNBA players \u2014 would be particularly concerned about ensuring eligibility is based on biology, not self-identity. But you would be wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cHate, abuse and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division and harm,\u201d the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association said in a statement this month.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t a new stance. In 2022, the WNBPA said it \u201cwill fight for trans youth across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The very women who benefit directly from sex-segregated sports refuse to defend the principle that keeps them employed.<\/p>\n
Conservative talk show host Clay Travis exposed this hypocrisy by offering the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces $10 million if they could beat a high school state champion boys\u2019 team. On Sunday, he said he would give the Aces the money for beating a team of eighth-grade boys that he selected. The Aces have yet to take him up on his generous offer.<\/p>\n
While the WNBA can ignore Travis, Freedom\u2019s draft declaration is a much thornier problem. Allowing Freedom to play would make the absurdity of the left\u2019s position on transgender athletes obvious to all. If he goes undrafted, he\u2019ll have a strong legal case under New York\u2019s civil rights law, which defines \u201cgender identity\u201d broadly.<\/p>\n
The obvious solution to the league\u2019s conundrum is to define the word \u201cwoman\u201d \u2014 and Freedom put the definition on his shirt. But doing that would require the WNBA to reject the woke ideology that\u2019s pervasive throughout the league.<\/p>\n
For now, the WNBA will just pretend it has no idea what the \u201cW\u201d stands for. Enjoy the show.<\/p>\n
Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow
\n@victorjoecks on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes satire exposes the folly of someone\u2019s position more effectively than the most pointed argument. Just look at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-872039","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\/872039","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=872039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}