{"id":940458,"date":"2026-10-20T20:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940458\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T20:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:32:11","slug":"wnba-bars-freedom-and-white-as-both-men-but-refuses-to-define-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940458\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA bars Freedom and White as \u2018both men\u2019 \u2014 but refuses to define \u2018woman\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA<\/a> is barring former NBA<\/a> players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White after they tried to get drafted into the league, a push the men have described as supporting women in sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told Republican lawmakers that the two players are ineligible because they are \u201cboth men,\u201d according to Fox News\u2019s OutKick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Freedom and White entered the controversy after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, now in her eighth WNBA season, discussed transgender<\/a> participation in women\u2019s sports during a July 21 ESPN profile.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018I never once said that.\u2019 I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn\u2019t have to go against biological men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many criticized Cunningham for her comments, with some saying she\u2019s anti-trans. However, her remarks also garnered support for the basketball<\/a> star and women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

Protesters both supporting and opposing Cunningham gathered for the Fever\u2019s game against the Seattle Storm on July 28. Two teenage girls with courtside seats brought signs to support Cunningham.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you Sophie for speaking up for girls,\u201d the sign read.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 27, White showed up to a Fever game sporting a blonde wig<\/a> as part of his and Freedom\u2019s campaign to enter the 2027 WNBA draft as biological males<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move came after Freedom was ejected from a Fever game<\/a> on Aug. 22 for wearing a shirt that read, \u201cwoman, noun, adult human female.\u201d Freedom also announced his decision to compete in the WNBA just weeks before, on Aug. 7.<\/p>\n

Both players\u2019 decision to enter the WNBA draft was to highlight league rules and force the league to specify whether biological males can play in the WNBA. Under eligibility guidelines, they concluded they could declare themselves a prospect under the league\u2019s framework.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith respect to your questions regarding eligibility, only women are eligible to play in the WNBA and the individuals you cite in your letter are both men,\u201d Engelbert wrote in the Friday letter provided to OutKick by the America First Policy Institute, which represents Freedom.<\/p>\n

Freedom fired back at Engelbert\u2019s letter, telling OutKick he believes Engelbert misgendered him in her letter to Congress by stating he was a man.<\/p>\n

\u201cCathy Engelbert cannot clearly define what a woman is, but she\u2019s absolutely certain that I\u2019m a man,\u201d Freedom told OutKick. \u201cI mean, how does that make sense? Who gets to decide? Who has the authority to determine whether someone is a woman?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if the league is still working through these questions, how can its commissioner be so certain about my eligibility without explaining the standards that she\u2019s applying?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

PLAYERS \u2018INTENTIONALLY TRYING TO DESTROY\u2019 WNBA AS NATIONAL ANTHEM CONTROVERSY ERUPTS: JOE CONCHA<\/a><\/p>\n

Freedom told OutKick he intends to continue pursuing a place in the league unless its rules change.<\/p>\n

The Washington Examiner contacted the WNBA for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA is barring former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White after they tried to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[461,49,48,459,82,26256,630,4143],"class_list":["post-940458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-transgender","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940458","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=940458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}