Anti-trans protestors at the WNBA don’t truly care about women’s sports

No trans woman has ever played in the WNBA (Picture: Benhiyoun/SPP/Shutterstock) ‘Woman. Noun. Adult human female’. This was plastered on the t-shirt that Enes Kanter, a former professional basketball player, wore on Sunday night’s WNBA game between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky. He took it upon himself to sit courtside this past Sunday in a T-shirt bearing a well-known anti-trans dogwhistle, smirking at cameras. Thankfully, he was escorted out after a confrontation with Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud, who took issue with his presence. But that Sunday game wasn’t just interrupted with his stunt, but by multiple protestors outside the arena. It comes after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham told ESPN last month that she was opposed to trans participation in women’s sports. All of them ignoring the fact that no trans woman has ever played in the WNBA. He was escorted out after a confrontation with Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud (Picture: Michael Reaves/Getty Images) It is absolutely wild that people are angry over something that isn’t happening. Join Metro's LGBTQ+ community on WhatsApp With thousands of members from all over the world, our vibrant LGBTQ+ WhatsApp channel is a hub for all the latest news and important issues that face the LGBTQ+ community. Simply click on this link, select ‘Join Chat’ and you’re in! Don't forget to turn on notifications! Sunday’s incident is almost as ridiculous as the men who showed up at a WNBA game last Friday to throw sex toys on court in an apparent protest, following on from similar stunts last year which were apparently merely pranks. Ask Metro Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about – powered by Metro and trusted publications. Yes, that really happened. I’m not sure how throwing dildos at women trying to play a sport they love is protecting them, but maybe I’m missing something. In the weeks before the game, Kanter publicly declared himself eligible for the WNBA draft, according to his own interpretation of the league’s rules. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video His stunt, which came with the mandatory insistence that he was going to use the women’s bathroom, is absurd – if you have to manufacture a problem to ‘prove’ your point, you’ve just proven it doesn’t exist. The hypocrisy of men disrupting a women’s basketball game under the guise of ‘protecting women’ paints the real picture – their apparent need to control women. As the WNBA expands and grows in popularity, buoyed by the success of athletes like Coud and Caitlin Clark, more and more men seem to be looking to muscle in women’s sport. Sophie Cunningham’s opposition to trans participation has sparked the latest round of protests (Picture: Getty) That, in my view, is the true motivation behind anti-trans movements like this. It’s an excuse to keep asserting dominance over women, to put them in their place and tell them how, who and what they can and cannot be. And in order to make their point, the views of the women involved, like Cloud, are ignored. Because if we look at the real challenges facing women in sport, trans inclusion certainly isn’t one of them and people should be putting their time and energy into the things that genuinely affect it. What should be the focus for improving women's sports? Ensuring fair and inclusive participationCheck Addressing funding and opportunity gapsCheck Increasing visibility and support for athletesCheck Confronting true issues like abuse in sportsCheck Sign up to Metro's Puzzles Newsletter and get your favourite puzzles sent directly to you every day! According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, founded by tennis legend Billie Jean King, those challenges include a lack of opportunities for girls in sport, rising costs and transport barriers, a lack of supportive coaching and sporting environments, and wider social factors. So instead of fixating on the handful of trans athletes competing at an elite level in one of the many sports in the world, I would like to see these protestors direct their attention and energy somewhere that actually matters. I would like to see these protestors direct their attention and energy somewhere that actually matters(Picture: Ugla Stefania Kristjonudottir Jonsdottir) Because it really seems like they haven’t a clue about what’s really happening. A video circulating on social media from the latest protest showed an interviewer asking anti-trans protestors to name five female basketball players. To no one’s surprise, most of them couldn’t, whereas pro-trans protestors reeled off names, clearly real fans. After the game on Sunday, Natasha Cloud posted: ‘To every trans kid/person, you are a part of MY community & tribe. You belong. You’re loved. You’re seen. You’re perfect as you are & you will always be protected by me.’ She’s right – the only people who are affected by this are the kids watching it unfold. The trans kids who want to imagine a future. Meanwhile, the actual work of supporting women in sport goes undone. Nobody is turning up outside an arena to demand equal pay, proper funding for grassroots girls’ programmes, or safeguarding that genuinely protects athletes from abuse. The threat to women’s sport is not trans people (Picture: Michael Reaves/Getty Images) But making a scene in a T-shirt is quick, and gets plastered all over social media for attention and bigotry. The threat to women’s sport is not trans people, but a movement that has turned their unhealthy obsession with gender identity into their personality and dressing it up as ‘fairness’ and ‘protection. On both sides of the Atlantic, they are aided by swathes of the political and media ecosystem that are all too happy to offer a courtside seat. So instead of buying a transphobic T-shirt or chucking dildos onto the court at a women’s basketball game, you could attend and cheer them on as a fan, or campaign for women’s rights. Because otherwise you’re just making yourself yet another problem that women in sport have to deal with. Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. Share your views in the comments below. Arrow MORE: Millions of UK women to be offered ‘groundbreaking’ DIY home smear tests Arrow MORE: The Traitors star comes out one year after splitting from girlfriend Arrow MORE: Don’t let your kids get in the way of a good holiday Puzzles Newsletter Get your favourite puzzles when they are ready to play on the website sent directly to you every day and track your daily streak!