At this point, the WNBA should just either fire everyone in leadership, or go buy a backbone. The days of fence-sitting on the trans issue is costing them.

We now know that the WNBA fan subreddit – which is not run by the league – is so hyper-sensitive to Sophie Cunningham and the entire transgender issue that they are now banning the mention of her name.

One Reddit user tried to post about Sophie Cunningham in the r/WNBA subreddit, only to find that they weren’t able to use her name or several other abbreviations. They then messaged the moderators, who then confirmed that this was a purposeful decision and that any further questioning would lean to being banned.

“Why do you ban people from posting about Sophie Cunningham, who’s a WNBA player?,” the user asked. “We filter content based on Sophi [sic] because it tends to bring out trolls and people who aren’t fans of the W,” the mod answered.

“But she’s a WNBA player that does have actual fans,” the user responded. “If you can’t post about a player you’re a fan of, that seems ridiculous.”

“We have chosen to filter content. If you want to post freely about Sophie you can go to a different sub,” the mod said. Unsurprisingly, the user pointed out that it’s absurd to block posts about a WNBA player in the r/WNBA subreddit, asking how that made sense.

“You aren’t even a contributor to this sub, so I suggest you go back to the other WNBA subs. This is our decision. If you keep messaging about this you will be banned,” the moderator answered.

This is the core fanbase for the WNBA. There’s a reason that the league leadership are behaving like cowards, and it’s because these fans have already made the decision for them. Either pay lip service to trans slogans, or be banned from discussion. The league would love to pay the lip service and let the issue die down (and then deal with Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White next year). The problem is that the rabid leftist fans are not going to let this issue go away. These fans are working to control the narrative because the WNBA is too chicken to state that only biological women are allowed to play in the league. Which means that when fans complain that their narrative isn’t being respected, others are made to shut up and change shirts.

A local Georgia mom, Casey, and her daughter, Annie, both wore XX-XY Athletics t-shirts to the Fever’s 95-91 win over the Dream on Sunday night.

During overtime, the mother and daughter were told by Atlanta security that their shirts were “offensive” and they were told to put on a “Wellness Night” Dream t-shirts instead. If they didn’t, they would be removed from the arena.

“We were made to cover up our XX-XY shirts at this game,” the mom said outside the arena after the game to a fellow WNBA fan. “They gave us t-shirts during overtime and told us we had to leave or cover our shirts up. This just happened.”

“We did nothing,” the mom added. “We were just sitting there. I didn’t make signs. I wanted to make signs, but I didn’t. I did nothing.”

The mother and daughter claimed a fan who was put on the jumbotron wearing a “Protect Trans Rights” shirt told security about the duo because the fan was forced to zip up her jacket over the shirt, which the mom claimed is “bulls–t too.”

“She shouldn’t have to zip up,” she said.

The two said they paid $1,000 each for their tickets and came to the game in support of Sophie Cunningham and women within women’s sports.

“It’s just common sense,” the mom added.

Please hold on while I choke over those ticket prices for a WNBA game. I knew there was a reason my family sticks to much more affordable baseball games. Now, while there is no official confirmation that the fan wearing the “trans rights” shirt is the one who complained, someone obviously did. It is telling, though, that the Atlanta Dream are saying that it wasn’t their doing, even though it was their arena, and are pointing the finger directly at the WNBA.

The Atlanta Dream believes in creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.  Unfortunately, at last night’s game, WNBA security took actions that fell short of that standard.  At no point was Dream personnel involved in the decisions made by WNBA security.  The league…

— Atlanta Dream PR (@ATLDreamPR) August 17, 2026

The WNBA is conceding they were responsible for what happened, but won’t explain WHY it happened.

The WNBA admitted Monday that league security improperly forced a mother and her teenage daughter to cover their XX-XY Athletics shirts during Sunday’s game between the Indiana Fever and Atlanta Dream.

“The WNBA is aware of interactions at last night’s game in Atlanta in which fans were asked by league security to cover their shirts,” a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement provided to OutKick. “This should not have happened.”

State Farm Arena policy prohibits clothing displaying explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterizations, while the NBA Fan Code of Conduct prohibits obscene or indecent messages on clothing.

According to Kasey, security cited neither policy, instead telling the pair their shirts were “offensive.”

“This should not have happened” is not enough of an explanation. When the shirts were brought to security’s attention, who made the decision to tell them to cover up or leave? Who handed shirts to security for the mother and daughter? This was not the action of a single league security person. This came down from somewhere much higher up, and we have seen the attitude here happening elsewhere within the WNBA. At the very least, this was an unspoken policy, and now that it has been exposed, the league is backtracking with a weak statement. There’s no apology here. And there’s no promise that an incident like this isn’t going to happen again. A simple “our bad” isn’t going to cover it.

If the WNBA can’t manage to find a spine and tell everyone what a woman is, then this issue is never going to go away. And the cowards in charge know if they do, they are going to lose even more. The fact that the fan subreddit is censoring any mention of Sophie Cunningham is proof of that. This half-assed wishing that everyone would just stop talking about it isn’t going to work, and both sides are waiting for the WNBA to make a decision.

Featured photo: Airman 1st Class Kerelin Molina, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped