Sophie Cunningham supporters rally in Chicago, while protesters showcase what's wrong with America
Saturday in Chicago, once again, showcased the harsh reality that the opposition to Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham is rooted in hate, intolerance, and delusion.
While dozens of calm and cordial Cunningham supporters rallied outside of the United Center, they were met by a group of mask-wearing, sign-holding, profanity-spewing counterprotesters playing loud music that included incredibly vulgar and inflammatory lyrics such as:
"And we'll never rest again until every Nazi dies" and "F— these f—ing fascists"
CHICAGO SKY ADDRESS SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM RALLY PLANNED OUTSIDE HOME GAME VS FEVER
When asked to clarify if they believed the Cunningham supporters were Nazis and fascists for believing women’s sports should remain female, they instead called me a Nazi. Typical.
When I had the chance to actually speak to one protester, flanked by signs that included, "Go Home Losers", "Trans Kids Belong in Sports", and "Rise Up Against Trans Hate," a self-identified transgender woman told me, "I feel like our rights are being violated. Our trans youth are being taken advantage of. They just want to play sports."
After that comment, a mask-wearing fellow protester jumped in front of me, cutting off the interview claiming I was "hostile media."
After a failed attempt to chat with another protestor, that same woman cut me off again in a vulgar way saying, "F— you, right-wing scumbag!" The party of love and tolerance, ladies and gentlemen.
After I spotted a couple wearing pro-trans trans t-shirts, I went up to them at a side entrance to the arena, and asked what they thought about Sophie Cunningham and her supporters. The man wearing a "Protect Trans Athletes" shirt refused to do an interview on camera, but told me that they weren't fans of Cunningham and the question of: Do you support biological men competing in the WNBA?, he called the phrasing a "non sequitur," refusing to define what a woman is, while stating definitively that biological sex is not determined by XX or XY chromosomes.
Another pro-trans attendee wearing a "Protect Trans Youth" T-shirt told me, "The truth is: trans women are women, so if they want to play women’s sports, then that’s something they should do as women."
I followed up that clearly subjective statement not rooted in any sort of biological or scientific truth, by asking her thoughts on former NBA first round picks, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft.
She said, "If they truly were trans, then I would be perhaps supportive of them, but they’re not, which I followed up with "Who determines who’s really a woman?"
After rolling her eyes and staring at me for pushing her on her flawed ideology she declared, "I would love to see them play against A’ja Wilson and beat her. I doubt they would," storming off with a smug, "Thank you so much."
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Let’s be honest.
Wilson is a tremendous WNBA player. When it’s all said and done, she could be the definitive GOAT, but pretending that the current WNBA MVP frontrunner would hold a candle to those men is a level of delusional thinking I find hard to fathom.
As for the pro-Cunningham group of about a couple dozen, led by the 1986 U.S. Women's All-Around National Champion and founder of XX-XY Athletics, Jennifer Sey, who told me "The WNBA is living in 2020," as she responded to my question regarding why the league seems to be weary of standing firm that the league is only for women. "They (WNBA) are being made fools of by the two men (Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White)...who are saying, ‘I’m a woman now. I wanna play.’ They are just pointing out the ludicrousness of this whole ideology and I applaud them for it, because it should be laughed at."
Sey has made the point clear that these rallies are about supporting Sophie.
"Our message for Sophie is: We support you. We don’t want her to stand alone. The league isn’t standing with her. A lot of us here," pointing to the dozens of women rallying in support of Cunningham, "know how hard it is to take a stand."
Sey added that she was "pleased that this one was much more peaceful" than what they experienced in Minnesota.
The difference between the pro-Cunningham crowd and the anti-Cunningham protestors in Seattle, Portland, Minnesota, and now Chicago, couldn’t be more stark. One is cool, calm, collected, and joyful, while the other spews profanities and insults. It’s a microcosm of America.
The American left has proven time and time again that they are the most hateful, intolerant, and overly-aggressive group in our country. They have called these women traveling across the country to support a woman, who simply wants women’s sports and spaces to remain female, c-words, fascists, Nazis, and every profane insult they can muster.
And the WNBA has said nothing. They have done nothing to cool the temperature, which had reached a boiling point, on and off the court.
Inside the arena, just like every road game since Cunningham made her comments about protecting the safety, integrity and fairness of women’s and girls sports, fans booed her every chance they got.
One of the most egregious things I’ve seen done during this whole saga inside the arena, was after Cunningham was clothselined and cheap-shotted by Chicago Sky guard, DiJonai Carrington, who also poked Caitlin Clark in the eye with her excessively long nails in the playoffs of Clark’s rookie season, the Sky featured a fan wearing a trans rights t-shirt during the review of what ultimately became a flagrant 2 foul that ejected Carrington from the game.
It seems that teams and their game presentation departments are doing whatever they can to promote fans with trans attire. A similar gesture was made at the Portland Fire game I attended, where the team showcased a group of lesbian women waving trans flags on the video board, as well as selecting a lesbian with trans wristbands to shoot a halfcourt shot. They are making a definitive, politically divisive statement on where they stand on the issue.
Reading articles like this is enlightening for all of you readers, I’m sure. Seeing these things in person, though, makes me feel like we’re living in an alternate universe.
The most hated woman in the WNBA is the only one brave enough to say the league should uphold the first letter of its acronym, and the most hated fans are the women that support her. Make it make sense.