ENES KANTER FREEDOM: The WNBA says I'm a man. So why is it still afraid to say who is a woman?
Ladies and gentlemen, we finally have an answer from the WNBA.
Sort of.
After months of questions about who is eligible to compete in women's professional basketball, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has declared in an official letter that I am not eligible to play in the league.
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Why? Because Cuckoo Cathy identified me as a man. I was as shocked as you probably are to learn that a league that can't define what a woman is can so confidently identify a man.
But apparently, telling me I can't play wasn't enough. Now, the WNBA doesn't even want me in the stands as a paying customer.
On Wednesday night, I traveled to Atlanta to attend Game 3 of the WNBA Finals. I purchased premium courtside tickets, just like any other basketball fan. But when I arrived, I was informed that I would not be allowed to sit in the seats I purchased.
Instead, they decided I would have to watch the game from a private suite and enter through a private entrance, supposedly for my safety.
I appreciate the concern for my safety. But I have spent years speaking out against authoritarian regimes that have threatened my life and my family. I am certainly not going to hide in a luxury suite because my presence makes someone uncomfortable.
I wanted to sit in the seats I paid for, watch the game, and continue standing up for women in sports. But when I refused to be moved out of sight, security denied me entry. I was escorted away from the arena.
For the second time, I was prevented from attending a WNBA game while speaking up for women. The WNBA is apparently more comfortable removing me from its arena than answering the questions I am asking.
And those questions begin with Commissioner Engelbert's response to Congressman Marlin Stutzman of Indiana. In her letter, she wrote, "only women are eligible to play in the WNBA and the individuals you cite in your letter are both men."
Notice what she did not say.
She did not say that biological males are categorically ineligible to compete in the WNBA. She did not establish a biological standard for eligibility. She simply declared that I am a man and therefore cannot play.
Who gave Commissioner Engelbert the authority to determine my identity? What standards did she use to make that determination? And if she can so confidently identify me as a man, why can't the WNBA apply that same clarity to the question of who qualifies as a woman?
You cannot have it both ways.
The WNBA has reportedly assembled a task force to examine its eligibility policies. Yet we still have no publicly available, definitive policy establishing whether biological males who identify as women can compete in the league.
A task force. Meetings. Discussions. And still no clear answer to one of the most basic questions a women's sports league should be able to answer.
The women who have spent their entire lives training to compete at the highest level of their sport deserve to know that the rules protecting their opportunities will be applied fairly and consistently. And before that can happen, the rules must be clear.
That is why I am pursuing the opportunity to compete under the WNBA's rules. I have played professional basketball at the highest level, and I am prepared to pursue a place on a team. If the league believes I am ineligible, it should be able to identify the specific, consistently applied standard that disqualifies me.
Instead, the WNBA has created a contradiction.
The league knows I should not compete against women. It is willing to say so publicly. Yet it has not clearly explained whether the same biological considerations would disqualify another male athlete who identifies as a woman.
Is the league afraid of offending activists? Is it more concerned about political backlash than protecting its own athletes? Or does it simply want to leave the door open for exceptions while keeping someone like me out because I am willing to challenge its reasoning?
I cannot tell you what is happening behind closed doors. But I can tell you what the public has been given.
A task force that has produced no clear public standard. A commissioner who can declare who is a man without explaining how she reaches that conclusion. And now, a league that would rather move a vocal fan out of public view than allow him to sit in the seats he purchased.
But this fight is about something much bigger than my eligibility or where I sit at a basketball game. It is about freedom. It is about fairness. And it is about the right to have your voice heard, especially when those in power would prefer your silence.
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I know what it means to live under a government that punishes people for speaking their minds. I know what it means to have your freedom threatened because you refuse to remain silent. My criticism of authoritarianism has come at a tremendous personal cost, including separation from my family.
That is why, when I earned my American citizenship, I changed my last name to Freedom. That was not a publicity stunt. It was a declaration of gratitude, conviction and pride in my country. The fight to preserve freedom became part of my identity.
I believe every woman who steps onto a basketball court deserves the opportunity to compete fairly. I believe female athletes deserve to have their concerns heard, even when their opinions are unpopular. And I believe no athlete should feel pressured to sacrifice her convictions to protect her career.
Those are freedoms worth defending.
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Meanwhile, as this debate unfolds, players from the Golden State Valkyries and Atlanta Dream have been running off the court before the national anthem, returning shortly after it concludes.
I understand that Americans have the freedom to protest. That is one of the things that makes this country extraordinary. But it brings us back to the distinction between having a right and being right.
America is not perfect, and it never has been. But this is also a nation where women have fought for and won opportunities that generations before them could scarcely imagine, including the opportunity to become professional athletes, compete on a national stage, and build careers playing the sport they love.
When I see athletes walk away from the American flag and an anthem that honors the costly battles fought for our freedom, I see an opportunity being missed. Those freedoms made their opportunities possible, and those opportunities deserve respect and protection.
There is a painful irony in watching players leave the court rather than stand for our anthem while the league responsible for protecting their competition seems equally determined to avoid taking a stand on fairness.
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And now, when I show up to ask questions and stand up for those principles, the league wants me out of sight, too.
Freedom requires courage. So does fairness. Both demand that we defend principles even when doing so makes people uncomfortable. It requires us to stay in the arena and confront difficult questions about what is true and just rather than running away because we don't like the fight.
I have spent much of my life fighting for people whose voices powerful institutions would rather silence. I am not going to stop now simply because the institution in question happens to be a professional basketball league.
I am grateful to Congressman Stutzman for demanding answers, and I am glad Commissioner Engelbert finally responded. But her letter raises more questions than it answers.
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If I am ineligible because she says I am a man, then say plainly whether all biological males are ineligible for the same reason. If biological sex is not the determining factor, explain what is. And if the WNBA believes women's sports deserve protection, establish a clear, consistent policy that actually protects them.
The WNBA can deny me a spot on the court. It can deny me the seats I purchased. It can even escort me out of the arena. Again. But it cannot make me stop asking questions. And it cannot make me stop fighting for the women whose opportunities, voices, and freedoms deserve to be protected.
I did not change my last name to Freedom because I wanted to avoid uncomfortable fights. I changed it because I know how precious freedom is and how easily it can be lost when people are afraid to defend what they know is right.
The question now is whether Commissioner Engelbert and the WNBA are willing to do the same.
The WNBA has made one thing clear: it is convinced that I am a man. The question now is whether Commissioner Engelbert and the WNBA are willing to tell America what makes someone a woman.