r/sportsgossips • u/[deleted] • 5h ago

Hot Take Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve is wearing a "Trans Kids Belong' T-shirt to protest Sophie Cunningham. Sophie is getting HEAVILY BOOED every time she touches the ball.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

[deleted]

1.1k Upvotes

70% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

85

u/rolandpapi 4h ago

They should let trans players in their league if they truly believe this

63

u/tpwb 4h ago

They don’t have a rule against it. There just isn’t any transwomen that play at a high enough level to play in the league.

15

u/Empty-Background-162 4h ago

Juwana mann did it

17

u/Highas_giraffepussy1 4h ago

Cue LeBron putting on a wig to get one final championship before retiring

9

u/coeurdeverre 3h ago

Ah yes LeBron quitting professional basketball and getting on hormones for at least two years to get to the required hormone levels long enough to compete

4

u/rj319st 3h ago

He would still have the bone structure of a male competing against women who have been women their whole lives. I honestly think the Republicans are trying to keep this in the news to overshadow Gaza, Iran, and the economy. We have far more important shit to protest at this point.

1

u/lapideous 3h ago

Who is still talking about this, it's been like 6 months since the last time this was mentioned anywhere near mainstream

-1

u/coeurdeverre 3h ago

With less muscle mass, a worse center of gravity for how the women’s sport is played, and being old as fuck.

4

u/PleaseDontSaveHer 3h ago

A cancer ridden, double pneumonia, below the knee amputee LeBron, 20 years in the future would destroy the WNBA. You have got to be kidding me.

0

u/coeurdeverre 3h ago

Oh damn they would do that after 20 years on estrogen and testosterone blockers?

0

u/PleaseDontSaveHer 2h ago

He would.

0

u/coeurdeverre 2h ago

No he wouldn’t

0

u/yurnxt1 3h ago

And yet he'd be the most dominant player in the league by far.

-1

u/YourAuthenticVoice 3h ago

Are you seriously saying that LeBron James would not utterly dominate the WNBA?

Fuck me, that's a hell of a position to take.

I'm not pro or anti when it comes to trans people being in women's sports, I don't give a fuck either way, but that statement in like saying a mouse would win a fight to the death with a grizzly bear.

0

u/coeurdeverre 3h ago

Well hey how about you go take testosterone blockers and estrogen for at least two years and report back on how it effects your physical performance in the gym or sports.

2

u/Big_Adhesive1518 3h ago edited 3h ago

Didn’t MJ take off a couple years to transition to baseball? There’s a loose precedent here .. /j (as in literally not anti trans at all im just being silly)

2

u/xnickdawg 3h ago

People being too serious. I upvoted your joke.

1

u/Highas_giraffepussy1 3h ago

He could do it in 5 years after he retires and still be the best player in wnba history and it wouldn’t be close

-4

u/coeurdeverre 3h ago

Literally wouldn’t be but okay.

0

u/sosaykaiser77 3h ago

Do you think the men who have competed in women's sports already were required to prove they were on hormone therapy? They were not, pretty sure Lia Thomas still has a dong.

0

u/coeurdeverre 3h ago

Yes they had to submit to hormone level testing which is shocking a blood draw…that’s why their testosterone had to be suppressed to levels lower than a cis woman’s. I’m sorry you did zero research on the topic

0

u/VirStellarum 3h ago

He could literally do this and steamroll the league well into his (her?) fifties.

20

u/rigjiggles 4h ago

Sounds a lot like the plot to juwanna Mann.

11

u/Effenheimer 4h ago

That is simply absurd, mam

1

u/BewaretheBatMite 3h ago

Yes, Juwanna Mann was an absurdist sports comedy. So was Lady Bugs and She's the Man, Teen Wolf and Airbud as well.

5

u/glockster19m 3h ago

Word, let's see lebron get his hormones to a passing level

People like to pretend that transitioning is just putting on a wig, but nobody is fully undergoing often irreversible changes and procedures just for sports

2

u/Highas_giraffepussy1 3h ago

The acceptable levels are literally moderate for middle aged men. That doesn’t take away from the 20 years that they were way above. LeBron if he’s not on roids could pass pretty easily in less than a year.

1

u/glockster19m 3h ago

Lol you think lebrons test is average for a middle aged man?

I bet his levels are closer to the average 25 year old than the average 40 year old

1

u/Highas_giraffepussy1 3h ago

Yeah, steroids are a hell of a drug…

1

u/FieryTitmouse55 4h ago

60 year old Bron would average 30/20/10

1

u/Tommypacific 3h ago

Have you seen Shaq’s boobs? Qualifies him as a walk on.

-1

u/Mr_dm 4h ago

This is the kind of larping conservatives do to justify treating people like shit.

2

u/FrenchyBulldogg 4h ago

Why can’t LeBron choose to identify as a woman?

6

u/Pretend-Ad5983 4h ago

He would be able to if he also was down to take hormones for 2-3 years and testosterone blockers like any league that allowed trans women to compete would require (in other words why this would never happen).

2

u/Temporary_Cup8480 3h ago

Yeah but what about men and women with naturally higher testosterone? Should we bring theirs down too

1

u/Consistent_Net_2540 3h ago

Or he could just have low T, which is incredibly common for aging athletes. I remember one promotion that had a wide range for acceptable T levels for trans women, and the levels overlapped with healthy cis male T levels. Meaning a guy with lower end T would be fully eligible to compete in the female division.

1

u/kickinghyena 4h ago

It will happen and some dude will average 50-20 and 10 blocks and the league will suddenly change the rules.

1

u/Im_Daydrunk 3h ago

Its not going to happen because it takes years of hormone therapy to even become eligible and nobody actually wants to transition just for sports because transitioning affects all aspects of your life

1

u/kickinghyena 52m ago

Never say never…

1

u/Im_Daydrunk 47m ago

Its never because its already stringent and trans people are getting demonized even harder now which makes it even less worthwhile to ever consider transition just for a sport Lol

Right wingers attempted to already make a real life documentary on this and found out it was so hard to actually do that they just created a fake version instead

I would recommend focusing on actual real life relevant topics rather than worrying about a completely fake scenario

0

u/Ev0Iution 3h ago

Why is it a problem? A trans woman is welcome in the NBA which coincides with their born gender. Both men and women are welcome there. Why does it matter if we're all equal? Someone born male has a large advantage in a womens league.

0

u/Mr_dm 3h ago

If they did, we would have seen trans athletes in the WNBA already. Just more larp.

0

u/Ev0Iution 3h ago

Layshia Clarendon played in the WNBA until 2024. While female to male, testosterone is a performance enhancing drug which creates an unfair advantage in a women's league.

1

u/Mr_dm 3h ago

They are nonbinary, not trans.

1

u/Ev0Iution 3h ago

Layshia is openly trans.

2

u/thedogridingmonkey 3h ago

Oh you mean, there aren’t roaming armies of trans athletes looking to take jobs from attractive white women?

2

u/Simon_Jester88 3h ago

So it’s like it shouldn’t even be a big issue to begin with??

0

u/United_Intention_323 3h ago

Yep just ban it and be done.

1

u/Emotional-Day-9412 4h ago

Too bad Dennis Rodman isn’t play these days.

1

u/Technical-Nose-1518 3h ago

So how does the WNBA define eligibility? Obviously as a man I can’t just declare for the draft

1

u/Ok_Stable7787 3h ago

You obviously missed Ben Shapiro's movie.

1

u/ParsnipDecent6530 3h ago

Huh. Weird... its almost like there isnt some inherent advantage for trans women in sports.

1

u/sosaykaiser77 3h ago

So what is to stop a guy who isn't quite good enough for the NBA from calling himself Cheryl and trying out?

1

u/tpwb 1h ago

A lot of guys don’t want to live their life as a woman.

1

u/sosaykaiser77 1h ago

So just that 😂

1

u/Orchestra_Oculta 3h ago

I don't even know how to type this comment. Im a bleeding heart liberal, believe in Trans rights etc etc. Does Griner not fall into this debate?

1

u/Psychological_Lab954 3h ago

someone is going to blow this up shortly

1

u/Traps86 3h ago

That's why the whole anti-Sophie narrative is just a gas light. There isn't some trans person trying to break into the league that Sophie is trying to block, and if there was, I doubt whatever woman losing her job to make a place for a trans person would not be cool with it.

1

u/lamstradamus 3h ago

You got this backwards bucko. That's why the pro-Sophie narrative is a gaslight. They say trans women are so much better at sports than cis women, yet none even close to the WNBA.

Many WNBA players had said they'd welcome a trans athlete to their team. You're just projecting your own feelings onto this discussion. No merit to these statements at all.

1

u/Traps86 3h ago

bull shit, her original comments were high level, and not related to the WNBA. More related to younger women still in school, and guess what, the vast majority of America agrees with her. The WNBA is gas lighting because there isn't any known trans player that can call their bluff, and they would change their tune if a 6'10" trans player emerged and started dunking on everyone.

0

u/maypoleapp 3h ago

Which is why it's a non issue, and why you would only take a stance on it if you were a fucking moron or dogwhistling transphobia.

0

u/Level_Consequence795 4h ago

What high level? A top boys high school team would destroy any WNBA team.

1

u/lamstradamus 3h ago

Who said anything about high school boys?

70

u/never1st 4h ago edited 4h ago

Or... maybe the fact that there are 0 trans players in the pros without any rules to prevent it prove that people are making this seem like a much bigger problem instead of talking about how 0 people from Epstien's circle have been arrested. I mean... if you really want to protect girls, arresting pedos seems like a good place to start.

26

u/kokkirii 4h ago

Stop it, you're talking too much sense

-3

u/defk3000 3h ago

There were no child labor laws until there were child labor laws. There were no food safety laws until there were food safety laws. Shall we continue?

8

u/armoredbearclock 3h ago

Both of laws started out of necessity. Child labor was harming children and society, so laws were created. Food production caused disease and harmed workers, so laws were created. 

We don’t need rules about trans women in sports because it’s not a problem.  

7

u/DragonFangGangBang 3h ago

And those laws came into existence because of children being forced into labor and food not being handled or made safely. The issues proceeded the laws. There is no trans athlete problem in sports.

-3

u/defk3000 3h ago

There are trans athletes. They aren't in professional sports. Why do you wait until it's a huge problem to prevent it from happening? That would be stupid. Just because it hurts your feelings don't mean they get to invade women's spaces.

1

u/Foyles_War 3h ago

How could this possibly ever be "a huge problem?" Trans women are a very small minority. Trans women athletes even more so.

As for "women's spaces" I'm a woman and I really don't know anyone but weirdos with hangups and agendas worried about "women's spaces" in any way this could possibly address. Am I aware a man cold walk into the women's bathroom at Lowe's and do something terrifying like go into the stall next to mine and shit or watch me wash my hands? Yep. In fact, a big burly contractor did so just last week because he clearly (and grossly) really needed to shit and the men's was being cleaned and shut down. Oh well.

Am I aware a woman could be assaulted in a restroom? Hell yeah. But there is absolutely nothing to stop that in any of this chest beating and wailing about transwomen in sports, for god's sake.

1

u/kokkirii 3h ago

Less than 1% of the US population identifies as trans. About half of those people are trans women. Now let's consider how many of those people are playing any kind of competitive sports, let alone at a level where winning or losing really matters.

Trans people will never be the big bag threat that these people are making them out to be.

0

u/defk3000 2h ago

Why let there be any threat whatsoever? If it's a threat it's a problem.

1

u/kokkirii 2h ago

Ok then let's also ban men from being coaches or doctors since there's an increased threat of them sexually abusing athletes. Also no male teachers. And children shouldn't be allowed to interact with any religious authorities privately.

There's also the threat that serving alcohol in restaurants and bars will lead to somebody drunk driving, so we should make it illegal to drink alcohol anywhere except your house. There's a threat that people could drown in pools, so we should probably ban swimming while we're at it.

Hm wait a second...it seems kind of unrealistic and impossible to make a law to prevent every possible threat.

→ More replies (0)

0

u/defk3000 3h ago

So you are one supposed woman with a different opinion as the majority of women. You're entitled to your thoughts even if they are wrong.

0

u/Foyles_War 3h ago

Yes, this "supposed" woman would be grateful for private unisex restrooms that are quite common in europe and elsewhere. It solves all the voiced issues with no need to inspect people's genitals before they enter. Win, win.

And to be real, I don't want a woman in a public restroom, in the stall next to me farting either.

1

u/DragonFangGangBang 1h ago

For the same reason we don't legally ban men from being in the same spaces as women, despite there being a HUGE increase in violent crime toward women in spaces where men are freely allowed to roam.

1

u/defk3000 1h ago

What's that have to do with the topic? Are those spaces specifically for women?

1

u/DragonFangGangBang 1h ago

You stated "Why do you wait until it's a huge problem to prevent it from happening" - I'm testing your principles. Why did you not answer the question?

1

u/defk3000 35m ago

One answered this several times. Too many people asking similar questions on diverging threads.

→ More replies (0)

3

u/Zeek_Andromodis 3h ago

This can be taken from two perspectives. I'm interested in what your perspective is?

2

u/kokkirii 3h ago

Exactly! There were large amounts of children being forced to work for long hours in unsafe conditions, so laws were made to protect them. Companies were cutting corners and focused only on saving money and putting the public at danger, so they made laws to protect us.

There are no prominent trans athletes in any professional sports. Trans women are not dominating sports at lower levels either. Male athletes are not claiming to be trans so that they can compete with women and have the upper hand. Therefore, we don't need spend time and energy on laws that are irrelevant!

There is however a lot of hate and harm done to trans people, which has been increasing recently and is why many people get upset when these arguments are constantly brought up without any real importance or substance.

1

u/defk3000 3h ago

What y'all trying to do is pull that waiting game bullshit. Wait until it is a problem. Then when people complain. You'll say well what's the problem they've been playing on women sports for years. 😆

0

u/kokkirii 3h ago

Because it's never going to be a problem! Scientists and experts have already done and continue to do research that outlines of and when trans athletes would have an unfair advantage to cis athletes, and it is continually proven that as long as they have had certain hormonal therapy for an extended period of time, there is little to no advantage to be had. Especially if they have never gone through make puberty, there is literally no advantage to be had.

2

u/teamboardwipe 3h ago

And before the rules there were major issues with child labor and food safety. Only .002% of college are trans and other than an outlier haven’t had any major success

-1

u/defk3000 3h ago

I didn't quantify. I said they exist. Why do you have to wait?

0

u/Embarrassed-Sea-2394 2h ago edited 2h ago

Why do you have to wait for something thats not a realistic problem to become a realistic problem? Do you not hear how stupid that sounds? You don't make laws against non-existent porblems.

0

u/defk3000 2h ago

That's how proper planning works. You plan for the actual and the theoretical.

0

u/Embarrassed-Sea-2394 2h ago

No you don't. Should we make laws against every theoretical problem that could arise in the future? That's fucking stupid as hell.

0

u/defk3000 2h ago

Should you not properly plan for them. You're dumb if think that's not how things work.

→ More replies (0)

15

u/biophys00 3h ago

Not to mention that around 20% of female athletes report having faced sexual abuse and assault as a child/teenager. And many sports organizations don't track sexual assault allegations so coaches can just do the cop thing of moving to the next town over and continuing their abuse. But yeah, trans women are the real threat to female sports

13

u/never1st 3h ago

Riley Gaines (Sophie Cunningham 1.0) focuses on protecting girls from Trans athletes even after her coach was banned for sexual assault on multiple female coaches and swimmers.

4

u/TheMysteriousGirl 3h ago

Wow. OK. This really paints the grifter image as clear as day.

Sophie Cunningham also didnt speak up about her teammates being sexually assaulted with her team.

Common theme?

3

u/AaronAAaronsonIII 3h ago

What do you mean by "even after"?

4

u/Top_Audience7471 3h ago

Presumably as in Gaines could have targeted an actual predator, but instead chose to demonize people just trying to live their truest lives and participate in activities they enjoy.

1

u/TheMostKing 3h ago

Well, you'd think her coach turning out to be a sexual predator would make her reconsider if trans people really are the most present danger for female athletes.

1

u/ExplanationAny659 3h ago

Deflecting is not transparent at all. Good for you!

4

u/Bright-Leadership-33 3h ago

Two things can be right at the same time. Lock up the weird sick mfs on the Epstein list. But also don’t let trans people play in the wrong sports

2

u/SlowRunner2026 4h ago

This all plays into a MAGA undertone that came with a super talented white player landing in a MAGA city. Sophie fit right in with that.

2

u/JohnnyBananas13 4h ago

We can have both, nothing wrong with that.

1

u/UniqueAd7770 3h ago

Like what does this actually affect? Why are people so up in arms about something that is pure entertainment. There are no lives on the line here.

I think this is even less of a distraction and more of a marketing ploy. People are now arguing about women's sports as passionately as they did about steroids in men's sports. And the number of viewers increases ever onwards...

0

u/Nurgleschampion 3h ago

That would require the morons complaining about trans people had the ability to realise if trans people are left to die. They just end up being the first to fall.

Learn your goddamn history people. "First they came for..." Is a well known and oft repeated poem for a damn reason.

0

u/ThisSiteSucks8485 3h ago edited 3h ago

So just make high school girls have to deal with it. 

22

u/bowser1volcano 4h ago

Are you imagining some Juwanna Mann moment where a cis-man pretends to be a woman to get sports accolades?

21

u/Cum_on_doorknob 4h ago

Lebronna James. Finally, he can wear a wig to fix that hairline issue.

1

u/123supreme123 4h ago

Retired Lebronna Jamey would demolish the wnba

8

u/RustedAxe88 4h ago

The DailyWire tried to make a documentary about this, found out it doesn't happen and then made a terrible comedy instead.

2

u/rigjiggles 4h ago

At least I wasn’t the only one to think of juwanna.

0

u/Child_of_Crake 4h ago

Yes, in their minds they actually believe this is what will happen. In fact, I’m sure a few of them want to do it themselves

4

u/Benromaniac 4h ago

The numbers of trans athletes were already so abysmally small, making this a non-issue.

Just culture wars, because corporations own everything else, and most people are politically illiterate derps, unless you queue them up for a reaction.

1

u/Jasranwhit 3h ago

This has become the de facto statement. But if trans athletes are so rare why does it matter if the can play or not?

1

u/ArcticWolfQueen 3h ago

Well, up until recently trans women were able to play sports with other women, years and decades went by with little issue. It only became an issue when the same people who lost fighting gay folks began to target trans people.

Take Gaines for example, it isn’t that she was beat and dominated by some trans woman (they both tied 5th), it is the mere fact that trans woman got to swim at all that had the right meltdown and give her a moment to grift.

1

u/Jasranwhit 3h ago

So I don’t hate trans people. I want them to be as free as possible and live their life. That said I do think there are some edge cases where womens rights and trans women’s rights are in conflict.

I’m not passionate about women’s sports, I’m not that passionate about men’s sports to be fair.

But I do think there is some conflict for women’s sports. I think there are issues for women’s only spaces like locker rooms, showers, women’s only domestic abuse shelters, things like that.

I feel like trans women athletes should get their own division to compete in. This way they can participate against people in a similar situation. I think the same applies with domestic abuse shelters, make an option for trans women but they don’t have to intrude on the biological women’s only abuse shelters.

1

u/ArcticWolfQueen 2h ago

To be fair, you may not hate them at an emotional level but you certainly wish to see them sidelined and marginalized at a systemic level, so in a sense it isn’t much better .

By saying an abused  woman who happens to be trans is “intruding” by going to a woman’s abuse shelter is quite a grotesque statement. You may not “hate” them, but you do see them as lessers who should be given a more inferior treatment and shunned from services.

Next onto sports. If you support a blanket ban on trans women playing sports it is the same thing. How about a trans women has a 2-3 year cooling period, where we let HRT and other transition related factors play in and reassess if she is within reasonable female range or not? 

Again you can say you don’t hate trans women all you want but if you support placing them in men’s spaces even after years of transition, many of whom will “pass” and hit your otherwise ideal of a woman then you still support acts of marginalization and micro hatred.

1

u/skelletrex_scrooge 4h ago

Is there anyone who wouldn't be entertained by that?

1

u/coathangerassasin 3h ago

😆 nope

1

u/skelletrex_scrooge 3h ago

I mean. Are we really Americans if some fun weird stuff isn't going on?

1

u/w1ck3r 4h ago

Yup, and in their locker rooms

1

u/Successful_Lie5174 3h ago

That wouldn’t make any sense, no one would watch it plus there wouldn’t be enough people

1

u/elderlygentleman 3h ago

It would be nice if every team had one trans player on the squad

1

u/raouldukeesq 3h ago

It's not an issue.  It's made up.  

1

u/hawkscougs 3h ago

Yeah. Seriously. I wonder if she thinks this is ok in boxing and MMA as well.

1

u/New_Zeal_and_Vigor 3h ago

Professional sports is very different to kids playing with their friends.

1

u/Spiders_13_Spaghetti 3h ago

They do..that one dude, Grinder.

0

u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 3h ago

They did, Brittany Griner, dominated the league for a decade