Enes Kanter Freedom was removed from the Chicago vs Fever game yesterday for standing up for women’s sports

The WNBA has a censorship problem. Twice this weekend, the league and its teams made clear that biological reality is unwelcome in their arenas.

First, in New York. At the Liberty-Fever game (which I attended), fan Julie Potter paid $100 to put a simple message on the Jumbotron at halftime. Here’s what she submitted:

“Thank you Jennifer Sey. XX-XY Athletics will save the day.”

She was careful not to use phrases that might “trigger” censorship from the arena. Phrases like “Save Women’s Sports.” Or even “Thank you, Sophie.”

She kept it purposefully vague and positive.

It should be noted, Potter bought 25 tickets to the Liberty vs Fever game. This is not just a paying customer but a fan who dropped some major dough to be there with friends.

The arena took her money. Then they rejected the message as insufficiently “positive” and “celebratory”; they told her that any messaging that “violates that spirit are not eligible for display.” The arena then substituted something more anodyne and frankly limited in terms of the reach of our message at XX-XY Athletics — “Thank you Jennifer Sey for all you do for XX-XY Athletics.”

This was apparently ok for them because it doesn’t presume that the brand has any influence beyond itself which is about 8 people. I guess?

Potter asked for a refund. The league’s message to her was unmistakable: even a thank-you to a brand whose very name asserts that sex is real is too dangerous for the big screen. Gender ideology comes first. Biological fact is not allowed. And any suggestion that the biological realists showing up for Fever games are having any influence or have any support at all, must be disappeared.

Of course, during the game, these messages were displayed so politics and ideology are ok, if they are the right politics. And by “right” I mean left.

Then, in Chicago yesterday, Enes Kanter Freedom showed up to watch the Sky. The former NBA player who has declared for the WNBA 2027 draft showed up wearing a shirt that read “Woman: Adult Human Female.”

Before entering the arena he took photos outside with Sophie Cunningham supporters there to celebrate Cunningham’s stance on the protection of women’s sports and spaces.

Once he went inside, Kanter Freedom sat close to the court and cheered when Sophie Cunningham drained a three. Minutes later, Natasha Cloud, a Chicago Sky guard, walked over and screamed expletives at him. She shouted that “she’s not going to sleep with you,” referring to Cunningham.

A player verbally assaulted a fan in the stands. She cursed and insulted him for cheering for Cunningham, someone Cloud disagrees with on the issue of men in women’s sports.

And then the fan — Kanter Freedom — was the one removed from the arena. With no reason given when he asked. And because he didn’t want to make things more difficult for security, he went.

Let that sink in. A player can curse out a paying customer for supporting women’s sports and women’s basketball, and the league ejects the customer. Not the player. The fan.

Cloud should have been removed from the game. WNBA players are bound by the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and general codes of conduct, which require good sportsmanship and prohibit actions detrimental to the league. Berating and harassing fans violates these professional behavioral standards and can lead to discipline, such as fines or suspensions. But did not, in this case.

If a WNBA player can scream and curse at a spectator for supporting women, and the spectator is the one removed, the league is telling every parent and girl in the stands exactly what interests come first. It’s the ideology. Not the athletes. Not the paying customers. Not even the league’s reputation.

As I’ve said many times, the league has an agenda and it has nothing to do with women’s basketball.

And that should concern everyone who cares about women’s sports existing as a fair category.

This is not an isolated glitch. It is a pattern from the WNBA.

In Seattle last month, a young fan wearing an XX-XY shirt was cursed at by an owner. In Minneapolis, Riley Gaines and I were told we could not hold a sign thanking Sophie Cunningham. In Atlanta last week, a mother was ordered to cover her XX-XY shirt. Then the Jumbotron rejection in New York. Then Kanter Freedom’s ejection in Chicago.

The league does not want fans who are clear that sex is binary and that female athletes deserve fair competition. It does not welcome people who refuse to pretend otherwise.

Now, some of you might think what Kanter Freedom is doing is making a mockery of the league. I’d argue the league has done that on their own by refusing to protect the “W” in WNBA. Kanter Freedom is merely highlighting the absurdity of self-ID, of if you say you’re a woman you are. He is pointing out that self ID is non-verifiable, non-falsifiable, therefore any man can do it and gain entry into women’s private spaces and sport categories. Kanter Freedom has not even asserted a “trans identity.” He doesn’t have to. He’s declared for the draft and under their own rules there really is nothing stopping him from doing so.

Of course people like Cloud are mad because he’s mocking “trans” as an ideology. Which mocks itself. There is zero difference between the men “authentically” claiming a “trans” identity and Kanter Freedom. Zero. Difference. Men aren’t women. Ever.

What the WNBA is telling parents and girls is simple: if you bring a shirt, a sign, or a Jumbotron message that affirms biological reality, or supports people that do, you will be policed, silenced and/or thrown out. The intrusion of reality on their political agenda will not be tolerated. Players can harass fans without consequence. The product is secondary to the politics.

It is not a serious league when it prioritizes this way. Serious leagues protect the integrity of the game and the experience of the fans who pay to watch it. This one protects a cult-like believe that there is such a thing as a gendered soul that prompts people to believe they are born in the wrong bodies.

And yet there is an irony here. All this conflict is generating more attention than the league has ever seen. Stadiums are full. More people are tuning in on TV — even if some are watching for the next confrontation. Conflict sells. The controversy surrounding XX-XY shirts, biological-reality messaging and player-fan flashpoints has put eyes on the WNBA that the product alone never commanded.

The tragedy is that the league has leadership that cannot capitalize on it. Instead of owning the moment, enforcing basic standards of fan respect, and letting the games speak, it doubles down on exclusion. It tells half the potential audience that they are not welcome unless they recite the approved lines. That is not how you grow a sport. It is how you shrink it into a niche political project.

The WNBA could choose differently. It could decide that women’s basketball is for everyone who loves the game — including those who believe adult human females deserve their own category.

Until it does, the pattern will continue: censorship on the Jumbotron, players cursing fans and paying customers shown the door for stating a biological fact. And honestly, I’m not mad at it. Every time the league censors a person taking a stand for women’s sports by simply wearing a t-shirt, more people join our side. More people become unafraid to speak the truth. They know the censors are never the good guys.

And frankly, they are making my job easy. The movement grows with every censorious move the league makes. They can’t seem to help themselves. And in so doing, they are ushering in the exact opposite thing than what they want — the end of gender ideology.