The Absurdity of Self-ID Collides with the WNBA

First off, I want to apologize. I’m so behind in writing here and there has been so much to write about. But I’ve been on the road doing fun fan events for Sophie Cunningham at Indiana Fever games and I’m just behind.

But I’m home now and I had to drop something here about the latest WNBA shenanigans. And it’s soooo good.

Enes Kanter Freedom, the 6-foot-10 former NBA center and 2011 No. 3 overall pick, declared himself eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft on August 7. In a video posted while wearing a WNBA hoodie, he stated that after reviewing the league’s eligibility guidelines and its framework around self-identification and inclusion, he meets every requirement.

In his announcement he said:

“If simply declaring who you are is all that’s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA.”

The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” It offers no definition of “woman,” requires no sex testing (like the WTA now does), no medical criteria and no explicit rejection of self-identification. The document is silent on gender identity. But the language is vague enough — and the wide range of head coaches asserting that “inclusivity” is the answer, of late — would suggest they are all in on if you say you’re a woman you are.

Kanter’s move simply applies the logic many in and around the league have championed.

Kanter is no stranger to paying a price for standing on principle. Born in Switzerland, raised in Turkey and selected high in the NBA draft, he spent 11 seasons as a productive center. His career effectively ended after he refused to stay silent about human rights abuses.

He had long criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling him a dictator and facing family retaliation and a bounty. Then he turned his attention to China: free Tibet messages on his shoes, criticism of Uyghur forced labor camps and refusal to self-censor for the NBA’s lucrative Chinese market.

NBA games were blacked out in China. Teammates and his own management warned him it would be his last year if he didn’t stop. He was traded and waived in February 2022. No team signed him again. He has said the league blackballed him for putting freedom of speech above corporate interests. He added “Freedom” to his name upon becoming a U.S. citizen and has continued speaking out. He has said he gave up $30-40M in additional lifetime earnings to take this stand.

Could I love this guy any more?

Within hours of Kanter declaring eligibility for the WNBA, former first-round pick Royce White followed.

The 2012 Houston Rockets selection, whose NBA career was short-circuited by anxiety and a fear of flying, announced he identifies as a “sometimes identifying transgender woman” and would also declare for the 2027 draft. He said he would be unstoppable and wanted the league to state its parameters clearly.

This is not a scandal. It is a mirror. And it is glorious. The fun house that is gender identity is being exposed for all of its absurdity.

Kanter and White are testing the same self-ID logic that has allowed males into female categories elsewhere for the past 10+ years. There is no coherent difference between a man who simply declares himself a woman and switches to the women’s team and what these guys are doing. That is exactly what they are doing!

AND, if a league requires a man to impair his body in order to compete in the women’s category then they are saying women are impaired men. And generally speaking, the leagues that allow “gender ID” to override sex do not require any impairment at all! Not that it would be better if they did.

Debilitating a man’s body with hormones and calling it female is the ultimate misogyny.

If the WNBA accepts the latter while rejecting the former, it is saying that a woman is merely a handicapped man. How is it different than saying if a man is missing one hand he can compete as a woman? When in reality he’s just a one-handed man!

If the WNBA accepts self-ID they have to accept Kanter and Royce into the league. Or prove their self-ID is different than another man’s self-ID.

The pro-trans response that “these aren’t real trans” collapses under its own weight. What is “real”? Living as a woman? Living as a woman while not being one is a performance, not a biological or material reality. The slogan dissolves into circularity.

This has always been the case but these guys are laying it bare for all to see in the most hilarious and necessary manner.

Clay Travis has sharpened the satire further. He has publicly offered to buy a WNBA expansion franchise, locate it in Nashville, name it the Nashville Balls and stock it with an all-male roster of men who identify as women, plus a matching all “trans” coaching staff. The most inclusive team in history, he says. If inclusion is the highest value, this is the logical endpoint.

At XX-XY Athletics we decided the team needed merch. Get your tee here.

The WNBA has responded with an emergency meeting announced. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert circulated a memo acknowledging questions about “transgender” participation and promising discussions and a task force of team executives.

Reminder, this is about men playing in the WNBA, not trans. Women who identify as “trans” are welcome in the WNBA so long as they aren’t taking T. This is about the women’s league being made up of women!

I would love to be a fly on the wall in this panicked meeting. Can you imagine the dumb things they will say?

There is no clean exit for the league at this point.

Draw a hard biological line and the league abandons years of “inclusion” rhetoric, which has amped up of late amidst Sophie Cunningham’s statements about protecting the women’s category.

Accept pure self-ID (consistent with their recent statements on inclusion) and Kanter or White could dominate. And make a total mockery of the league, just when it’s attracting viewers.

Impose a waiting period of “living as a woman” and the question becomes what proof is required and why can’t a man simply wait it out? Wear a wig for a year, post pics on Instagram and sign up!

The two former NBA players and Travis have forced the contradiction into the open. Satire and humor are doing the necessary work of exposing the ludicrousness. The ideology that has already made a mockery of women’s sports is finally being mocked in return. Just as it deserves to be.