Sophie Cunningham was booed during last night’s WNBA game in Toronto, and I think that’s a good thing. I’ll tell you why.
For those of you who aren’t aware, Cunningham has become the latest face of the transphobic culture war that’s trying to strip rights away from trans people who just want to live their lives.
It all started with an ESPN profile. Cunningham, whose star exploded after she was ejected from a game for violently yanking another player by her neck (but protecting women is her priority, huh?), opined on the corners of the internet that had dubbed her “MAGA Barbie.”
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that,’” Cunningham was quoted saying in the article.
“I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men.”
Because of her refusal to drop the transphobic rhetoric, she’s putting fans at risk. Anti-trans protestors have started demonstrating outside games, exposing LGBTQ+ fans to a higher risk of harassment. The most famous swimmer ever to tie for fifth place, the transphobic activist Riley Gaines, sat courtside in an anti-trans shirt. Cunningham posed for a selfie with her at the game.
So yeah, Cunningham can shove it with her claims she is there to “extend love.”
Now, I feel I’m uniquely qualified to drag her ass. See, I’m also a six foot tall woman who was, also, once a mediocre basketball player.
First, let me say this. It’s obvious what she’s doing. Before she got ejected from a game for violently fouling an opponent, she had 300,000 TikTok followers. One week later, according to ESPN, she had 1.4 million. Today, she has 3.8 million.
Her agency representative also told ESPN she’s making way more money from endorsements since the headlock incident. Clearly, this is all working out for her. As for her claims about wanting to “protect young girls,” however, that’s a different story.
I’m far from the first person to say this, but the idea that blocking trans participation in sports is about equality and fairness is a steaming pile of bullshit.
Late night host John Oliver did a fantastic segment on this that I recommend you watch to find out why. But to summarize, cis men don’t actually have an across the board advantage over cis women in sports. There have also been very, very few studies on the difference between trans woman and cis women in sports, and the few that have been done have tiny sample sizes.
But the only longitudinal study conducted as of 2025, which looked at eight long-distance runners, found that after at least a year on hormone therapy, race times turned out to be more athletically similar to cisgender women than to cisgender men.
The author of that study, sports scientist Joanna Harper, also told ESPN for a 2023 documentary that even this study was limited and had nuanced conclusions. Trans women will maintain advantages in some sports, though probably not so much in endurance sports — rather in ones where size and strength gives them a leg up. But trans women will also have physical disadvantages, like how they’ve got larger frames powered by now reduced muscle mass and reduced aerobic capacity.
There’s a lot more I could say here, but there’s actually a far more important thing: this doesn’t fucking matter. It’s a non-issue. There are no trans players currently in the WNBA. High-level sports organizations can decide how they want to regulate things like hormone levels or whatever if that ever happens.
Instead, much of this panic is being used to target trans youth trying to play on school or local sports teams with friends. When it comes to kids, the time of year when you’re born can be a bigger advantage than anything else — so it’s stupid to put so much focus on gender identity. Not to mention an analysis from the Centre for American Progress found that while trans-exclusive policies “substantially” harm transgender youth, trans-inclusive policies “do no harm” to cisgender youth and can “substantially benefit” transgender youth.
On top of that, the culture war Cunningham is participating in doesn’t just hurt trans people — it also hurts the other women and girls she’s claiming to want to protect. Lawmakers in some parts of the United States are now pushing for sex-verification tests for girls playing sports in schools.
Can’t imagine how that could go wrong.
People like Cunningham and myself are also among those who might be disproportionately targeted by anti-trans laws. These laws force rigid expressions of femininity on women — if someone, anyone, decides you aren’t girly-looking enough, you face harassment when using a change room or bathroom. This has already happened in areas with bathroom bans.
Cunningham and I are very tall women, which means we’re more likely to run afoul of these expectations. What she’s pushing for is a world that is more oppressive — including for the “women and girls” she claims to support.
I said at the beginning of the article that I think Sophie Cunningham being booed at last night’s game was a good thing. Despite everything I just laid out, you might still disagree with that. So let me explain.
There need to be social consequences for advocating for others to be harmed. While I’m sure this isn’t how Cunningham would frame what she’s doing, the ample evidence we’ve already covered makes it clear that it’s the end result of the advocacy that’s surrounding her.
Right now, Cunningham is enjoying a right-wing media machine that’s embracing her. Her name is everywhere. She has many weird, gross fans. If this is the reward for engaging in hate, then what’s the deterrent?
Social consequences. Those are the deterrents.
When I played basketball in high school, we had a game where we were absolutely clobbering the other team. Our opponents got frustrated, and one of their players decided to take that frustration out on my teammate. My teammate was gay, and this opponent kept saying awful, homophobic stuff to her. Eventually, my teammate was crying on the bench. The opponent wasn’t facing any consequences.
After the game, I refused to shake her hand. I told her to watch how she speaks to my teammate. She became irate and almost fought me. My coach, a generally really kind and good guy, pulled me aside and said that I should just let the score speak for itself (we had beaten them by double digits). But I rejected that. I had created a social consequence for her behaviour. The score wouldn’t do that.
If you’re going to engage in behaviour that, ultimately, advocates for others to have their humanity stripped away, their rights deprived, all because you’re either genuinely hateful or too stupid to educate yourself, you don’t get to pretend that’s not what you’re doing.
It’s up to all of us to ensure there are social consequences for bad behaviour.
That’s why I’m glad Sophie Cunningham was booed. That was a social consequence.
I hope it happens again.
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