Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve sent a clear message to Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham with her shirt choice on Sunday.
Reeve, who has also served as the head coach of Team USA, is among the most powerful and most respected head coaches in women's basketball. On Sunday, the Lynx are taking on the Indiana Fever, in a premier WNBA regular season game on ABC.
The Minnesota Lynx head coach opted to wear a special T-shirt for Sunday's game. She's rocking a bright "Trans Kids Belong" shirt, a clear response to Sophie Cunningham's comments to ESPN.
Reeve has said that the WNBA needs to be a "safe space" for everyone.
“I don’t think we should feel like our safe space is being threatened,” Reeve said pro-Sophie Cunningham demonstrations outside of the arena. “That’s what I enjoy about the WNBA. And I think we have to continue to safeguard that. I don’t think these demonstrators are not being peaceful, or not that I’ve seen.
“… I haven’t heard everything that’s happening, but everyone has a right to peacefully assemble, right?”
Reeve believes it's a complicated issue.
“We have some issues,” she added. “Number one, we need to protect trans kids. Every kid — to me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports regardless of (being) gender diverse, transgender.
“… Now, what gets nuanced is when you’re beyond puberty, when you’re in Olympic sport, when … we have scholarships at stake and that sort of thing. That’s where I say that common-sense people get together, and you find common ground to find a way to be inclusive. The answer isn’t no. It is not the case that we have ‘biological men in girls’ locker rooms,’ the way it’s being phrased, the innuendo there that somehow transgender women are predators. … There’s a lot of narrative that is problematic that we need to address. That is simply not what’s happening.”
Cunningham, meanwhile, made her thoughts clear
Cunningham has said it's "common sense" to keep transgender athletes out of women's sports.
“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense,” Cunningham told reporters. “And I think I’ll always believe in that. I think it’s really important to protect children, and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category. I stand on what I said.”
Cunningham has said in an interview with ESPN that she wants to “protect young girls in the locker room” and that “they shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
