A renewed debate has been sparked over transgender athletes in women's sports and ESPN's Stephen A. Smith has decided to weigh in on it.
Smith has stated recently and in the past that "biological men shouldn't compete in women's sports." But in a post on X today, he also made it clear that he generally supports the rights of transgender people. However, he believes that they "are not mutually exclusive."
"I'm not backing down from this one. You can support people's rights AND believe biological men shouldn't compete in women's sports. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. My issue isn't hate. It's protecting women, protecting girls, and asking why a WNBA coach chose to inject herself into a controversy that could hurt the very league she's supposed to represent. Common sense still matters. That's where I stand. My full remarks are on YouTube," Smith wrote.
Fans Weigh In
Smith already courts an audience that is mostly against transgender athletes in women's sports so the responses to this post were pretty much all in agreement with him:
"You shouldn’t back down from it. This is something that roughly 80% of Americans believe and agree with. The 20% are just loud and have never played (or had sisters who played) competitive athletics growing up," one user wrote.
"Exactly. No one is saying you can’t be a man that identifies as a woman. You just can’t then compete in women’s sports. Just like a 250 lb man can’t box in the lightweight division. The divisions are basic common sense.," wrote another.
"What sucks about this whole thing is it shouldn’t even be an issue. Shouldn’t even be discussed," a third wrote.
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"Stand your ground Stephen. The more open and honest we are about this issue the more it can help give others the confidence to speak up that otherwise wouldn't due to backlash."
The irony is that despite the recent renewed discourse on the topic, there really haven't been any known efforts by transgender athletes to try and get into the WNBA other than in fictional movies.
