U.S. women's tennis star Coco Gauff was asked on Thursday about her thoughts on transgender athletes in women's sports.
The Grand Slam champion made it clear that she's in agreement with WNBA star Sophie Cunningham.
Gauff was asked about the Women's Tennis Association's new genetic sex testing policy, which verifies athletes being eligible to compete in women's sports. Gauff made it clear that while she supports the transgender community, she agrees with the need to protect women's sports.
"I understand the reasoning behind it. I do think that this kind of conversation has created a lot of animosity towards the trans community, which I'm not really a big fan of. But I also understand the need to I guess the biological difference and the need to protect that and preserve that...," she told reporters.
"Yes, I guess I kind of agree of trying to protect the fairness in women's sports, but I also do not like the attack that it is creating. People who don't really care but just want to use this as an excuse to attack the trans community, so I'm not really a big fan of that either...I definitely support the trans community, but I also support the need of creating fairness in sport too."
Cunningham, who is in her second year with the Indiana Fever, made it clear that she wants to "protect" women's sports.
Indiana Fever guard outlines her opinion
Cunningham told ESPN that she wants to “protect young girls in the locker room” and that “they shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
She stands by her opinion, too.
“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense,” Cunningham said. “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.”
