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Let's get into it:
The WNBA's Chicago Sky has banned former WNBA player Enes Kanter Freedom from Wintrust Arena after Natasha Cloud had him removed from their game against the Indiana Fever on Sunday night. The whole thing is so ridiculous. The WNBA could have had Freedom as a draft pick, but instead they banned him from the arena.
He was at the game Sunday night to cheer on Sophie Cunningham, who seems to be the only player in the WNBA who knows that the W stands for "woman." She got a great shot off, he cheered for her, then Cloud got pissed and went over to him, saying that Sophie wasn't going to sleep with him. Freedom revealed this to Laura Ingraham on her Fox News show. After Cloud yelled at Freedom, he was ejected from the arena.
The WNBA also announced that Freedom is not eligible for the draft, and neither is Royce White, both of whom used to play pro for the NBA before announcing that they've now entered their feminine era and want to play with the girls. Why wouldn't they want these talented players in the league? It's not because they're not women, apparently, but because the WNBA believes they are pulling a publicity stunt. The WNBA still decided not to define woman. Perhaps it's like the Supreme Court's definition of pornography: they know it when they see it.
As I pointed out, by the rules of trans, denying White and Freedom their womanhood is a trans genocide. That's what we keep hearing from trans activists when women say men don't belong in women's bathrooms even if they're wearing dresses, or don't belong on women's athletic teams, even if they say they're girls. In response to those prohibitions, activists scream genocide. But now, suddenly, when two men say they are women, the activists freak out.
Sure, Freedom and White are trolling. But Sophie Cunningham was not. I doubt that when she gave her now-infamous interview to ESPN, where she said that men have no place in women's sports and women and girls should have the chance to compete on a fair playing field, she thought it would blow up like this. The fact that it has shows how much power just one person with courage really has.
Her comments have spurred women to travel across the country to support her and see her play. Athletic brand XX-XY has gone on a spree to support her as well, bringing groups of fans out to games just to cheer her on. Floor seats at WNBA games are selling for a thousand dollars when Sophie is in the house. And she hasn't even had to speak up since. Everyone else has been able to jump into that opening and make serious waves.
The WNBA may claim to be inclusive and claim that they think men should be in women's sports, but they made it clear when they stopped Freedom and White from going out for the draft that they know what a woman is; they're just afraid to say it.
Libby