Caitlyn Jenner backs NBA players mocking trans athletes and WNBA
Caitlyn Jenner. (Frazer Harrison/Getty)
Caitlyn Jenner has praised two former NBA players who mockingly declared themselves eligible for the WNBA by claiming to identify as women.
Jenner appeared on Fox News on Wednesday (13 August) to weigh in on a row that has engulfed the WNBA in recent weeks. Asked whether the players were making a valid point or going too far, she said: “They’re showing the hypocrisy of what’s going on out there in the WNBA.”
The controversy began last month when Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham told ESPN that banning trans women from women’s sport was “common sense”, drawing both praise from gender-critical figures and criticism from trans rights supporters.
It escalated when former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft in a stunt mocking trans athletes, claiming they now identified as women.
Jenner used the appearance to call on the WNBA to adopt a hardline stance, criticising commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who had said there were “no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA” and denounced “bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalise others”.
“XX, you’re in; XY, you’re out. It’s that simple,” Jenner said, adding: “We have to protect women’s sports.”
There are no known transgender women currently playing in the WNBA, and the league has said it has had no eligibility issues before it.
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