The WNBA said Monday that security personnel were wrong to ask at least three fans to cover shirts with messages about transgender women in women's sports during Sunday's game in Atlanta between the Dream and the Indiana Fever.
In a statement, the league said fans should have been allowed to wear the shirts.
“The WNBA is aware of interactions at [Sunday] night’s game in Atlanta in which fans were asked by league security to cover their shirts,” the statement said. “This should not have happened.”
Shirts and incidents
Multiple outlets reported that two fans wore shirts from XX-XY Athletics, a brand that advocates restricting women’s and girls’ sports to those assigned female at birth. One person wore a shirt in support of transgender people. The Athletic reported that a fan wearing a “Protect Trans Kids” shirt was briefly shown on the State Farm Arena video board, while another wearing a “Trans kids belong in sports” shirt was shown during the TV broadcast.
The league has informed the security workers from the Atlanta game that they were wrong to ask that the messages be covered up.
League context
The WNBA has faced recent debates about whether transgender women—people assigned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity—should be allowed to play in the league. No such player has ever been in the WNBA. The league’s collective bargaining agreement restricts the WNBA to women but contains no specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth. Some players assigned female at birth have later come out as transgender or nonbinary.
Fever player Sophie Cunningham said in an ESPN profile last month that she opposed transgender girls and women competing in girls’ and women’s sports. Her stance led to small rallies and protests outside Fever games in Seattle and Portland, and Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton received a five-game ban for confronting two fans with signs supporting Cunningham.
Team response
The Dream said the team was not involved in the security personnel’s actions.
“The Atlanta Dream believes in creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Unfortunately, at last night’s game, WNBA security took actions that fell short of that standard,” the Dream said in a statement. “At no point was Dream personnel involved in the decisions made by WNBA security.”
