ESPN profiles WNBA Sophie Cunningham in “Love her or hate her, Sophie Cunningham won’t be ignored.” With her ostentatious defense of Indiana Fever teammmate, Caitlin Clark, I have been on the love side of that particulary binary.
In the ESPN profile I would point my finger this way:
You say she’s a “MAGA Barbie,” as some corners of the internet have taken to calling her? Projection, she says, because of what she looks like and where she’s from. She’ll weigh in on how to “protect women’s sports,” she says, because she’s in that world and feels qualified to speak to that world. “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,'” she says. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
I wrote at great length about the issue in the series “A life Too Far” series. The series addressed male self-identified woman JayCee Cooper’s lawsuit to compete against women weightlifters. Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve idiotically supported Cooper. When the trial judge ruled in Cooper’s favor, Reeve celebrated the outcome in the Star Tribune column “Ruling is a powerful lift for transgender rights.”
It wouldn’t take many male self-identified women to destroy the WNBA if they could force their way into the league à la JayCee Cooper. Unfortunately, the Star Tribune has never bothered to follow up with Reeve for her thoughts about that.
The quoted passage in the ESPN profile was all over X yesterday. Sad but true, it takes a form of courage to stand up for reality in certain circles.
God bless at @sophaller what a profile in courage https://t.co/FJK795wvjN
— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) July 22, 2026
