WNBA: Security told fans to cover trans-related shirts at Fever‑Dream game, league says mistake
At least three fans were asked by WNBA security to cover shirts with messages about transgender athletes during Sunday’s game between the Atlanta Dream and the Indiana Fever in Atlanta, the league said on Monday that those fans should have been permitted to wear the shirts. The WNBA said the interactions at the game were handled by league security and that the actions were incorrect.
Two of the fans were reported to be wearing shirts from XX‑XY Athletics, a brand that calls for women’s and girls’ sports to be restricted to those assigned female at birth, and another 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 during the game, while a different person wearing a “Trans kids belong in sports” shirt was shown during the television broadcast.
“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 league said in its statement. “This should not have happened.”
The WNBA has been at the center of recent debate over whether transgender women should be allowed to participate in the league; the league said there has never been such a player in the WNBA. The league’s collective bargaining agreement specifies that the WNBA is restricted to women but does not contain more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth, and the league has had players who were assigned female at birth and later came out as transgender or nonbinary.
Sophie Cunningham of the Fever told ESPN in a profile published last month that she was opposed to transgender girls and women competing in girls’ and women’s sports, a stance that prompted small rallies and protests outside Fever games in Seattle and Portland. Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton was given a five‑game ban for confronting two fans who had signs supporting Cunningham.
The Atlanta Dream said in a statement that team personnel were not involved in the security decisions. “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. “At no point was Dream personnel involved in the decisions made by WNBA security.”
The league has informed the security workers from the Atlanta game that they were wrong to ask that the messages be covered up.