WNBA says security was wrong for telling fans to cover shirts opposing men in women's sports

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, August 20, 2026

The WNBA and one of its teams say security officials were wrong to tell fans to cover their shirts expressing opposition to trans-identified men competing in women's sports. 

In a video posted on X Sunday, YouTube personality Adam Francisco spoke with a mother and daughter who were attending a WNBA game between the Atlanta Dream and the Indiana Fever.

"We were made to cover up our XX-XY shirts at this game," the mother said. XX-XY Athletics is an apparel company known for its outspoken opposition to trans-identified male athletes competing in women's sports. 

"They gave us T-shirts during overtime and told us we had to leave or cover our shirts," the mother added. Both the Atlanta Dream and the WNBA released statements weighing in on the controversy following backlash. 

"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.  At no point was Dream personnel involved in the decisions made by WNBA security," the team stated in a message posted on social media Monday. 

The Atlanta Dream's PR account also shared a statement from the WNBA, which acknowledged that "The WNBA is aware of interactions at last night's game in Atlanta in which fans were asked by league security to cover their shirts" while insisting that "This should not have happened."

The mother-daughter duo said they paid $1,000 for their seats to show support for Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.

Cunningham has drawn media attention this summer for her position on trans-identified male athletes competing in women's sports. In an interview with ESPN last month, Cunningham reflected on her previous retweet of a post opposing trans-identified male athlete Lia (Will) Thomas' competition on the women's swimming team at the University of Pennsylvania. 

"I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that,'" she said. "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."

Cunningham defended her position on trans-identified male athletes in women's sports as "common sense." While she received support from the White House, Cunningham's position has sparked intense debate at WNBA games, where rallies have broken out either supporting or opposing the athlete. 

Amid this debate, Screenshots from the r/WNBA subreddit show that when someone tries to type in the word "Sophie," a response comes up stating, "This community doesn't allow 'Cunningham', 'Sophie', 'sc', 'scunningham', 'soph' or 'sophiacunningham' in post titles."

After they were asked, "Why do you ban people from posting about Sophie Cunningham whos a WNBA player," the moderators of the subreddit responded: "We filter content based on Sophi because it tends to bring out trolls and people that arent fans of the W."

When pressed on why they filter content about a WNBA player, the moderators responded, "We have chosen to filter content," while telling the user who raised the concerns, "If you want to post freely about Sophie, you can go to a different sub."

In a clarification posted Sunday, r/WNBA insisted that "Sophie Cunningham content is not banned from r/wnba." According to the subreddit, "Posts about Sophie are welcome when they are related to basketball, including games, highlights, interviews, statistics, marketing endorsements, and other WNBA-related news. Off-court Sophie content can be shared as well."

At the same time, the subreddit maintained that censorship of some posts will continue: "We have upped the community karma to post up to 50 community karma. In other words, if a user tries to create a post and has less than 50 community karma in this sub, the post will be automatically removed. This is in place so the subreddit will not be over-ran with trolls or brigaded. And this goes for ANY new post, you must have 50 community karma to create ANY post."

"Some threads may also have higher Crowd Control settings because of increased activity or repeated rule violations. In these threads, contributions from new users, users with low karma, users who have not previously participated positively in the community, or accounts identified as known spammers may be automatically filtered or removed. These filters are reddits filters, not our filters, we are just activating them. And again, this is so the subreddit is not over-ran with trolls or brigaded," the subreddit added. 

Cunningham's position on trans-identified male athletes in women's sports — and the resulting backlash — has fueled broader concerns about the WNBA's eligibility policy. While the WNBA has a policy on the books stating that "only players who are women are eligible to compete in the WNBA," the league does not explicitly define what constitutes a "woman." 

This has prompted male NBA athletes to declare their eligibility for the WNBA draft, including Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White. Following this development, a WNBA spokesperson condemned what she referred to as "bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others." 

The spokesperson's comments followed a WNBA meeting that reportedly discussed "transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online." The spokesperson vowed that "We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league" while clarifying that "there are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA."

The Dream-Fever game coincided with Cunningham's 30th birthday, which the athlete celebrated by sharing an Instagram post featuring two pictures of herself on and off the basketball court accompanied by a caption proclaiming, "thank you, Jesus for this life and another year."

Cunningham speaks openly about her faith and beliefs. The pinned post on her X profile declares "everything happens for a reason is not in the bible but 'God promises to work all things to good for those who love him' is." She includes a reference to Romans 8:28. Earlier this year, Cunningham shared a video of herself on social media getting baptized at the Arizona-based Christ's Church of the Valley. 

"I got baptized when I was little, but I was feeling a tug on my heart to do it on my terms as an adult! Such a fun, amazing day. Thank you, Jesus," she wrote in the caption accompanying the video.