The two biological males, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, have both declared themselves eligible for the 2027 Women's NBA draft in April. They’ve done interviews. They’ve been prevalent on social media.
Could it happen? Many WNBA players, after all, have been vocal in their support for the transgender community for years.
“I would welcome a trans athlete on my team or against my team, anytime,” Golden State forward Gabby Williams has said.
But league officials have been largely silent in response to draft declarations by Kanter Freedom and White. So silent that they quietly leaked their decision that the players would not be eligible for the draft but contacted neither of them directly, Kanter Freedom and White say.
That’s not very professional, they also say.
Matt Gaetz, the attorney and former U.S. House member from Florida, appears to represent White.
"The @WNBA has not notified Royce White or our legal team of any decision on draft eligibility, as is their standard practice and policy," he wrote in an X post. "The WNBA should preserve all records in anticipation of litigation.”
Kanter Freedom has not publicly mentioned litigation over the draft matter, but he has for his removal from last Sunday’s game in Chicago between the Sky and Indiana Fever. He was wearing a t-shirt that said, “Woman: Noun, adult, human, female” and was confronted with a screaming fit from Sky player Natasha Cloud prompting intervention from security. Cloud was not disciplined.
The WNBA was already part of the gender discussion but has been front and center since Indiana player Sophie Cunningham (pictured above) unashamedly declared her opposition to men in women’s sports.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that.' 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,” she told ESPN.
Cunningham did not back down at a news conference the next day, July 22, when she refused to cave on her view that females, especially young girls, shouldn't have to compete against males.
“I said what I said. I think it's kind of common sense,” she told reporters.
Cunningham's stance kicked off a grassroots "thank you" campaign from females that followed her to WNBA games with signs and t-shirts.
That support blew up when Celeste Keaton, co-owner of Seattle Storm, cursed two sign-holding Cunningham supporters who sat courtside at the Storm-Fever game. For her behavior, Keaton was fined and suspended from five home games.
A meeting to decide nothing
On Aug. 12, a WNBA task force made up of team presidents and general managers met to discuss the growing controversy over transgender participation in the league.
The task force did not adopt, modify or clarify anything regarding eligibility. A WNBA spokesperson told ESPN that the group “did not arrive at any eligibility rules.” The league also said there were “no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA.”
The WNBA collective bargaining agreement says “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.”
But the CBA doesn't publicly define “woman” for purposes of eligibility, nor does it specify whether eligibility is based on sex at birth, gender identity, chromosomes, or some other criterion.
“The WNBA is trying to have it both ways. They're trying to appease the woke crowd by not defining a woman. It just illustrates the utter absurdity and, of course, the utter unfairness to real women, to biological women, that wokeness might force them to play with someone who is obviously physically advantaged the way Freedom and White would be,” Rep. Bob Onder (R-Missouri) said on “Washington Watch” Wednesday.
Onder referenced a similar event in his home state where a St. Louis Cardinals fan was ejected from a game at Busch Stadium because, the fan was told, he was wearing a t-shirt with a political message. The t-shirt read “Women’s sports are for women,” Onder said.
“But there was actually a whole section of people waving around (LGBTQ) Pride flags, which of course is a political message as well,” he told show host Jody Hice.
Different styles for White, Kanter Freedom
White (pictured at right, in 2013) has leaned hard into the absurdity of the WNBA’s position, often appearing on social media with a wig and describing himself in the feminine gender.
Kanter Freedom has taken a different approach.
“I chose to lead the way because I believe this conversation matters," he said in an interview posted to his X account on Aug. 15.
"I’m not here to mock, make fun of, or disrespect any group or anyone’s personal decisions," he further stated. "What I’m trying to do is bigger than clicks or attention. I don’t want this effort to become a laughingstock or for people to stop taking my message seriously."
