‘She is a stain on society’: Sophie Cunningham’s anti-trans comments lead to ‘digusting’ rally and spark outrage

It’s not often that the discourse surrounding a league is dominated by a reserve player. However, that was exactly the case heading into the 2026 WNBA All-Star Weekend. Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who is averaging 9.3 points off the bench this season, had a feature published by ESPN where she spoke about what she felt was necessary to “protect women’s sports.”

“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.”

She then insisted that she was a centrist politically.

“I’m very much in the middle. I agree with things on both sides, disagree with things on both sides. And that’s all I’ve ever said about my political beliefs. But people love to assume,” she says.

When approached about her stance by local media, Cunningham doubled down, saying, “I said what I said.”

Now, the ramifications of Cunningham’s comments are being felt by the already vulnerable trans community. A “With Love is Truth” rally is being planned by members of the Seattle community before Indiana’s upcoming Tuesday night game against the Storm.

The rally’s announcement reads:

Women Are Real, Known Heretic, and Brandi Kruse are organizing a celebratory pre-game fan rally with local female athletes outside Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday, July 28, before the Indiana Fever take on the Seattle Storm. The rally will show public support for Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who has faced a wave of criticism since a July 22 ESPN profile in which she expressed support for female-only sports and locker rooms. Cunningham describes her position as one of honesty and care, saying her concern is for young girls who should not have to compete against males. “With love is truth,” she said, and we agree.

“She is a stain on this league.”

Fans on social media were incensed at what Cunningham has “incited.”

“Very disgusting person,” one person posted.

“She is a stain on this league and a stain on society,” someone else posted.

“Sophie Cunningham is like every other transphobe: a bigoted loser advocating for discriminatory policy change based on immaterial safety concerns. She is endorsing and perpetuating violence against one of the world’s most marginalized communities and it is despicable,” one basketball writer posted.

“So much division, hate and harassment all in the name of solving a non-existent problem. The only point of this ‘rally’ is to spread hate & make trans folks feel unsafe in spaces where they’ve previously found comfort. Sophie Cunningham should be ashamed that this is her legacy,” another fan wrote.

“This is fucking disgusting,” one fan wrote bluntly.

No need for so much division

With so much division, it’s important to remember that the majority of people are inclusive and accepting of everyone, despite their differences, including Cunningham’s own childhood friend and podcast co-host, West Wilson.

“Okay, transgender athletes in American sports is such a borderline nonexistent issue that right-wingers have convinced a massive portion of people in our country that it— that these people are like a threat to sports in America when mathematically that’s not the case at all,” he said in a TikTok post.

“And by continuing to platform this,  f*cking politicians, athletes, journalists, news outlets, you’re only isolating transgender people even more by making them seem like this giant group of people is a threat to society, a threat to sports, when that’s just not proportionately the truth in any capacity. There is like 10 transgender athletes in all of the NCAA, and so I think there are unique questions that can be handled on an individual basis, but to allow this to take our attention away from like housing and healthcare and wars and all the other actual harmful sh*t in our country is dumb.”

The WNBA has not commented on the rally at the time of this writing.

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