Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha slammed the WNBA for picking a “political fight” over women’s sports after two fans were told to cover their XX-XY athletics shirts — or leave.
“That’s obviously 31 flavors of censorship,” Concha said Monday on Fox News’s America Reports.
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The Indiana Fever played the Atlanta Dream on Sunday in Atlanta.
A mother-daughter duo wore their XX-XY shirts to the game. The brand vouches for women’s sports, and the shirts feature biological chromosome symbols: XX for female, and XY for male. They say they were asked by security to cover their shirts, according to Fox News.
“The logo has become a symbol for people willing to stand up for biological reality and the protection of women’s sports,” the brand’s website reads.
Concha said, however, a fan wearing a pro-transgender T-shirt was broadcast on the big screen.
“It’s almost as if the team is trying to tell certain fans, ‘We don’t want your business, stay away, you could display a message, but it has to be what we approve to be the right message,’” Concha said.
“During Sunday’s game, multiple fans were shown on the jumbotron wearing shirts with a ‘XX-XY’ message, while another fan was shown wearing a shirt that said ‘Protect Trans Kids,’” according to CBS Sports. “Additionally, another fan was shown during the broadcast wearing a shirt that said ‘Trans kids belong in sports’”
Fans wearing shirts in support of transgender athletes were asked to cover their shirts as well, according to the Associated Press.
Later, the WNBA said fans should not have been asked to cover their shirts.
“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 a statement to CBS Sports. “This should not have happened.”
The WNBA Code of Conduct also states, “Obscene or indecent messages on signs or clothing will not be permitted.”
“The WNBA is going down a very stupid path, which is they are taking a side now at this point in a political fight,” Concha said Tuesday on Fox & Friends First.
Concha argued that the shirts are only stating the obvious: that there is a difference between men and women.
“In the end, just offer up a product, treat fans fairly, and stop trying to win a political argument when people just want to watch basketball and get the escapism that you get when you watch any sport,” Concha said.
The WNBA has faced recent controversy after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham discussed transgender athlete participation in women’s sports during an ESPN profile.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans,” Cunningham said as part of an ESPN profile published on July 21. “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.”
Cunningham faced criticism for her comments, with some saying she is anti-transgender.
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Protesters both supporting and opposing Cunningham have rallied outside Fever games. On July 28, two teenage girls attended a game and brought signs in support of Cunningham. They were approached by Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton, who called them “f***ing insane,” according to Fox News.
“Do a common-sense thing and stay out of this stuff, and let fans display what they want to, especially if it’s benign and doesn’t hurt anybody,” Concha said.
Emily Danner contributed to this report.
