The WNBA is the Reductio ad Absurdum of Trans Ideology

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has perhaps done more to demonstrate the absurdity of transgender ideology than any American public institution.

And it has done so through its endorsement of that very ideology. Over the course of a couple of weeks in late July and early August, a series of events have demonstrated the ideological nonsense of trans ideology, while tying its adherence into knots.

Sophie Cunningham’s declaration that water is wet

The story begins with one of the most prominent players in the WNBA, Indiana Fever’s Sophie Cunningham, saying that it’s “common sense” to limit women’s sports to, well, women. Saying that her interest is to “protect women’s sports” from the intrusion of men pretending to be women, she told ESPN in July, “I think that I am here to extend love.

“But I also think with that love is truth, being honest,” she added. “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.”

“That’s why you have Title IX,” she told The Athletic. “That’s why you have some of the greats in women’s sports. If Title IX and women’s sports weren’t protected, then you wouldn’t hear about any type of women in sport,” she continued. “And so, I think in the future, it’s just really important to protect.”

This is, of course—or rather should be—as non-controversial as saying that water is wet. But not in the ideological world of trans ideology. At a game in Seattle shortly after her comments, two teenage girls exhibiting support for Cunningham were called “*&^@ing insane.”

Responding to the controversy, Gabby Williams, a player for the WNBA Golden Gate Valkyries, said, “I would welcome a trans athlete on my team or against my team, anytime. I don’t think it’s a problem in the world. It’s just another way to kind of attack trans people.”

And Williams even identified a “trans” player as an illustration. “We’ve seen players like Layshia Clarendon, who stepped into that forefront, and have been brave enough, and courageous enough, to step up,” she said. “So I guess that’s the next battle we have to fight as athletes.”

Williams’s comment is even more ridiculous than it sounds. Layshia Clarendon is a retired WNBA player who identifies as “non-binary” and “trans” (which, of course, is absurd on its face). But Clarendon is a woman pretending to be . . . well . . . not a woman, I guess. She is not a man pretending to be women. In other words, Gabby Williams used a woman as an example of a “trans” person that she would welcome on her women’s team.

Retired U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team player, Megan Rapinoe has also weighed in, claiming that protecting women’s sports is bigotry. Rapinoe has nonsensically claimed that excluding men from women’s sports would eliminate women’s sports. (Yes, she really said that.)

Clay Travis’s $10 million wager

In the midst of all this kerfuffle, radio host Clay Travis, founder of the popular online magazine, Outkick, weighed in with a wager. Travis has said that he will sponsor and promote a basketball game between the WNBA’s defending champion Las Vegas Aces and a U.S. high school boys’ team of his choosing. Further, he will pay $10 million to the winner of the game.

Of course, neither the Aces nor any other WNBA team will take up Travis’s challenge. This is because everyone knows that thousands of boys’ high school teams would not merely defeat the Aces (or any other WNBA team), but annihilate them. Indeed, I doubt that the women’s team could stay within 50 points of such a boys’ team. It’s highly likely, in fact, that a junior high team of boys would dominate any WNBA team.

Travis has also said that he will support the creation of an all “transwoman” team to compete in the WNBA, calling his proposed franchise the Nashville Balls. Of course, this will never happen. But if it were to occur, such a team would never lose a game by fewer than 80 or 90 points. Indeed, we would very likely see the first shutout in the history of major professional basketball.

This is not to denigrate women or women’s athletics. As the father of five girls who participated in high school athletics—three of whom went on to play in college—my interest is in protecting women’s athletes from the intrusion of cosplaying autogynephilic men. The science on the physiological differences—and athletic outcomes—between men and women is strong and settled. There are not two sides. There is no subtlety. It is not a complicated issue.

Boys and men have persistent, immutable natural biological advantages over women in every sport and every athletic event. If men were permitted to compete against women, women’s athletics would cease to exist, and Megan Rapinoe would be a minimum-wage barista rather than a wealthy and famous retired athlete.

This is why even a highly credentialed, bona fide left-feminist law professor such as Doriane Coleman from Duke University School of Law has argued, “Because of biological sex differences in strength, power and endurance, … there’s a performance gap of 10 to 50 percent between the best males and the best females.” Coleman explains that “Separating athletes in competition on the basis of sex is the only way to account for the female half of the population. No other sorting tool works to achieve this inclusion goal — not height, weight or any other physical characteristic.”

Thus, Coleman concludes, “Pretending biology isn’t what it is gaslights female athletes. It also undermines the feminist project that’s key to the female category’s raison d’être.” Put another way, to allow men to compete against women would eliminate women’s athletics altogether.

But ideology doesn’t care about facts. So trans advocates, such as the ridiculous Megan Rapinoe, advocate for forcing women to compete against women. This is despite the fact that Rapinoe’s wealth and fame were achieved solely because women’s soccer is a separate category. She is using the platform caused by her wealth and fame to advocate for the denial of the same opportunities to other women. Perhaps the most famous women’s soccer player in U.S. history wants to deny women a place in the game.

Enes Kanter reveals their gender identity

To illustrate the absurdity of trans ideology in sport, a retired NBA basketball player has declared “herself” to be “trans,” and has registered to enter the WNBA draft.

Enes Kanter is a 6’10″ 250-pound former player for several NBA teams, who retired after 11 years, in which he earned more than $100 million. At age 34, he would overwhelmingly dominate any women’s team by his presence alone.

How has the “trans” community reacted? By denying Kanter is really a woman. Again, I am not making this up. The very same people who claim that one’s gender is whatever one chooses are saying that Kanter is not a “real” woman. He is not “truly” trans.

Kanter’s purpose is not to mock women or women’s athletics. Rather, his purpose is to mock transgender advocates, such as Megan Rapinoe and Gabby Williams, for the absurdity of their ideology. Of course, it really doesn’t take someone like Enes Kanter to demonstrate the absurdity of trans ideology as it relates to sport. Trans advocates are very good at doing that themselves.

But Kanter forces the issue in such a way that it reaches the broader public, who may not be aware of the war on girls and women by girls and women. Transgender ideology is nonsense on nonsense. Sophie Cunningham and Enes Kanter are merely reducing the nonsense to its absurd conclusions.

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