Many know WNBA player Sophie Cunningham as Caitlin Clark’s teammate on the Indiana Fever. She’s the tall blonde who recently pointed her finger at opposing player DeWanna Bonner after Bonner had an altercation with Clark during a game — sparking an instant meme sensation.
The seven-year WNBA veteran has built a national profile as one of the league’s most recognizable personalities, known for her fiery competitiveness and fierce loyalty on and off the court.
Featured in Sports Illustrated, serving as a ring girl at UFC 329 and launching her own Adidas shoe line, Cunningham has turned her growing fame into lucrative brand partnerships and millions of social media followers.
But that visibility has also thrust her into the center of one of the country’s most divisive political debates.
In a recent ESPN profile on Cunningham, the Missouri native left no room for interpretation on her stance on allowing transgender athletes in female spaces and sports.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she told ESPN. “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.”
After the story was published on Tuesday, Cunningham was questioned by the media about her remarks before her game on Wednesday night.
“I think it’s kind of common sense. ... I think it’s really important to protect children, and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category. And so I stand on what I said, and I always believe that,” Cunningham said when asked if she would expand on her ESPN comment.
A second reporter asked if she saw her stance as potential advocacy in the future, to which she said she wasn’t sure and that she wasn’t a super political person, “but I do have beliefs. I have morals, and I’ll always stand on those and be true to who I am.”
“And so, when it comes just to protecting young girls in sport and women in sport, I feel very strongly about that. I think that’s why you have Title IX. 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. And so, I think in the future it’s just really important to protect.”
She continued, “I extend love, and I don’t dislike anyone. ... And so I’m there to love, but I’m also there to love biological women. And I think that there are rights that need to be protected. And like I said, I’m going to stand true to that. I’ll never falter in my beliefs in that. But I have never once said I hated the trans community. Like I said, I think there’s space for everyone.”
Her response once again became a viral moment.
Beyond the partisan divide
The issue of transgender females in biological female spaces seems deeply partisan in the media and on Capitol Hill, but when Americans are surveyed, the results show most people agree with each other.
A 2025 Gallup Survey recorded responses to the following statement:
“Transgender athletes should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender.”
Overall, 69% of American adults surveyed agreed. By political party, 90% of Republicans, 72% of independents and 41% of Democrats agreed.
Similar results were observed when participants were asked to respond to the proposal of requiring birth sex on government IDs like driver’s licenses.
“The progressive stance on this losing issue is mostly to keep emphasizing that the problem is so irrelevant that it’s unfair to discuss,” writer Ethan Straus said in a recent Substack post he wrote on how Cunningham has become a poster child for conservatives.
He continued, “The Democratic Party would love if this topic just disappeared from existence like arguments over whether people should mask indoors. While there may be progressive politicians who are sympathetic to the trans sports cause, and blue states unwilling to actively ban trans sports participation, the main reason the issue hasn’t gone away is that enough young male athletes keep IDing as women.”
Cunningham enters the culture war
Since Cunningham spoke out, some are calling her a “hero to young girls,” while others accuse the WNBA player of being “blatantly transphobic.”
Cunningham’s comments garnered positive reviews from a mixed crowd including Harry Potter author and outspoken women’s right activist, J.K. Rowling, All-American swimmer-turned-activist Riley Gaines, former professional tennis star Martina Navratilova and the White House.
Others found Cunningham’s comments detrimental to the transgender community, despite her clarifying that she is not against transgender individuals.
Harvard Law School clinical instructor and trans activist Alejandra Caraballo called Cunningham “a back bench player who’s never done anything notable in the WNBA and is trying to build a platform on the backs of trans kids. It’s disgusting.”
Referring to the Trump administration’s approval of Cunningham, one X user posted, “After awhile, either you want these people using you to further their agenda or you don’t.”
During Thursday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to a question about Cunningham being referred to as “MAGA Barbie” and whether or not President Donald Trump was aware of the comments she made.
“This is something the president feels strongly about as well, and the American people do too: that men should not be playing in women’s sports,” Leavitt said. “It’s completely ludicrous that anyone could support that. It’s even more ludicrous that you do have Sophie Cunningham, a female athlete herself, very accomplished in her own right, coming forth and speaking that truth that men shouldn’t play in women’s sports.”
“The backlash she is receiving from Democrats and left-wing figures across the country is astonishing. They are clearly very out of touch with the American public,” Leavitt added.
The Department of Education even posted its own Cunningham meme.