The WNBA celebrated Transgender Day of Visibility Monday, and one of its coaches appeared to take a shot at President Donald Trump.
Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve issued a statement saying there have been “executive and legislative attacks” on transgender people.
“On this transgender visibility day, a time of escalating executive and legislative attacks attempting to deny healthcare, education and basic freedoms; a time of epidemic violence, particularly against black and brown trans women — we celebrate trans and non-binary people everywhere. You are seen and loved,” Reeve’s statement said
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The team also posted a photo of Reeve wearing a shirt that said “Protect trans kids.”
The league posted on X about its support for transgender people. It coincided with the final day of women’s history month. The post sparked reactions from women’s sports advocates who have championed Title IX and the efforts to keep biological males out of girls and women’s sports.
Four years to the day of Reeve’s statement and the team’s post, Reeve wrote an op-ed in Sports Illustrated, “We All Win When Trans Athletes Are Included.”
“When we welcome all woman athletes, including transgender woman athletes, to bring their full authentic selves to the game, we are stronger as individual players and as a team,” she wrote. “Transgender exclusion pits woman athletes against one another, reinforces the harmful notion that there is only one right way to be a woman and distracts us from the real threats to women’s sports.”
Reeve also wrote that a transgender powerlifter banned from competing “simply cannot stand.”
The WNBA celebrated Transgender Day of Visibility more than a month after Trump signed the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order in February. The NCAA changed its gender participation policy, but critics have pointed out loopholes in it.
The Trump administration has also clashed with Maine school officials due to the state’s refusal to reverse its policy on transgender athletes participating in girls and women’s sports. The Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights referred to the state’s “noncompliance with Title IX.”
There are no players in the WNBA who have transitioned from male to female. Layshia Clarendon came out as nonbinary in 2020.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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