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Posted on 08/08/2026 10:06:04 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has sent a memo to teams that addresses ongoing discussions around transgender athletes in women’s basketball.
“I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women’s basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention,” Engelbert wrote in the memo, which was sent Friday afternoon and obtained by The Associated Press. “I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism.”
The memo said the topic will be discussed further by a task force of team presidents and general managers at a previously scheduled meeting next week.
In an ESPN article published last month, Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports. Cunningham’s comments sparked small rallies and protests in Seattle and Portland when the Fever were on the road last week.
There was a lone protester at the Fever’s home game against Las Vegas on Thursday night. Indiana visits Chicago on Saturday. Members of two conservative groups are planning a rally in support of Cunningham ahead of that game.
The league hasn’t made any public comments on the issue.
Engelbert wrote that the league will “always approach this topic thoughtfully, respectfully, and in alignment with the longstanding values of our league. Second, our player eligibility rules, unlike the eligibility rules of some other leagues and governing bodies, are collectively bargained. Lastly, preserving the integrity of our game and ensuring fair competition will always remain among the league’s highest priorities.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com ...
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The WNBA is a Biologist Free Zone.
The dog days of summer.
What a silly woman.
wnba should seize the opportunity.
Fans would pay a fortune to witness the spectacle.
“Second, our player eligibility rules, unlike the eligibility rules of some other leagues and governing bodies, are collectively bargained.”
That’s the money quote. Here is a link to the WNBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA): https://www.wnbpa.com/_files/ugd/8121a3_675911316ca142178932adc1e56519ac.pdf
CBA Art. XIII, § 1(a) states, “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” Although the CBA includes 16 pages of definitions, the word “women” is not defined.
What WNBA Commissioner Engelbert is really saying is that even if we want to open the league to trans men pretending to be women, we can’t because the CBA limits eligibility to women — which, of course, goes against the official LGBTQ+/radical left/woke position that trans women are real women.
Although the CBA can be modified with the consent of all parties to expressly define “women” to include trans women, such a modification would put every WNBA player (who are biological woman) at risk of losing their job to a biological man.
Go for it WNBA, if you want to make a bigger joke out of an already big joke.
Clay Travis has an open bet with anyone for $2 million that the best HS boys basketball team in any given year could beat the WNBA champion team of that year. He has also offered to arrange the logistics of the game itself. Needless to say, no one has taken the other side of the bet. Incidentally, it is a winner take all bet with all of the proceeds being evenly distributed among the players of the winning team. Apparently no wealthy wokesters who believe in the trans myth want to take this bet.
What if a 20 year old women self identified as 'God' and wanted her pronoun to be 'Almighty' and robbed churches? Saying it was HER money? Would a liberal 'elite' judge give her a pass?
Are we really this gullible and stupid?
As usual, women want to have it both ways and insist that they’re right.
I self identify as a sea urchin.
It sounds like a SNL skit.
I love that the men in the NBA have decided to take matters into their own hands by insisting they will play in the WNBA. That will end it.
Typical conservative 'self identification' - can't use it to sue anyone... float on... float on...
They just never stop. Actual women are the problem
Suicidal empathy and such.
Seattle Storm are in trouble.
Here is the conclusion of my discussion with Grok about this issue in view of the recent OLYMPUS SPA case:
“
You are right that the Storm (or the WNBA) would have a real fight on its hands. A well-pleaded claim by an otherwise qualified biological male who identifies as a woman, citing WLAD’s employment provisions and Olympus Spa’s textual approach, would not be frivolous. The team would need to persuade a court either that:
The exclusion is based on sex (biological) rather than gender identity in a way the statute still permits, or
Some form of bona fide occupational qualification / category-defining justification survives despite the absence of an explicit exemption.
Neither of those is a slam-dunk under the reasoning the 9th Circuit used. The cleaner path for the league would be clearer statutory language or a successful legislative fix, not relying on courts to invent an exception the text does not contain.
In short: the broad reading of WLAD, combined with the lack of a sports exemption, means any attempt to maintain a strict biological-sex eligibility rule for employment faces a serious, and currently unresolved, legal risk in Washington.
“
Interestingly, initially Grok suggested it would be no big deal to ban trans from WNBA. Then I pointed it to the 9th Circuit’s OLYMPUS SPA opinion where (among other things) they discredited any attempt to read in additional context into WA’s law for carve outs for religion or cultural tradition. Thus, there is no reason to think a court mandated carve out will be made for employment in professional sports.
Fever can draft to be enforcer for clark
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