Why are WNBA leaders discussing whether to allow males in the WNBA? Can we, collectively, persuade them to stand up for women instead?
Hi Friends, yesterday I braved another ocean mile with Open Water Swimmers of Southern Delaware. Wore a makeshift “stinger suit” to fend off jellyfish, which have stranded us humans on land for a month. But no jellies! (They prefer warmer water.) Our bright buoys trail behind us for safety.
But wait: I’m standing (second from left) like the man on the far right. Why? Do I need a new identity? Maybe Person Who Stands However the F She Feels Like Standing (PWSHTFSFLS)?
Please Sign Our Petition
Olympic swimming champion and attorney Nancy Hogshead, JD, Oly and the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group have launched a Change.org petition called “The WNBA Should Enact “Female-Only” Eligibility Criteria.” Please sign to send a message to the WNBA.
“The tide is turning,” says Hogshead. “Back in 2022, in the wake of the Lia Thomas scandal, Change.org refused to host my petition asking for female-only sports — even though I had a history of successful petitions. The topic was too polarizing, too hot to touch. This time, they reached out to me via Jennifer Sey. The public is now educated and on our side. I’d love to show the WNBA just how many of us support female athletes’ rights.”
Last Monday…
As I described in “When Men Speak, the WNBA Listens,” two retired NBA players mock-entered the WNBA draft based on their new “trans woman” and “lesbian” identities. In response, the WNBA held an emergency meeting akin to this:
On Wednesday…
The WNBA further humiliated itself by announcing that it established no eligibility criteria despite “ongoing discussions on transgender athletes.” Who are these “transgender athletes”? Males. No one objects to any females in the WNBA.
And why are WNBA leaders discussing whether to allow males in the WNBA? Can we, collectively, persuade them to stand up for women instead?
All Week, The Trolling Continued
Enes Kanter Freedom, one of the former NBA players, offered an “I am Woman” video with the caption, “Let the Transition to the WNBA begin.” The other player, Royce White, shared a video featuring him in a long wig, grooving to the tune of “I’m Every Woman.” Caption: “Royce White for… 1st Black Trans Lesbian President.”
White is particularly adept at satirizing male claims to womanhood, including the popular “Trans women don’t owe you femininity” script:
“Don’t tell me how to be a Black woman! Taking hormones are optional. I’m an ALL NATURAL Black trans lesbian with a penile aesthetic.”
You misgendered me again. That's toxic heteronormative bigotry...
Feminist Amy Sousa Piled On
Caitlin Jenner Piled On
“XX you’re in, XY you’re out. You can go play with the men.”
A Former WNBA Star Piled On
In an exclusive interview with Front Office Sports, the former WNBA star Alana Beard, cofounder of a startup global basketball league called Project B, lashed out at the WNBA, pointedly noting that Project B plans to restrict its female teams to female players, following the International Olympic Committee’s policy.
“Where’s the accountability, the integrity, the intentionality?” she asked of the WNBA. Project B has signed more than a dozen WNBA players (who can play in both leagues) including Sophie Cunningham, Alanna Smith, Jewell Loyd, Jonquel Jones, Kamilla Cardoso, Kelsey Mitchell, and Nneka Ogwumike. None are insisting on male inclusion. Of course they’re not. Because the number of professional women basketball players who want to compete against males is zero.1
Then This WNBA History Surfaced
In 2021, did the WNBA choose any of their many openly lesbian players to celebrate Pride? No. They chose two boys who don’t even play basketball:
Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller, both boys (see Yearwood’s photo, right), dominated Connecticut high school girls’ track from 2017-2020. As a result of just two boys’ involvement in the wrong sex category, girls lost 93 events; were denied advancement to a championship meet 52 times; and lost meet records 11 times.
Then, Just Last Night…
A mother and daughter wearing XX-XY t-shirts at an Indiana Fever game were told they must cover the shirts or leave. The WNBA is cracking down on public support for female athletes.
If you agree that the WNBA needs to speak up for its own female athletes — and set an example for high school girls now struggling with boys on their teams and in their locker rooms… Please sign our petition. And share. Thank you.
Thoughts? I’m always curious. With love and courage, Mariah
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A lifelong athlete, feminist, and writer, Mariah Burton Nelson is the author of seven nonfiction books including The Stronger Women Get, The More Men Love Football — and, since 2024, this Stronger Women column. She played basketball for Stanford and in two professional leagues.
All elite female basketball players have scrimmaged against males and know their superior strength, speed, size, and height intimately because we have failed to catch up to them while sprinting down court. We have collided with their rock-hard shoulders. Those immutable sex differences constitute the reason we practice against them: to improve. And because of those differences, coaches restrict male practice players — no ball-diving, no dominant blocks, no aggressive rebounding — so female athletes do not get injured.
Thank you @Mariah Burton Nelson - I appreciate your sharing the @WSPWG change.org petition — and adding so much that telling the full, laughable story about men invading women’s sports. Hopefully, we can make a difference with the WNBA. 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽
✍️ https://www.change.org/p/the-wnba-should-enact-female-only-eligibility-criteria
Thanks as always, Mariah, Nancy, and all!
Signed & shared 🙏