Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve used her postgame press conference Thursday to voice support for transgender people, marking at least the fourth time this season she has weighed in on the transgender-athletes-in-sports debate during a WNBA media session.
The comments came after the Lynx closed their regular season with an 86-66 win over the Indiana Fever at Target Center. Outside the arena, competing rallies over trans participation in women’s sports played out for the third time this season, with “Save Women’s Sports” activists demonstrating in support of Fever guard Sophie Cunningham and pro-trans counterprotesters gathering nearby.
“I think that’s probably one of the more meaningful things that would mark the season for me,” Reeve said. “It’s that the transgender community is one that deserves our support, and what is happening in the name of some issues of transgender in sports — it’s really an attack on all transgender community. They don’t want transgender people to exist.”
Reeve had previously worn a “Trans Kids Belong” T-shirt during the Lynx’s Aug. 2 home game against Indiana, which came shortly after Cunningham had publicly said biological males should be kept out of women’s and girls’ sports. Before that game, Reeve and Cunningham spoke at midcourt. Reeve said afterward the two understood they shared large platforms and an interest in educating people despite disagreeing on the underlying issue.
On Thursday, Reeve called the shirt a “small gesture” but said the response from transgender people and their families made it one of the most meaningful moments of her season.
“The amount of communication of people who were affected by something as simple as wearing a T-shirt in support of them and helping them be seen — with the platform that we have in professional sports, it was a small gesture by me,” Reeve said. “It’s something I believe in, obviously, wholeheartedly.”
“If I could have helped just one to feel differently about themselves, because for the transgender community this really is about life and death for them,” she continued. “The number of parents of transgender kids that I heard from and how it helped them and their families, it helped their child think differently about themselves and that there is someone in our position, like we have as a leader. To know that there are people out there that believe in them, that they belong.”
Reeve first raised the issue in July, after the Supreme Court upheld state laws restricting transgender participation in women’s sports, calling the political focus on the issue “sort of sickening” and saying “exclusion is never the answer.” She returned to the topic again before the Aug. 2 game against Indiana, when a rally supporting Cunningham’s position formed outside Target Center. Reeve defended the demonstrators’ right to assemble but disputed that transgender athletes were among the most pressing problems facing women’s sports.
“Every kid has a right to sports, regardless of gender diverse, transgender,” Reeve said at the time, though she acknowledged eligibility questions grow more complicated after puberty. She has also argued that activists focused on transgender participation are ignoring other issues facing female athletes, including inadequate facilities, uniforms and locker rooms.
Cunningham has said her stance is not driven by animosity toward transgender people. “I think that I am here to extend love,” she has said previously. “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.”
The dispute has led the WNBA to hold internal discussions with team leaders this season. The league has said there are no immediate transgender eligibility matters currently affecting the WNBA, while stating that fairness, competitive integrity and inclusion remain priorities. No transgender woman has ever played in the league.
On the court, Minnesota finished the regular season with a league-best 33-11 record. Indiana finished 28-16 and enters the playoffs as the No. 6 seed.
