Watch: Mom, Daughter Threatened with Ejection Over Pro-Girl Shirts, Despite Paying $2k for Tickets Just to Support Sophie Cunningham
A mother and daughter duo said they put up some serious money on Sunday to show their support for WNBA star Sophie Cunningham’s stance on protecting women’s sports.
Sporting one shirt that declared “For the Girls” on the back, and another from “XX-XY Athletics” T-shirts — a clothing firm dedicated to the proposition that men don’t belong in athletic competition with women — they turned up in near-courtside seats for the WNBA matchup of Cunningham’s Indiana Fever against the Atlanta Dream.
The two made their point — and ended up making the WNBA look worse than ever.
The fans told their story to conservative social media personality Adam Francisco in an after-game interview outside Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.
BREAKING – This mother and daughter paid $1,000 per ticket to attend today’s Indiana Fever vs. Atlanta Dream game at State Farm Arena, specifically to see Sophie Cunningham — a woman they respect and admire for taking a clear stance against biological men in women’s sports. They… pic.twitter.com/Mv6VyOigXw
— Adam Francisco (@adamfrancisco_) August 17, 2026
Jon Root, a writer for the sports-centric website Outkick, identified the pair as mom Kasey Thomason and daughter Annie Thomason, both “Georgia locals.”
For two tickets that cost “$1,000 each, around,” according to Annie, they had seats only a few rows back from the action as they watched the game go into overtime before it was eventually won by the Fever 95-91.
But it was during overtime play that they were approached by a security guard who offered them a choice: Cover up their shirts with “Wellness Night” T-shirts (a promotion of the Dream and the Atlanta-based Emory Health Care) or get kicked out of the stadium altogether.
“We were made to cover up our XX-XY shirts at this game,” Kasey told Francisco as spectators streamed out of the stadium behind them. “They gave us T-shirts during overtime and told us we had to leave or cover our shirts. This just happened!”
(Apparently, hostility toward the two wasn’t limited to stadium security. One of the passersby flashed a middle finger at Francisco’s camera. There’s no way to be sure she’s a lib, but the smart money would go that way.)
The mother and daughter weren’t the only ones stating their views at the game. Another fan wore a “protect trans rights” shirt that was actually featured on the stadium’s Jumbotron, Francisco said during the interview.
That woman was also forced to cover up, the Thomasons said. According to Root, Kasey speculated that the woman might have been the one who complained to stadium security about their outfits supporting women.
BREAKING: A local Georgia mom & daughter were discriminated against at Sunday’s Fever vs Dream game for wearing @xx_xyathletics shirts
During OT, a security guard told them
they had to put provided Atlanta Dream shirts over their shirts or they would be escorted out…This is… pic.twitter.com/9VDzB31nmy
— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) August 17, 2026
“With about two and a half minutes left in overtime, the Thomasons are seen on the ESPN broadcast with the tan Dream shirts in hand,” Root wrote. “They can be seen talking to fans around them, who they said loved their shirts and showed support for them and Cunningham throughout the game. At about 1:30 remaining, both Kasey and Annie had put the shirts on.”
But it really doesn’t matter who complained, or what they might have been complaining about. The Thomasons were wearing nothing that any normal American could consider “offensive.” Considering this is a country where the “f-word” is emblazoned on T-shirts worn to grocery stores — and probably even churches — on a regular basis, it should take a lot more than a message coded in chromosomes to lead to authoritarian threats of expulsion.
Besides, as Root noted, the Thomasons’ attire doesn’t rise to the level of State Farm Arena’s own rules regarding clothing, which state that “Clothing, garments or signs displaying explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterization towards any person(s)” is strictly prohibited.
Meanwhile, the NBA Fan Code of Conduct states, “Obscene or indecent messages on signs or clothing will not be permitted.”
None of that covers the “For the Girls” slogan.
The latest controversy springing up for the WNBA just underscores how badly a league supposedly devoted to “Women” — that being the first word in its title — has surrendered its raison d’etre to the progressive political left.
It’s blessed with a generational talent like Caitlin Clark (Cunningham’s teammate) and has allowed her to become a target for every envious cheap-shot artist wearing a WNBA jersey. In Cunningham, it has a photogenic, intensely likeable personality who is speaking fearlessly opinions held by probably 80 percent of the American public — and has allowed her to be vilified by leftists for supposed “transphobia.”
Meanwhile, the league features an owner who attacks teenage girls for holding the completely sane view that men don’t belong in women’s sports (the Seattle Storm’s Celeste Keaton was fined and suspended for her July 28 outburst, Outkick reported).
It features a commissioner who is unable to define, for competitive purposes, what exactly a “woman” is.
And now it features security guards at a game threatening fans with expulsion simply for wearing T-shirts that express support for sustaining women’s sports as the field of competition for women.
It might have cost Kasey and Annie Thomason $2,000 for the chance to have their say at a WNBA game, but the fact that they were asked to cover up or leave is going to cost the WNBA a lot more in bad publicity and well-deserved public shaming.
In the long run, it’s going to be a win for common sense and common decency.
And a huge loss for the WNBA.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
