Sophie Cunningham Stands Up for Young Girls Battling the Trans Mob: 'Love Is Truth'
All right, so maybe we can bring back the Sophie Cunningham finger-pointing meme for a few days more. She’s earned it.
Oh, sure, Cunningham isn’t the star of the WNBA, or even of her team, the Indiana Fever. She manages a respectable 9.3 points per game in a little under 23 minutes per match in 2026. She’s basically the fourth option on a team where Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchel, and Aliyah Boston have been mopping up this season.
Ah, but it’s not about the points. It’s about the point:
the enraged reaction to the initial Sophie Cunningham point
And a meme was bornpic.twitter.com/IFSL2ylHRL
— TaraBull (@TaraBull) June 28, 2026
And now, even my wife — who refers to Boston’s professional football team as the “New Hampshire Patriots” — knows who she is. Props!
This actually isn’t the first time Cunningham has gone viral, ESPN noted in a profile of her. That would be this foul on Jacy Sheldon for flagrantly fouling Caitlin Clark without any serious action from the refs, as so often happens in the WNBA. (Funny, that.)
The highlight of last year. 😬
Jacy Sheldon hacking Caitlin Clark.
Mabrey pushing Caitlin to ground.
Sophie Cunningham unloads on Jacy Sheldon.— CCFC-New season (@sohali2012) May 7, 2026
Again, you can probably file it under “funny, that” how ESPN describes Cunningham in a profile published Tuesday. They probably could have just stuck with “she’s white and privileged, but for some reason people won’t listen to us and still like her,” and we’d have gotten the point, but here they are belaboring it:
Cunningham, like the WNBA, has become a cultural flashpoint. The league’s footprint has never been bigger and the chorus of voices around it has never been louder. All-Star voting and sponsorship opportunities, whistles and non-whistles, who and who does not get to capture this attention economy — all have become proxies for debates about race and gender, identity and politics. Squarely in this morass sits Cunningham, a white, conventionally attractive, attention-grabbing reserve player who is not one of the league’s All-Stars but is one of its most magnetic stars.
You might delight in her, or you might decry her; either way, she draws you in. So whether you call Cunningham an enforcer or a dirty player, a role model or a culture warrior, fearless or shameless, brave or brazen — you will keep calling her. And she won’t mind. Which, perhaps, as much as anything, is the key to her ascension.
“I just don’t care,” she said, whether you love or hate her. And to prove it, she stood up for the brave girls, so demonized by the sports media, who have called out transgender men competing in women’s sports.
You say she’s a “MAGA Barbie,” as some corners of the internet have taken to calling her? Projection, she says, because of what she looks like and where she’s from. She’ll weigh in on how to “protect women’s sports,” she says, because she’s in that world and feels qualified to speak to that world. “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,'” she says. “I think that I am here to extend love. 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.”
This being the WNBA, someone felt the need to call her out on this.
“I’m not a very political person,” Cunningham said when asked about the comments on women’s sports Wednesday. “But I do have beliefs, I have morals, and I’ll always stand on those and be true to who I am.
“When it comes just to protecting young girls in sport, and women in sport, I feel very strongly about that. That’s why you have Title IX … I think in the future, it’s just really important to protect.”
When asked about how the “trans community” might feel, since it might “come back on us,” Cunningham didn’t back down.
“I extend love. I don’t dislike anyone,” she responded. “I’m there to love, but I’m also there to love biological women, and I think there are rights that need to be protected.”
#Fever guard Sophie Cunningham on her trans comments in ESPN:
“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense. … I think it’s really important to protect children.”
“I don’t dislike anyone. … I’m there to love, but I’m also there to love biological women. …” pic.twitter.com/3OrIqoVYrk
— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) July 22, 2026
What’s amazing is that this kind of common sense was, just a few years ago, cancelable. It still is, to the people who run ESPN; this took more bravery than anything she’s ever done on a basketball court, in that respect.
Cunningham probably wouldn’t be out of a job, but Fever management would certainly tell her to shut up. Now, they’re welcoming the visibility, especially since people who wouldn’t ordinarily be interested in the sport have suddenly become interested in it and aren’t there for orthodox leftist politics to be shoved in their faces at every turn.
So, keep pointing the way, Sophie. You’ve kept the meme alive for at least a little while longer.
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