Now the right is mad at Caitlin Clark for not publicly agreeing with Sophie Cunningham

This story originally appeared on Them.

The attempt to turn the WNBA into the site of the next anti-trans culture war is going about as well as you’d expect. The most recent obstacle? They want Caitlin Clark to parrot her Indiana Fever teammate Sophie Cunningham’s transphobic commentary on participation in sports — and Clark won’t do it.

So far, what is easily one of the most progressive and queerest professional sports leagues on the planet has so far largely rejected Cunningham’s recent transformation into the Riley Gaines of women’s basketball. After the Indiana Fever guard told ESPN earlier this month that “young girls in sport… shouldn’t have to go against biological men” — a fairly flagrant transphobic dogwhistle — she has since doubled down on those comments, drawing both protesters and supporters at upcoming games.

But it’s clear where the organic sentiment lies: two courtside pro-Sophie attendees at one Seattle Storm game reportedly had their tickets paid for by a “generous donor,” meanwhile everyone from fans to coaches like Cheryl Reeve are making it clear through signage and T-shirts that the W is not a place for hate.

That hasn’t stopped right-wing commentators from pressuring Clark — herself long wielded by bad-faith actors as a culture war bludgeon to criticize Black queer players — to echo Cunningham’s comments.

Asked at a press conference after Sunday’s Indiana Fever loss against the Minnesota Lynx about Cunningham’s position, Clark took a fairly neutral position, in comments reported by People. “I think it’s for leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions,” Clark said, adding, “Our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins and obviously we didn’t do that tonight. So we need to find an area to improve in that way.”

That, apparently, though, wasn’t good enough for former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who called Clark “cowardly” in comments reported by Mediaite, going on to falsely claim that “little girls are getting the shit kicked out of them in their sport.”

“[Y]ou are the most famous woman in women’s basketball, and you’re directly asked as the issue rears its head in your sport, and you punt on it,” Kelly added.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as a quick glance through the cesspool that is X will reveal, in posts that aren’t even worth resharing here. Suffice it to say, it’s so nasty that even Dave Portnoy — not exactly an avatar of progressivism — called Kelly an “idiot” for going after Clark.

“1st of all you don’t even know how she feels on this issue and more importantly she doesn’t owe it to you or anybody else to be your political talking point,” Portnoy wrote in a quote-response to Kelly on X. “She just wants to play ball. Total coward cheap shot to call her a coward for not being your puppet.”

Lost in all of this is the fact that there are no transgender women playing basketball in the WNBA and, as of February 2025, are banned from NCAA competition. Which means this is currently a complete non-issue within American professional women’s basketball.

The ire directed at Clark also reveals just how desperate people are to make the player into an avatar for their own worst impulses. But it turns out that some people have more on their minds than just frothing-at-the-mouth transphobia. As The Bulwark’s White House correspondent Andrew Egger wrote on X, “It’s been weird watching for years as right-wing influencers try to draft Caitlin Clark into the culture war and it’s weird today watching them ritually denounce her for not participating. She’s never participated! She wants to shut up and dribble!”

Can you imagine? Actually caring about playing your sport instead of being a puppet for someone else’s cause cause du jour? Wild!

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