Enes Kanter Freedom, one of two former NBA players who have sought to enter the 2027 WNBA draft by claiming to be women, invoked several anti-transgender tropes while criticizing the league for declaring him ineligible.
Kanter Freedom and Royce White, another former NBA player-turned-politician, both attempted to declare for the draft after claiming to be transgender, seeking to exploit what critics say is a loophole: The league does not explicitly ban transgender players, although no trans person has ever attempted to join.
The WNBA rulebook says that only women are eligible to play but does not explicitly define “woman.” There is no formal policy regarding the eligibility of trans or intersex athletes. Because eligibility rules are collectively bargained, any changes — such as an explicit ban on trans or intersex players — would have to be negotiated with the players’ union.
But WNBA officials didn’t take kindly to Kanter Freedom and White’s antics, rejecting their claims that they should be eligible for the draft because they identified as women. The league first rejected the two in August, dismissing their claims as “publicity stunts,” as Front Office Sports reported at the time.
A source within the league also said the WNBA will continue to discuss eligibility but “will not allow outside pressure or manufactured controversy to dictate league processes.”
Five Republican members of Congress, led by U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), subsequently sent a letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert demanding that the league “ensure the League remains exclusively for biological women” and define “woman.”
But Engelbert shut down the Republicans’ request and once again declared Kanter Freedom and White ineligible.
“With respect to your questions regarding eligibility, only women are eligible to play in the WNBA and the individuals you cite in your letter are both men,” Engelbert wrote in response to the Republicans’ letter.
Stutzman subsequently posted Engelbert’s response, claiming her answer validated his belief that transgender identity is not real or valid.
“This is their clear acknowledgment that simply identifying as a woman does not change basic human biology!” Stutzman wrote in a post on X.
“If the league is still working through these questions, how can its commissioner be so certain about my eligibility without explaining the standards that she is applying?” Kanter Freedom said in an interview with the right-wing sports and culture outlet Outkick, pretending to be outraged by Engelbert’s response.
“In America, people wake up, and they identify themselves as Pikachu, unicorns, dogs, and cats, so the people are okay with that, but I wake up one day and identify myself as a woman, but now they’re telling me how to feel? This is so disrespectful and shameful,” Kanter Freedom continued, rehashing well-worn stereotypes about transgender people.
“Maybe I’m going to wake up and identify as a unicorn tomorrow,” he added. “Who is [Engelbert] to tell me how I feel or what I think?”
Kanter Freedom also revealed what he wants the league to do, saying he would end his attempts to join if it added the qualifier “biological” before “woman” to restrict eligibility to cisgender players.
“I will walk to the sunset,” he said of an explicit trans ban. “They will not hear from me ever again.”
Texas State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, sparked fierce debate within the LGBTQ community after saying he would oppose transgender athletes competing in girls' sports "if it endangers safety or fairness."
"Every sport has to be safe and fair," Talarico said in a Fox News interview that aired on Sept. 9. "As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes, I care a lot about our students. And so I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls' sports if it risks safety or fairness."
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), a 22-term congresswoman representing Northwest Ohio, has released two campaign ads opposing "gender ideology" ahead of the November election.
The first ad was posted to X on September 17 by Medium Buying, a Columbus-based political advertising firm, according to the Buckeye Flame, an Ohio LGBTQ news outlet.
In the ad, Kaptur seeks to counter attacks portraying her and other Democrats as too supportive of transgender rights while redirecting voters' attention to the economy and affordability.
"We're stuck in another unnecessary war and inflation is making everything more expensive, but my opponent won't talk about all that," Kaptur says, referring to her Republican challenger, former state Rep. Derek Merrin. "He'd rather lie about my record.
President Donald Trump used an anti-transgender slur in an October 5 social media post attacking Annie Andrews, South Carolina's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
In the Truth Social post, Trump paired Andrews' first name with a rhyming anti-transgender slur.
"Annie 'Trannie' Andrews is running against our wonderful Darline Graham for the Senate in South Carolina," Trump wrote in an endorsement of Graham. "Darline is a High Quality person, maybe the Highest, and Annie Trannie is not, in particular, as it pertains to representing the Values of the Great People of South Carolina -- She is in favor of Transgender for Everyone, Open Borders, Defunding the Police, High Taxes, a Weak Military, and will absolutely fight to take your guns away -- In other words, she is against our Great Second Amendment!"
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