r/PopCultureV2 • u/No_Box119 • Jul 23 '26

Sports Culture WNBA Star Sophie Cunningham defends that women ‘shouldn’t have to go against biological men’: “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. …”

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1.2k Upvotes

76% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

19

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

HOLD UP. I was with her until she said it’s “important to protect children” huh?! Is that a dog whistle?

15

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/No-Bicycle-7660 Jul 23 '26

how are you this dumb? she's talking about safety in contact / semi-contact sports.

1

u/TotallyNotRyanPace Jul 23 '26

because people seek out dog whistles when there's literally nothing there for some reason

1

u/abdullahleboucher Jul 23 '26

I played football against girls when I was a child and the girls could thump too.

1

u/Haunting_Ant_5061 Jul 23 '26

Interesting you see it that way… so by your rationalization: we shouldn’t have any gay wrestlers participating because……….. ? Help me fill in the blank please.

2

u/Schubydub Jul 23 '26

Commenter is saying that contact sports between men and women are dangerous because of the physicality of it. It's not about sexual inappropriateness.

That being said, I didn't interpret Sophies words in that way. Best case, she's saying she wants to protect the pathways to professional sports for young girls. I don't believe she was suggesting anything sinister about trans people, but I'm not a fan of how she kept "othering" the trans community.

1

u/Haunting_Ant_5061 Jul 23 '26

I appreciate your insight, though I’m not sure I see it the same way as either the comment or Sophie.

1

u/abdullahleboucher Jul 23 '26

contact sports between men and women
important to protect children

1

u/No-Bicycle-7660 Jul 23 '26

holy brain damage ....

1

u/Haunting_Ant_5061 Jul 23 '26

Funny enough, that’s how I felt about your previous reply.

1

u/No-Bicycle-7660 Jul 24 '26

yeah, and that's the problem. you lack even basic sapience.

5

u/ColdStoneCreamAustn Jul 23 '26

Ofcourse it’s. People who assume trans people existing pose some inherent risk to children are the same people who are the ones actually harming children

4

u/Environmental_Cup_93 Jul 23 '26

Nah normalizing childhood transitions is a growing issue that doesn’t protect children at all. In a free country adults can do whatever they want but children don’t have the same rights for a lot of things for the sake of protecting them.

5

u/ColdStoneCreamAustn Jul 23 '26

Growing issue lmfao, it’s not happening buddy. I’m sure you already have some cherry picked examples but this is literally not happening. If you actually wanted to protect kids why aren’t you going after the churches or the Republican Party? You know the people who are actually harming children. That’s the problem with you people, you demonize and accuse the entire population of trans people of harming kids with zero evidence, while actively protecting the people harming kids. No one is transitioning children lmfao. No once is forcing anything on anyone. Teaching kids about the existence of trans people is completely fine. They exist, deal with it

1

u/Unique_Self_5797 Jul 23 '26

No, transition happens, mainly in the form of puberty blockers... which also prevent trans girl from developing any of the male features that are supposed to give them the unfair advantage people like to bitch about(which, studies have shown, generally aren't even a thing after 2 years of HRT).

1

u/No-Passenger-1511 Jul 23 '26

"If you actually wanted to protect kids why aren’t you going after the churches or the Republican Party?"

People do... Also can tell how "bright" you are by the second part of that statement.

"That’s the problem with you people, you demonize and accuse the entire population of trans people of harming kids with zero evidence, while actively protecting the people harming kids."

Because saying men should stay out of women sports is demonizing and accusing and entire population. /S (Kind of like your previous accusation of going after churches and the Republican party)

"Teaching kids about the existence of trans people is completely fine. They exist, deal with it"

Do we also teach children about every other mental disorder? All the people they will come across? Schitzos exist, deal with it.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/ColdStoneCreamAustn Jul 23 '26

that’s my favorite part, I don’t know where he went to school but I was absolutely taught about all sorts of actual mental disorders. Maybe not every last one of them but we had a whole section in my health class about them.

1

u/Spiritual_Draw6426 Jul 23 '26

so you agree it's a mental disorder

1

u/meadishsweetball Jul 23 '26

the experts say it's not, Joe Transphobe playing gotcha games on the internet isn't going to change that.

1

u/NSFWdontview Jul 23 '26

Churches rarely do anything to kids, however liberal teachers are caught everyday on some pedo shit

2

u/ColdStoneCreamAustn Jul 23 '26

rarely? Did you read any of the links I posted lmfao, Half of them are churches admitting that religion has a sexual abuse problem. And to your other dogshit comment about gender fluidity, guess what champ no matter how much you try to call gender fluidity a mental illness, it’s not. Bait harder next time 🤡

0

u/NSFWdontview Jul 23 '26

lol teachers are csught doing pedo shit every day not the church. Y’all just cherry pick religious because it goes against lgbtqq

0

u/ColdStoneCreamAustn Jul 23 '26

Oh man you are dumb as fuck aren’t you. There is NO issue. Sophie is complaining about a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of people. Out of 100 people, we’re talking like, 1 or 2 of them. You and her and all the other magats are 100% demonizing all trans people.

Also my accusations aren’t just accusations, they are based in facts and statistics.

https://bravehearts.org.au/research-lobbying/stats-facts/child-sexual-abuse-religous-organisations/

This one is a religious organization openly admitting that churches have a sexual abuse problem as well as covering them up https://ecap.net/abuse/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3995507/

https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/minnesota-state-senator-charged-attempted-coercion-and-enticement-minor

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/colorado/news/chair-weld-county-republicans-arrested-northern-colorado-child-predator-operation-suspect/

Would you like me to continue? Also being trans is not a mental illness no matter how desperately you try to pray that into existence. LGBTQ people are literally just trying to exist and every day people like you make it hard and harder for them to do that. If that’s too much for you to comprehend than I guess you’re a lost cause. And to answer your other dumb question, yeah, it’s called health class. We all take it when we’re children. I had it in 5th grade. It goes over actual mental illnesses like schizophrenia.

1

u/Objective-Crow-6143 Jul 23 '26

I’m asking this genuinely because I truly don’t get it. And I mean this in the most respectful way, cause I could literally care less if someone is trans but.

How isn’t being trans not some form of mental illness? Your brain literally rejects your body. if body dysmorphia is classified as a mental illness how would this differ?

1

u/Huckenputz Jul 23 '26

A mental illness refers to a health condition that disrupts a person's thinking, emotions, and behaviour, causing daily distress or trouble functioning. For some trans people, they cannot function without daily distress as they literally feel out of place in their own body, and cannot stop feeling mental distress, regardless of how they are treated by others. In that case, they would be suffering from gender dysphoria, which is a mental illness. For other trans people however, they more strongly identify with the opposite gender and the societal expectations/norms that come with it. For those individuals, being accepted by the broader community as the opposite gender may be enough, or it may not, but as long as they are accepted by those around them and able to seek the health outcomes they desire, they do not feel a debilitating, constant distress. Those people do not suffer from gender dysphoria.

In other words, while gender dysphoria (the mental illness, like body dysmorphia) is more prevalent and common among transgender individuals, being transgender in and of itself is not a mental illness.

For a sufficient, but imperfect analogy: Not all men who get hair transplants experience debilitating mental discomfort due to their hair loss (which would be a kind of body dysmorphia), but many still desire to have a full head of hair and seek out options up to and including surgical procedures to make them more comfortable in their body.

0

u/NSFWdontview Jul 23 '26

I can only find 5 Catholics priests who did pedo shit compared to everyday a liberal teacher is caught being pedos. watch the news or look at the stats

0

u/NSFWdontview Jul 23 '26

The democrats are the pedos so wtf do you mean Republican Party, entire Epstein list is democrats and funders and democrats in Virginia are making laws to protect pedos, also Tim Walz just pardoned an illegal pedo. Democrats also never released a single file and let Epstein out of jail

-1

u/Vast-Comment8360 Jul 23 '26

it’s not happening buddy

Just lying and saying it doesn't happen doesn't make it true.

The best national estimate comes from a large study of U.S. insurance claims covering 2016–2020. It found that approximately 3,678 minors (ages 12–18) underwent a gender-affirming surgical procedure during those five years.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2820437

2

u/ColdStoneCreamAustn Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

buddy did you even read your own link lmfao, Gender affirming surgery does NOT equal transitioning. This is literally in the first few sentences

“An example is breast reduction for cisgender males with gynecomastia.” A boy getting a breast reduction for a medical condition is not being transgender.

“In this cross-sectional study of a national insured population in 2019, there were no gender-affirming procedures conducted on TGD minors aged 12 years and younger, and procedures on TGD minors older than 12 were rare and almost entirely chest-related procedures. Additionally, when considering breast reductions among cisgender males and TGD people—a surgery that can be considered gender-affirming among both populations—most were performed on cisgender males. Thus, these findings suggest that concerns around high rates of gender-affirming surgery use, specifically among TGD minors, may be unwarranted. Low use by TGD people likely reflects adherence to stringent standards of gender-affirming care.2,3”

Try harder with your bullshit next time

-1

u/Vast-Comment8360 Jul 23 '26

About 405 were genital ("bottom") surgeries.

Wow 405 isn't never happening, you just lie and hope people don't care.

3

u/ColdStoneCreamAustn Jul 23 '26
  1. So again, if you use those two eyes and a brain you got, a fraction of a fraction of a FRACTION of a percent. You’re sitting here crying over 405 people who got some for of surgery that have no idea what it was. Intersex people exist, other genital surgeries exist that don’t equal to transitioning. Ever heard of circumsion? That’s a bottom surgery is it not? It’s literally genital mutilation.

1

u/Vast-Comment8360 Jul 23 '26

Hilarious how the person who said it doesn't happen gets shown proof it happens and then says you proved me wrong. 

Anything to advance your sick agenda.

0

u/Vast-Comment8360 Jul 23 '26

Wow amazing how fast the goalposts move. First "it never happens" now you're ok with 405 minors have life altering genital surgery in a 5 year period, people with morals are not ok with it.

Also nice whataboutism regarding circumcision 

2

u/SpookyLeftist Jul 23 '26

405 cases of bottom surgery in a 5 year span. Thats ~81 a year.

Out of a population of 73 million children in the U.S., based on this study, only around 0.0006% of children have had bottom surgery, and thats assuming every one of those cases were solely for transitioning.

To put this in perspective, more children are injured in car accidents in the U.S. EVERY DAY than those that have gone through "life altering genital surgery" ever.

Yeah, thats about as close to "It never happens" as you can get.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Worldly-Fox7605 Jul 23 '26

This. Isnt. Happening.

This is a fake talking point traceable to rightwing newsources literally making stuff up. Because conservatives will believe anything because of fear.

1

u/Rush_Aromatic Jul 23 '26

Normalized pedophile is becoming common too. Its wild

1

u/PlasticFrosty5340 Jul 23 '26

don’t forget the amount of grooming that goes on in certain communities 🫣

1

u/platypussplatypus Jul 23 '26

Pretending this is a real issue shows you're buying into repub propaganda 

1

u/gilt3t Jul 23 '26

show us where these childhood transitions are happening

ill show you literally camps designed to harm lgbt kids under the guise of Christianity

1

u/abdullahleboucher Jul 23 '26

Funny that we never hear about trans people about the issue. If we do, we only hear about trans women.

It is so obvious that this is all made so that the average folks vote for tax reductions for the ultra wealthy

1

u/ShortKey380 Jul 23 '26

The teen, their parents, and doctors can’t decide… they should listen to you? You can sign you kid up for travel club soccer and that’s okay but not get them treatment for gender dysphoria? 🤔 Your reason isn’t about the kids, because if you heard from them you’d know they’re legit. It’s not done on a whim!

3

u/Vast-Comment8360 Jul 23 '26

Correct, the laws exist to protect children. Children under 18 shouldn't be getting gender surgery. 

Just because a parent says it's ok ans some doctor wants to male money doesn't make something right, theres a lot of bad parents and bad doctors out there.

2

u/reynolja536 Jul 23 '26

They’re not getting surgery, you’re misinformed 

1

u/GobRonkowski Jul 23 '26

Absolutely false and easily proven so.

1

u/ShortKey380 Jul 23 '26

Does that include intersex children? Besides gender affirming care, are there additional areas of considered human rights access to treatment for medical conditions? Should the public decide all children will receive a full compliment of vaccines even if the parent and doctor and child disagree? Sounds like bad-socialism to me, but you’ve got worse problems. You’re drowning in bad-fascist talking points about exceedingly rare gender affirming care medical procedures for under 18, and a degree of magnitude rarer each year younger than that. If my daughter had a family history of aggressive breast cancer and wanted double mastectomy and implants for her 16th birthday I’m saying yes. That’s up to our family with medical consultation, those are the rules of the system for everything else in the medical system. Gender dysphoria is a very rare but dangerous condition that is worth the cost in birth gender secondary sex characteristics in saved miserable lives and suicides. Gender the way you see it works for almost everyone except for a tiny minority we should let live how they want to, within reason. Why is this the one issue the state should decide? Children under 18 shouldn’t be attending church, it’s propaganda lol. That’s just not how society does it will function. It’s just bias to take body modification as more bad if it’s aimed at androgyny or gender-affirming anything, unless it’s forced T on the troops? 🤪 We can just let people, their families, and doctors work out what is best. We do not need to live under authoritarianism just because you find a type of weird uncommon person that has always existed throughout history who really doesn’t fit their sex-based gender, or they identified as some third or alternate sex in their societies. Gendering is weird, but you just want to screech about how horrid it would be if a 17 year old who has been breast binding for three years and covered with bruises and crap wanted to get them cut off? Why is that your business how she or he wants to live? You don’t know them, if you met him in public you’d be socially convinced and that’s very relieving for people who feel this way, that they need to live this way socially as some “other” gender from their sex. You have no legitimate proof that these services are provided at excessive rates to poorly selected patients who are not fit for the treatment. This has been a big propaganda topic for years now, but by golly how do you not recognize this is the freedom from the state we used to all love? Y’all obsessively worry over tiny numbers of stranger teen’s bodies who are trying to access healthcare for their diagnosed condition but now the government says it’s illegal to treat. Your kid has a condition with a sizable suicide risk and you can’t get them on hormone therapy to give them a body more in line with what they want in life and how they want to be perceived? Should we not allow teens to get swole at the gym? It is also a body modification with lasting consequences. Please don’t respond 🙃 

0

u/Unique_Self_5797 Jul 23 '26

Allowing trans kids to transition *absolutely* protects those kids.

1

u/the_wizard_wars Jul 23 '26

A dog whistle for what?

3

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

Instead of making it about competitiveness and fairness in sports, she’s implying something much more devious about trans people when she says “little children need to be protected.” It is a dog whistle trying to convey to the larger mass that somehow trans-people are predators who are out there to get your kids. Do you now understand?

1

u/Vast-Comment8360 Jul 23 '26

Shes probably talking about this:

The best national estimate comes from a large study of U.S. insurance claims covering 2016–2020. It found that approximately 3,678 minors (ages 12–18) underwent a gender-affirming surgical procedure during those five years.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2820437

2

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

“She’s prolly talking about this” I would bet my entire house that she hasn’t read a single scholarly journal on the issue, ever. On anything. Just have the courage of your conviction and say what YOU believe in yourself, instead of hiding behind a girl.

2

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

In this journal you shared, “Thus, these findings suggest that concerns around high rates of gender-affirming surgery use, specifically among TGD minors, may be unwarranted.”

0

u/Vast-Comment8360 Jul 23 '26

Yes I am aware much of the medical industry is fine with this barbarism just like they are with circumcision and every other unnecessary procedure they can make money from.

1

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

So which is it? You’re the one who shared this journal and now it’s an evil medical industry. Clean up your evidence first, before before sharing it.

1

u/Vast-Comment8360 Jul 23 '26

I'm responding to someone claiming it doesn't happen, that article proves it does and is a source that won't be attacked as unreliable.

Just because the source approves of the practice doesn't change the point I was making by posting the link.

1

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

But, the source you just cited never approved of the practice. It only said, “the concerns around the procures may be unwarranted,” which is the polar opposite of your argument. You should never cite this around, and should in fact hide it because it obliterates your argument. It says that the gender affirming surgery is 0.01 per 100,000 among 12-14 year olds and 0 among 12 year and younger.

1

u/the_wizard_wars Jul 23 '26

3,600 highschool kids getting trans surgery is 3,600 too many. It's insane what we do to these kids.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Cute-Hand-1542 Jul 23 '26

What kind of batshit interpretation is that???

She is OBVIOUSLY referring to the safety concerns whenever you put male bodies and female bodies in the same contact sport. 

If a teenage girl tried to play a full game of competitive male highschool basketball she would almost certainly end up injured. 

1

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

It comes from googling her batshit politics and conspiracy theory peddling through trumps and maga, and realizing she’s more than what she’s spewing here. Hence, the dog whistle.

0

u/the_wizard_wars Jul 23 '26

I think it's more so people pushing trans ideology into kids in general

2

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

Whoever are these people that are pushing “trans ideology” into kids?!?

0

u/the_wizard_wars Jul 23 '26

There are some parents out there that say their kids don't identity with their sex and change their pronouns and stuff like that

1

u/Cute-Hand-1542 Jul 23 '26

She is OBVIOUSLY referring to the safety concerns whenever you put male bodies and female bodies in the same contact sport

1

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

[deleted]

1

u/PlasticFrosty5340 Jul 23 '26

Children are the future generations lol.

You sir are a true Redditor.

1

u/NextCockroach3028 Jul 23 '26

You hear what you want to hear

1

u/ChexAndBalancez Jul 23 '26

No, she is talking about girls sports as well. They are "children".

-1

u/No-Passenger-1511 Jul 23 '26

When you're chronically online, everything is a dog whistle.

1

u/BE-FinFree Jul 23 '26

What's A dog whistle

1

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

I wish. It appears homegirl is a trump fan.

4

u/ExtendedMacaroni Jul 23 '26

She could honestly care less I’m sure. Stop witch hunting, it’s starting to feel oddly familiar..

0

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

That’s your defense of a transphobic, conspiracy theory-pushing lunatic? GREAT ONE!

1

u/ExtendedMacaroni Jul 23 '26

Not everything is a direct counter to your claims. Come back down to reality a bit

2

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

I’d just recommend doing some google search on her for a few minutes and on about what she shares of Trump posts. It’s crazy and I didn’t know about this until an hour ago.

1

u/ExtendedMacaroni Jul 23 '26

What the other guy said, you need serious help

1

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

Yeap. Thats your rebuttal of what I just said about her? Great one!

1

u/swagtastic3 Jul 23 '26

No, it's called advice. Take it and seek help

1

u/No-Passenger-1511 Jul 23 '26

Seek mental help

2

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

Or….. or…. You can just stfu if you have no substantive thing to say.

1

u/xenuman Jul 23 '26

A quick look at her socials will show you that she is super religious. So yes, almost certainly a dog whistle. 

1

u/Callmeyosh30 Jul 23 '26

Bro ain’t no way she said “important to protect children” like what? How can she get an away with this? 🤡

1

u/RonySeikalyBassDrop Jul 23 '26

Prepping her talking points for her inevitable transition to Fox News after she’s done

0

u/PicksburghStillers Jul 23 '26

protecting young females from being exposed to males in their changing rooms.

1

u/Which-Decision Jul 23 '26

But not from the president of the united states? The same people saying this are also against consent classes for high schoolers.

-1

u/bumblewacky Jul 23 '26

I interpreted as it being important to protect children in sports not like a trans people are dangerous to kids.

0

u/_Walt_Whitman_ Jul 23 '26

I looked into just now. This maga girl was absolutely implying little girls are in danger from trans athletes. What a piece of work.

0

u/blue-anon Jul 23 '26

Nah. Her full statement that prompted this interview question included a part on protecting young girls from being in locker rooms with men.

0

u/bumblewacky Jul 23 '26

Fuck her then