Indiana Fever played New York Liberty on Saturday night — and although Liberty walked away with the on-court win, 109-102, it was a battle between two groups of fans that made headlines.
Pro-trans activists and a number of pro-woman fans — including XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey — surrounded the Barclays Center ahead of the game, brought there by Fever shooting guard Sophie Cunningham.
Sey, there to support Cunningham and defend biological women in sports, told OutKick that the WNBA was consistently taking the wrong side on the issue of trans-identifying men in women’s spaces.
“The WNBA is just one fail after the next.”@JenniferSey rips the league for preaching inclusion while censoring its fans. pic.twitter.com/Wj6OO270XM
— OutKick (@Outkick) August 22, 2026
“The WNBA is just one fail after the next,” she said. “They just keep stepping in it. They keep trying to censor us and our message, whether it’s yelling at a young girl at the game in Seattle or telling Riley [Gaines] and I we couldn’t have a sign or telling a woman in Atlanta she couldn’t have the shirt.”
“It’s just censorship after censorship, they’re trying to manage this message, but people aren’t having it anymore. No one’s afraid. People are emboldened. 75% of Americans agree that women’s sports are for women,” she said, adding that the WNBA needed to step up and get on the right side of the issue.
During the game, things were no different. After a message paid for by a fan of XX-XY Athletics was reportedly changed by the venue, three pro-trans messages appeared on the Jumbotron throughout the game.
“Hey trans fans! Glad you’re here! Go Liberty!” one read, and the others: “Welcome trans Liberty fans! You are loved and you belong!”; “Big welcome to the NY Liberty transgender fan community! So excited to be here with you all!”
The New York Liberty showed three messages on the scoreboard at halftime in support of trans people. https://t.co/6TXbJPmtro pic.twitter.com/1iyBDwdKFW
— Jackson Thompson (@JackThompsonFOX) August 23, 2026
A Sophie Cunningham fan told Fox News reporter Jack Thompson that her Jumbotron message to the XX-XY founder — who was present at the game — was changed after she paid for it because Liberty only allowed “positive submissions.”
A Sophie Cunningham fan paid to have a message supporting @xx_xyathletics displayed at a New York Liberty game only for the team to alter and censor her original submission.
She tells @JackThompsonFOX the Liberty said they only allow “positive submissions” to be displayed. pic.twitter.com/msDUuzvxGG
— OutKick (@Outkick) August 22, 2026
The clash comes after weeks of similar confrontations, as Sey mentioned, including two teen girls being berated by a WNBA team co-owner in Seattle for wearing XX-XY Athletics clothing and a mother and daughter in Atlanta being told that they needed to cover up their shirts or leave the game. In contrast, pro-trans messaging has been consistently allowed and even favored.
The protests ramped up after Cunningham defended women’s sports as a space for biological women, saying repeatedly that it was not about politics — and that she believed there was room for everyone in sports, trans-identifying or otherwise — but that women and girls deserved to be protected in sex-specific spaces.
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