Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham pushed back after Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington blamed &#8220;WHITE PRIVILEGE&#8221; for her own ejection from Saturday&#8217;s game — a post Carrington later deleted.
Cunningham <a href="https://x.com/kareemcopeland/status/2086219526266556444?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2086219526266556444%7Ctwgr%5E6d9bb0378f30ffe86b5bba7a7baf000c6f030b5a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Foutkick-sports%2Fsophie-cunningham-speaks-out-against-dijonai-carrington-flagrant-foul-white-privilege-post">dismissed the accusation</a> outright, pointing to her own ejection last season for a similar foul.
&#8220;I think the league is taking care of that,&#8221; she said. &#8220;This has nothing to do with race. Last year, I did the same thing and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There&#8217;s no reason to even play that card.&#8221;
Of the foul itself, Cunningham <a href="https://x.com/kareemcopeland/status/2086220659319771185">said</a>, &#8220;Clearly, I think it was unnecessary. I&#8217;ve never really spoken to her and have no beef with her, but I guess she has  some pent-up stuff. So, get your [stuff] off. That&#8217;s fine — I can take it.&#8221;
She went further, calling the hit deliberate: &#8220;Yeah, it&#8217;s intentional&#8230; I do think when people play the Fever, we&#8217;re nationally televised, there&#8217;s a lot of eyes on us and people just want attention. And that&#8217;s her just trying to get attention.&#8221;
Video of the interaction — which showed Carrington clothes-lining Cunningham as she went in for a lay-up — spread quickly across social media. The foul — which landed Cunningham on her back on the court — was upgraded to a flagrant two after review, with officials citing &#8220;wind-up, impact, and follow-through&#8221; and a &#8220;high potential for injury for player in a vulnerable position.&#8221;
Fever Coach Stephanie White reacted to the hit, saying, &#8220;It was a hard foul. I don&#8217;t think that DiJonai intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did, but it did happen, and I thought it was the right call.&#8221;
Sky coach Tyler Marsh, when asked about Carrington&#8217;s locker-room reaction to her removal from the game, replied, &#8220;I have to get back to you on that because I&#8217;m just now hearing about that. So yeah, we&#8217;ll handle that.&#8221;
Cunningham made waves when she said in an <a href="https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49306657/sophie-cunningham-finger-point-indiana-fever-wnba">ESPN interview</a> last month that she did not believe it was fair for women and girls to compete in athletics against biological males — and has been the target of protests and criticism ever since.
Sports Illustrated delivered <a href="https://x.com/ClayTravis/status/2086229865930297827">clear bias</a> in a headline covering the most recent incident, which read, &#8220;Sophie Cunningham Got A Bitter Taste Of Karma After Drawing Flagrant Foul In Fever-Sky.&#8221; The outlet appears to have since quietly <a href="https://www.si.com/wnba/sophie-cunningham-karma-flagrant-foul-fever-sky">changed the headline</a>.
Women&#8217;s sports advocate <a href="https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/2086418921914012058">Riley Gaines</a> responded to Carrington&#8217;s reaction, saying on Fox News that her post was more indicative of &#8220;black privilege&#8221; than anything else.
&#8220;I would actually say that this is BLACK privilege to be totally honest with you! Because her posting this white racist comment right after assaulting Sophie Cunningham on the court is actually black privilege, because she knows the WNBA won&#8217;t do a SINGLE thing of significance about it!&#8221; Gaines explained. &#8220;And imagine if the roles were reverse if Sophie made a comment similar to this — then she&#8217;d likely never play again!&#8221;

Sophie Cunningham

Sophie Cunningham Smacks Down Opponent’s ‘White Privilege’ Comment

dijonai carrington

indiana fever

riley gaines

sophie cunningham

sports

wnba

The WNBA is one of those science experiments where, every time I return to it, it’s somehow grown larger and more unwieldy. I write about this league, exit to describe other topics, then come back to discover that women’s pro basketball has somehow claimed an even larger share of the modern controversy zeitgeist. Now we’ve got Donald Trump talking about how, if he coached a WNBA team, <a href="https://x.com/brickcenter_/status/2084820454028747098?s=46&amp;t=oGFkfjOaJhGL-HV3dqLoGQ">he’d recruit LeBron James to womanhood</a>.
He’s not the first to make that joke. An old Dave Chappelle bit is circulating where the famous comedian imagines that a transitioned LeBron would average “<a href="https://x.com/redvoicenews/status/1647225980887646213?s=20">840 points per game</a>.” Conservative media is <a href="https://x.com/foxnews/status/2084755608889413901?s=46&amp;t=oGFkfjOaJhGL-HV3dqLoGQ">floating the possibility of a WNBA invite for a buff French transitioner named Julie Tétart</a>, who’s averaging 21 points and 20 rebounds in a second-division French women’s league. There are now regular trans sports protests and counter-protests at Indiana Fever games. What the hell is happening and can anyone be reasonable about it? Well, a man can try…
This all started with <a href="https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/the-curious-maga-kabuki-celebrity?r=3rgcb&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;triedRedirect=true">red-coded</a> Fever sharpshooter Sophie Cunningham giving one political opinion in an <a href="https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49306657/sophie-cunningham-finger-point-indiana-fever-wnba">ESPN profile</a> on her burgeoning fame:
<blockquote>
I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.
</blockquote>
That’s a reasonable take that the vast majority of America agrees with. It shouldn’t theoretically be controversial, but “controversy” isn’t necessarily related to how popular a public figure’s statement is. There are other factors, such as how loud and disproportionately concentrated in media your detractors happen to be.
The noise might have died down but for a sparsely-attended “save women’s sports” protest at a Fever game in Seattle that led to Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton cursing at two teen girl protesters who sat courtside with pro-Sophie signs. Images of poor behavior from Keaton and other “pro-trans” fans in Seattle galvanized the non-Left on this issue, which further charged a thermostatic reaction on the Left. Cunningham stuck to her guns, posing for photos after a game in Minneapolis with conservative activist Riley Gaines and XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey. On Wednesday, in the aftermath of so much hubbub, Sophie expressed a desire for media to return to basketball commentary:
<blockquote>
The WNBA media, all we ever do is cover everything except basketball &#8230; You can talk about other things, those are great stories, it shows fans who people outside of the court, but I think we gotta keep the main thing the main thing.
</blockquote>
On the Left, she’s being assailed for hypocrisy after her words spawned this situation. The counter would be that she expressed one fairly normal opinion when asked about her views and it’s not necessarily Cunningham’s fault that a bunch of other people act insanely in response.
Speaking of hypocrisy allegations, a few prominent conservative activists bashed Fever superstar Caitlin Clark for ducking this topic in a press conference. That led to many on the Left proclaiming that the Right had moved from a “shut up and dribble” response on athlete activism to a position of “agree with us or we’ll attack you.” Here are statements on Clark from Matt Walsh and Megyn Kelly.
<a href="https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/2084310561190265043">Walsh</a>:
<blockquote>
Caitlin Clark might be the biggest coward in the history of sports. She refuses to say anything about the anti-white racism she has been subjected to since coming into the league. She punts on the trans question, which is the easiest question you could ever be asked. No spine.
</blockquote>
<a href="https://x.com/megynkelly/status/2084283918702841939">Kelly</a>, more succinctly:
<blockquote>
Coward.
</blockquote>
Personally, I think suggesting that Caitlin Clark might be “the biggest coward in the history of sports” is juuuuust a little hyperbolic. I also flat out don’t like it. Even if I largely agree with “the Right” on this issue of males in women’s sports, I’m just constitutionally against the idea that athletes must pontificate on political positions when prompted, like trained dogs.
I’ve observed a division within the Right on how to prosecute its cultural preferences. In Prestige Media World, “the Right” can often be viewed as a monolith. They were all “shut up and dribble” and now they’re all, “wear the anti-trans <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4bmGekgE14">ribbon</a>!” When you look at your own side, you’re aware of all its fractures, but when you look at the enemy, it’s often perceived as totally united. But anyone closely observing the Right of late can tell it’s a completely insane circular YouTube firing squad of warring influencers one-upping each other for engagement. There is no unified position on Caitlin Clark and the WNBA. There is no unified position on much of anything.
Some on the broader Right believe in more of a “live and let live approach,” where conservatives appeal to a “silent majority” that’s sick of the Left’s media-backed nagging. You can see that element when Trump-voting <a href="https://x.com/stoolpresidente/status/2084342199139910075?s=46&amp;t=oGFkfjOaJhGL-HV3dqLoGQ">Dave Portnoy attacks the anti-Clark conservatives</a>. Others in the more “movement conservative” category of the Right view the Left’s tactic of applying social pressure to celebrities with ambitious envy. What if we were the bullies? What if we had celebrities cowed and kneeling in favor of our beliefs?!
I see a similar dynamic on the Left where many blue-influencers have adopted Trump’s cartoonish meanness under the assumption that it’s his value proposition. We’ve been too nice and that’s why we lose! Look at him, he gets away with everything, the lesson is that you must constantly insult and belittle!
It’s all so tiresome.
I’ll get back to the actual political issue, but one more observation about the Right and the WNBA. There is an irony of conservative commentators adopting a position that protects women’s sports as a category while simultaneously trashing the most talked about women’s sports league. It’s partially related to how, in the Right’s media ecosystem, many have absorbed a cartoonish view of what the WNBA is.
Since it goes viral every time Caitlin Clark gets whacked without a call, there’s a running assumption in certain quarters that she’s just beaten with lead pipes every night as the referees cheer it on. Some are under the impression that a white WNBA star is some detested rarity even though six such players were featured in the last All-Star game. Here’s an <a href="https://x.com/seanmdav/status/2084074286776803774">unhinged post</a> from Federalist founder Sean Davis.
<blockquote>
The WNBA is welfare for retarded black lesbians funded by the NBA. Anyone who doesn’t fit that bill — Caitlin Clark or Sophia Cunningham, for example — will be targeted and terrorized until they can no longer play. White girls are not allowed to be better at basketball than the retarded black lesbians. It does not matter how much money Clark and Cunningham make for the league. The league does not care. Because it is run by race-obsessed woke retards. Boycotting will change nothing, because the league doesn’t make money. It gets welfare from the NBA. You cannot punish something that exists to lose money by making it lose money. The NBA, not the WNBA, is responsible for the continued racial violence targeted at Clark and Cunningham, because the WNBA exists at the mercy of the NBA. So if you’re tired of anti-white racial violence from retarded black lesbians, you need to take that out on the NBA.
</blockquote>
I don’t want to get derailed on other topics, but this post reflects a vice-signaling issue on the Right that’s gained momentum ever since Twitter was sold to Elon Musk. No, you don’t need to say “retarded” four times in one paragraph to make your crazy point about how people must boycott the NBA as some bankshot against the WNBA.
On the softer side of the Right slighting women’s basketball, Clay Travis is <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/clay-travis-offers-to-pay-wnba-champions-10-million-if-they-can-beat-a-boys-high-school-basketball-team/">offering $10 million to a WNBA championship squad</a> that beats a high school state boy’s championship team. If you know the sport, or perhaps just understand basic biology, you understand that the boy’s team would easily beat the women’s team. The male physiological advantage is especially pronounced in a game where height is the most significant selection pressure. Clay is also, for comedic effect, floating the idea of trans-inclusive WNBA team named “<a href="https://x.com/ClayTravis/status/2084323804642181317">The Balls</a>” in his native Nashville. Obviously he’s expressing an <a href="https://x.com/ClayTravis/status/2084782956577464570">interest in muscled up Julie Tétart</a>:
<blockquote>
This b*tch can ball. I can’t believe the transphobic <a href="https://x.com/WNBA">[WNBA]</a> won’t sign this woman.
</blockquote>
This has resulted in a lot of people asking me whether a male can actually be admitted to a women’s league that doesn’t overtly proclaim to ban males. And the answer is … I don’t know? When asking sources involved in WNBA ownership, everyone is under the presumption that such a thing can’t happen, but there’s no formal mechanism by which to obviously prevent it. The WNBA CBA rule is “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but “women” is undefined. I’d hazard that WNBA teams would be restricted from adding a Julie Tétart type by an <a href="https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/i-think-adam-silver-quietly-changed">Adam Silver phone call</a> as opposed to, say, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7457793/2026/07/20/womens-tennis-wta-gene-testing/">a cheek swab</a>.
What Clay Travis is getting at, whatever one thinks of him, is that many on the Left, including prominent voices like Minnesota Lynx coach <a href="https://www.aol.com/articles/sophie-cunningham-reveals-she-discussed-181521000.html">Cheryl Reeve</a>, are bluffing. They’re so dug in on “transwomen are women” that they won’t admit to obvious differences between the sexes. They’re adopting a position of rejecting a guardrail because really, there’s no issue here and it’s all made up. There’s no need to accept what’s so because the Right is being mean and transphobic and it’s a distraction and there are bigger problems etc. And there are bigger problems, certainly, but this one isn’t magically going away because you sneered loud enough at the people raising it.
One trendy Lefty idea is that there’s no need for a rule against a Julie Tétart because this lone example plays in a lesser French division, thus proving that no transwomen would ever dominate the highest tier of women’s basketball. But of course, as we saw with Lia Thomas, absent a barrier, someone will cross that threshold and instantly crush while becoming famous.
A clip of The Athletic’s <a href="https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/2085089711601623059/video/1?s=46">Sports Gossip Show</a> went viral on the Right in part because hosts Madeline Hill and Charlotte Wilder conveyed aforementioned forms of denial. According to them, “It’s pretty clear that Sophie Cunningham is doing a blatant Right-wing grift.” It’s only getting purchase because the Right are “genius marketers.” There’s an obnoxious form of argumentation on the Left that presumes it’s like, illegitimate to disagree with them. Cunningham can’t actually believe what she believes. It’s fake, somehow. And the topic isn’t worthy of consideration because it’s all a “grift.”
By the way, the divided Right aren’t “genius marketers.” They just happen to have a massive advantage on an issue you won’t deprive them of. So of course the Right is raising this topic. No duh <a href="https://x.com/gunthereagleman/status/2085154603423687138?s=46&amp;t=oGFkfjOaJhGL-HV3dqLoGQ">JD Vance is talking about Sophie Cunningham</a>. They’d be idiots to not take advantage of you looking like idiots. The day it stops is the day you concede reality about women’s sports. It’s really that simple.
I’ll close with a modest defense of the WNBA, a league I happen to now enjoy. Yes, the best males are far better at basketball than the best females, but sports can be contextual. Many consider Floyd Mayweather Jr. to be the greatest boxer of all time, even though, in his prime, thousands of dudes could kick his ass. Why? Floyd is roughly the size of a standard high school freshman. He just happened to dominate his weight classes. Yes, the Klitschko brothers would have murdered him, but nobody really cares. The job in sports is to win within your division and “women” constitutes a division. Many on the Right now denigrate that category. Many on the Left now refuse to maintain it.
***
This is republished with permission by the author. The original can be found <a href="https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/sane-thoughts-on-wnba-left-wing-and">here</a>.
Ethan Strauss is the creator of the Substack <a href="https://www.houseofstrauss.com/">House of Strauss</a>. He is a former NBA PR gopher, basketblogger, and NBA beat writer.

Indiana Fever v Portland Fire

The Sophie Cunningham-WNBA Trans War Is Sucking All The Oxygen Out Of The Room

caitlin clark

transgender athletes in womens sports

UpstreamSophie

How Sophie Cunningham Became The WNBA’s Biggest Target

title ix

transgender athletes in women sports

The WNBA’s double standard on free speech is officially out of bounds.
Women&#8217;s sports advocate Riley Gaines pulled no punches on Monday night, telling Fox News that league handlers tried to silence her support for Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham. Appearing on &#8220;Hannity,&#8221; Gaines said that arena officials asked her to put down a benign, completely non-political sign praising Cunningham while Left-wing propaganda was prominently displayed on the arena&#8217;s Jumbotron.
&#8220;The league often says they have a problem with people like Sophie bringing politics into sports. The league doesn&#8217;t have a problem with politics in sports. They have a problem with conservative politics in sports,&#8221; Gaines told host Sean Hannity.
Gaines recounted sitting in the Target Center during a Minnesota Lynx home game holding a small poster that simply read, “Sophie, thank you — a girl mom.” Despite strictly adhering to arena rules, an official approached Gaines and requested that she put the sign away.
Yet, as Gaines pointed out, Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve strolled the sidelines wearing a &#8220;Trans Kids Belong&#8221; shirt while others wore pro-trans shirts featuring an image of a knife even as the arena&#8217;s Jumbotron repeatedly highlighted fans draped in Pride and trans flags. &#8220;If Protect Women&#8217;s Sports is deemed political like they say, then so is Trans Kids Belong,&#8221; Gaines slammed.
After Gaines pushed back, she said she was ultimately allowed to keep the sign displayed, and the arena staffer returned and apologized.
The WNBA finds itself engulfed in an explosive culture war sparked by Cunningham, who has spoken out against allowing men to compete in women’s athletics. Cunningham ignited the firestorm by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-breaks-with-league-on-explosive-issue">telling</a> ESPN she wants to &#8220;protect young girls in a locker room,&#8221; later <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunningham-triples-down-on-haters-with-ice-cold-instagram-post">doubling down</a> on Instagram with a blunt message to her critics: &#8220;I said what I said.&#8221;
While Cunningham’s common-sense stance has earned her praise from high-profile figures, including Gaines and White House Press Secretary <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/karoline-leavitt-rips-leftist-backlash-to-sophie-cunninghams-trans-sports-comments">Karoline Leavitt</a>, it has drawn intense hostility from leftist fans and league insiders. Gaines noted that Cunningham was relentlessly booed by the Minnesota crowd every time she stepped onto the hardwood.
Meanwhile, WNBA leaders continue to hide behind corporate double-talk. Asked point-blank about men in female sports, Fever head coach Stephanie White<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunninghams-coach-asked-where-she-stands-on-men-in-womens-sports?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Sophie+Cunningham%E2%80%99s+Coach+Asked+Where+She+Stands+On+Men+In+Women%E2%80%99s+Sports"> offered</a> a classic corporate dodge, claiming she wasn&#8217;t &#8220;educated enough from a scientific standpoint.&#8221;
The hostility has even boiled over into the stands. During a recent Fever road trip to Seattle, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was suspended from attending her team&#8217;s next five home games after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-co-owner-accused-of-cursing-out-teen-girls-over-xx-xy-shirts?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WNBA+Co-Owner+Accused+Of+Cursing+Out+Teen+Girls+Over+XX-XY+Shirts">launching</a> an expletive-laden tirade against two 16-year-old female fans wearing gear in support of Cunningham&#8217;s position.
Despite the intimidation tactics, Gaines insists that Cunningham remains unshakable and uncancelable.

Riley Gaines

Riley Gaines Goes Off On WNBA, Says Staffer Tried To Take Away Sophie Cunningham Sign

free speech

politics

transgender in sports

The debate over transgender-identifying athletes in women&#8217;s sports continued Sunday as Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase defended men competing in women’s sports.
The reigning WNBA Coach of the Year said sports are about &#8220;inclusivity.&#8221;
&#8220;For me, sports is about belonging. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about allowing everyone to be their authentic self,&#8221; Nakase said when asked about the recent Sophie Cunningham comments on the subject. &#8220;I’m all about women, little girls deserving to play, and that includes trans women.&#8221;
Cunningham, a guard with the Indiana Fever, recently spoke out against men competing in women’s sports. Since then, she’s had support, but also multiple WNBA coaches rejecting her position that women&#8217;s sports should be reserved for biological females.
Nakase joins the list of coaches who have recently been asked their stance on the controversy. Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White, Minnesota Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve, and Portland Fire coach Alex Sarama have all opined in the last few days.
White previously said she did not feel &#8220;educated enough from a scientific point&#8221; to weigh in on the issue.
&#8220;I don’t know that I would say that I’m educated enough from a scientific standpoint,&#8221; White said Friday. &#8220;I don’t ever believe that exclusion is an answer. I just don’t.&#8221;
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunninghams-coach-asked-where-she-stands-on-men-in-womens-sports">Sophie Cunningham’s Coach Asked Where She Stands On Men In Women’s Sports</a>
Whereas White fell back on her education, or lack thereof, Nakase cited criticism she has faced over her height and ethnicity as shaping her views.
&#8220;I’m big on that because I have been criticized for my height, for my ethnicity. I’ve been in those ‘you shouldn’t belong here’ many times, and for me I don’t want that space, especially Golden State, to ever feel like that,&#8221; Nakase said.
The coaches are being pressed as the place for the latest rallies on the issue has shifted to outside WNBA arenas.
Sunday’s game between the Minnesota Lynx and the Indiana Fever drew the largest gathering of Cunningham supporters, including Riley Gaines, Michele Tafoya, and <a href="https://x.com/xx_xyathletics/status/2084263764011241693?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jennifer Sey</a>, as well as a crowd of pro-trans protesters.
Security had to step in outside of the Target Center in Minneapolis when a pro-trans activist repeatedly grabbed and forcefully tried to take an &#8220;XX-XY&#8221; branded t-shirt from a Cunningham fan.
Dustin Gage posted the video of the altercation on <a href="https://x.com/GrageDustin/status/2083946263314043288?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X</a> during the pre-game fan rally XX-XY’s, Sey’s athletic clothing company, hosted.
Cunningham has stood her ground, taking pictures with Gaines and Sey at Sunday’s game.
Sey told The Daily Wire she expects to see more Cunningham supporters as the WNBA season nears the end. Sey said there&#8217;s another rally in the works for the Fever&#8217;s game in Chicago on August 8.

Illustration by Daily Wire staff

WNBA Coach Of The Year Picks A Side In Trans Athlete Debate

natalie nakase

Gaines Upstream

Weekend Plans With All-American Swimmer Riley Gaines

Upstream

weekend plans

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Demi Moore just revealed her most horrifyingly skeletal look yet. But after the <a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/05/12/celebrity-news/demi-moores-toned-arms-take-center-stage-on-cannes-film-festival-2026-red-carpet/">New York Post</a> ran a headline about “Demi Moore’s toned arms,” the internet clapped back at the use of “toned” to describe the severely anatomical detail of her upper limbs. 
It wasn’t “toned”; it was terrifying. A natural beauty now in her sixties, she had morphed into the evanescent incarnation of dark diet culture. And the media were all in. Thankfully, many onlookers pushed back. 
Daily Wire host <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DYS6kdIlkq1/?img_index=2">Isabel Brown</a> posted, “This is equally as damaging to women’s health conversations as normalizing morbid obesity is.” 
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYQwckfSPdP/">Riley Gaines</a> quipped, “Demi Moore actually looks like she’s on the brink of death … Girls, don’t believe the lie that this is what it looks like to be ‘toned.’” 
“That is neither muscle nor healthy. It is phenomenally sad that she looks in the mirror and sees this as a win,” one <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/popculture/comments/1tceaqy/comment/olnr9i2/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">Redditor</a> posted. 
As a society, we’re pretty cool about offering others a wide berth to live life in a variety of possible body shapes, delivering grace when it’s needed. But when does empathy become enabling? Is it kind to let an impending train wreck speed straight off the rails, or do we have a moral obligation to pull the emergency brake? 
Moore’s apparent emotional bedrock, Bruce Willis, has been suffering from <a href="https://www.today.com/health/disease/bruce-willis-health-rcna99998">dementia</a> since 2022. No one would argue that she shouldn’t be afforded the room to grieve. But two things can be true at once, and 63-year-old Moore has previously admitted to punishing her body in the name of beauty.
In 2025, Moore described her new “self-care” routine, telling <a href="https://people.com/worlds-most-beautiful-demi-moore-cover-story-photos-exclusive-11717760">People</a>, “I have a greater appreciation for all that my body has been through that brought me to now … It doesn’t define my value or who I am.” She admitted to once doing “crazy things like biking from Malibu all the way to Paramount, which is about 26 miles. All because I placed so much value on what my outsides looked like.” In the same breath, she said she was “so much more about my overall health and longevity” now.
It was just a few months after she won <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/01/06/nx-s1-5249981/demi-moore-golden-globes-the-substance">her first</a> major acting award: a <a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/05/12/celebrity-news/demi-moores-toned-arms-take-center-stage-on-cannes-film-festival-2026-red-carpet/">Golden Globe</a> for “The Substance,” which is about a black market anti-aging <a href="https://www.flixist.com/review-the-substance/">drug</a>. As part of her acceptance speech, she recalled, “In those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful enough … I had a woman say to me, ‘Just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.’”
Maybe Moore allegedly ditched the measuring stick, but it seems she doesn’t live up to her own beauty standard. Still, it’s not unreasonable to redirect the focus to medical professionals who continue to prescribe weight-loss drugs to vulnerable A-listers who are starving themselves and then convince fans to follow suit.
On the jury to select the Cannes festival’s Palme d’Or, Moore first made a red carpet splash in a sequined and sculpted Jacquemus gown, followed by a fuchsia look by French cult favorite Matières Fécales (yep, that’s “fecal matter” in French, for anyone who’s been following along since the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fake-urine-famesick-celebs-and-100k-tickets-inside-the-grotesque-hypocrisy-of-the-met-gala">Met Gala</a>). The pink reflected a rosy glow onto her porcelain skin as her mantis-like frame appeared to be propped up by an enormous bow of intentionally tattered fabric in a fashionable “<a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/a71328540/demi-moore-cannes-matieres-fecales-dress-stylist-interview-red-carpet/">state of decay</a>.” Touché. 
“Let’s say there were no such thing as GLP-1s. Let’s say we were just looking at that. You’d go, ‘Well, that is starvation, that’s an eating disorder, if she was not in a concentration camp,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRZw9B9u3ek">Dr. Drew Pinsky</a> suggested on “The Rubin Report.” “But now we have a drug that causes that … I don’t know where this is gonna stop. It’s gonna hurt a lot of people.”
Despite the backlash, some think Demi Moore and other stars making notoriously waify waves in the industry (such as <a href="https://www.aol.com/articles/exclusive-ariana-grande-sparks-fan-120000082.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACRd0dAGZwPVgIhjtv48zqesOTA31-kW5cruECKW6zT6O4W7512Q7x_yBVbX5vEVAZahqFpyHVYJcuMEx6bh0tXvTQwqUFT1fdm65-YMTuTrf5EuAtSYFNkgWmxq3nf1emuCdSZRJmnop5B9JVgwxv82XyvZKXVh8924zcfBewOJ">Ariana Grande</a>, <a href="https://people.com/kelly-osbourne-slams-critics-for-calling-out-her-dramatic-weight-loss-transformation-11866054">Kelly Osbourne</a>, and <a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/03/15/celebrity-news/stylists-fear-stars-are-blind-to-how-skinny-they-really-are/">Emma Stone</a>) look good. After spending almost two decades in Hollywood, I’m confident that some of these stick-thin stars probably still think they could lose a few pounds. Flattering media certainly doesn’t help. OK! magazine fawning over Olivia Wilde’s emaciated “<a href="https://okmagazine.com/p/olivia-wilde-glows-new-photos-after-health-concerns-unrecognizable-appearance/">glow</a>” helps no one.
Never mind the constant flow of GLP-1 ads we’re being force-fed. <a href="https://www.noom.com/lp/clinical?route=clinical&amp;upv=3&amp;sp=google&amp;utm_source=g&amp;utm_medium=paidsearch&amp;utm_campaign=23234457596&amp;gid=185213649541%7C&amp;type=drug_branded&amp;cid=CjwKCAjw8arQBhB9EiwAfIKdQtLF8op5XSeFixxPU73oE7h3MxZ_HBXDlWMxKmMSYDIt4Vg0lYQnyBoCXUgQAvD_BwE&amp;pos=&amp;step=pros&amp;lang=en&amp;device=c&amp;group=brand-drug&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23234457596&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw8arQBhB9EiwAfIKdQtLF8op5XSeFixxPU73oE7h3MxZ_HBXDlWMxKmMSYDIt4Vg0lYQnyBoCXUgQAvD_BwE">Noom</a>, which used to be about eating smart and exercising, pivoted to “forget it, just do this drug we’re selling.” Serena Williams loves talking about how she’s “healthier” on her own brand, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqXOcRtZoow">Ro</a>. And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk_ZUYegt14">Wegovy</a> launched a star-studded awards season campaign normalizing doing weight loss drugs, comparing dosing the GLP-1 pill to rescuing kittens in trees. Why wouldn’t you take it? Be a good person!
“In a clinical setting, these changes from baseline are cause for alarm,” celeb nutritionist Jess Baker <a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/03/15/celebrity-news/stylists-fear-stars-are-blind-to-how-skinny-they-really-are/">said</a> of the hollow muscle wasting she sees in GLP-1 overusers. “They can indicate malnutrition, meaning the body isn’t getting enough of what it needs to function.”
That <a href="https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/uc-davis-health-examines-systemic-impact-of-glp-1based-therapies/2025/12">40% lean muscle loss</a> you’ll likely experience is scientifically proven (this drug-induced weight loss is all-inclusive, y’all). Just focus on the fact that if you stop taking GLP-1s, you’ll likely <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11940170/">rebound</a> to your previous weight. Y’know, minus your <a href="https://www.massgeneral.org/news/article/why-muscle-mass-matters-and-how-to-keep-it">blood sugar-regulating</a>, critically structural muscle mass. Maybe you’ll get lucky and just <a href="https://macularhope.org/ozempic-is-making-some-patients-go-blind-will-ozempic-survive-this-well-see/?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=22624478307&amp;gbraid=0AAAAADmkl5ztW0Ku0pkT0DB3M4vGH5Ihk&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw8arQBhB9EiwAfIKdQrWfJPl_xJm6cph8z2EFPw5-bPqDhIKyJgTWqYHJE4hfxLFvX83RShoCYuAQAvD_BwE">go blind</a> like some plaintiffs of the <a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/10-dangerous-drug-cases-in-2026-are-you-8925382/">3,000 active lawsuits</a> against these weight loss drugs allegedly have.
Frustratingly, celebrities will never come clean about the massive resources they have at their disposal to set the current standard of beauty, while the rest of us mill around the Walgreens clearance section like Children of the Corn. However this GLP-1 thing shakes out, we can almost guarantee there will be a pharmaceutical antidote we won’t be able to afford.
But as a precursor to societal doom via hot girl pharma, maybe we could stop propping those who are dangerously overweight or devastatingly thin, as a picture of health. We’ve walked way over the line on whether we should or shouldn’t talk about women’s bodies, and maybe it’s time we get honest about what’s healthy. 
Evolutionary behavioral scientist <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2021/05/28/gad-saad-cancel-culture-idea-pathogens-future-discourse-1593467.html">Gad Saad</a> offers a term for not speaking the truth on the chance it will hurt someone’s feelings: “forbidden knowledge.” Pretending that someone is well when she isn’t is not empowering; it’s dangerous. 
Even if Demi Moore is going through a challenging chapter, is it empathetic for loved ones to let her destroy herself in the name of her own grief? Standing by as someone eats herself to death — or her body consumes its own muscle tissue to survive — is a suicidal mission in both directions. We can do so much better for each other. Let’s shine the spotlight on balanced health and real wellness, not disordered eating in disguise.

RP – Demi Moore

Demi Moore Doesn’t Look ‘Toned.’ She Looks Like She’s Starving.

ariana grande

Bruce Willis

Demi Moore

dr drew pinsky

gad saad

glp-1

isabelle brown

Kelly Osbourne

Olivia Wilde

the rubin report

MixCollage-09-Jan-2026-12-50-PM-1486

LIVE UPDATES: Supreme Court Hears Landmark Women’s Sports Cases

supreme court

Transgender Athletes

women's sports

NASHVILLE—Nearly 100 students, bright-eyed and hungry for change, gathered at the Tennessee State Capitol Building Friday morning, some having driven all night to make it to the event.
There, in a room full of young conservatives, a group of Tennessee officials, including Senator Marsha Blackburn (R), announced a partnership with Turning Point USA. Soon, every high school in the state will have a chapter of Club America, TPUSA&#8217;s high school affiliate.
Club America, like all of TPUSA, aims to advance the mission of the group&#8217;s late founder, Charlie Kirk: make being a conservative cool.
&#8220;The founding of the country, the Constitution, capitalism,&#8221; TPUSA Senior Director Josh Thifault told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The branding is meant to feel like it&#8217;s something that everybody wants to be part of because I mean, who doesn&#8217;t want to be part of Club America? We wanted to create a presentation to high schools that would be very tough to say no to.&#8221;
Blackburn was joined by women&#8217;s sports activist Riley Gaines and Tennessee Senator Jack Johnson for the announcement. The Volunteer State joins Texas and Florida, which have also taken steps to launch Club America chapters throughout their states.
One of the last in-depth conversations Thifault had with Kirk before the latter was assassinated in September was about expanding Club America. Thifault said with Republican states fully backing the mission, TPUSA can get to Kirk&#8217;s goal of 20,000 chapters.
&#8220;I&#8217;m very thankful for all the commitments that Tennessee made,&#8221; he said Friday. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of wonderful people who worked a lot to make this happen. Also, I have to give special credit to Riley Gaines because she&#8217;s the one who, as soon as it became pretty clear we were working something out, shouted it from the rooftops.&#8221;
Gaines spent nearly an hour after the partnership was announced taking pictures with the students who traveled to Nashville for the event. The former Kentucky swimmer and new mom challenged the students to bring five friends to a Club America event and keep the movement growing.
&#8220;I think we&#8217;ve now understood that Tennessee, especially with the recent congressional race here in this district, is not immune,&#8221; Gaines said. &#8220;I think so many of us almost develop a sense of complacency because we think it can&#8217;t happen to me. Nobody is immune to the cultural chaos that is plaguing this nation and even plaguing this state.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1014301" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1014301" class="size-large wp-image-1014301" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Untitled-design-31.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Credit: Anna Katherine White</div>
One of the students who drove hours to be at the State Capitol on Friday was Riley Belt. The junior out of Providence Christian in Johnson City said Tennessee&#8217;s partnership with TPUSA makes her excited for her peers.
&#8220;Our generation is definitely a turning point,&#8221; Belt said. &#8220;We just want to be able to help teach kids like us how to help change our nation and lead us back to conservative values and back to Christ. That&#8217;s what it&#8217;s all about.&#8221;
Since Kirk&#8217;s assassination, Club America chapters in Tennessee have grown from 30 to 104. Belt helped start her school&#8217;s chapter in November. Because of the pact formed Friday, that number is only expected to grow.
&#8220;One person can&#8217;t do it on their own, but we&#8217;re surrounded by people who also share these values and want to make America what Charlie wanted it to be,&#8221; Belt said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re fighting for.&#8221;

Tennessee And Turning Point USA Team Up To Start Chapters At Every High School

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News

Social Issues

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turning point usa

U.S.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took a cheap shot at former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines on Monday, siding with trans-identifying men over women in her desperation to land an attack on Gaines.
The spat — which played out on X — began on Sunday with a photo Gaines posted from a New York City political rally. The photo showed Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), both of whom self-identify as democratic socialists, campaigning for a fellow socialist — Zohran Mamdani — in New York City&#8217;s mayoral race.
&#8220;We&#8217;re being destroyed from within,&#8221; Gaines posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We&#8217;re being destroyed from within <a href="https://t.co/hsD3mYkc6t">pic.twitter.com/hsD3mYkc6t</a>
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1982654572075360550?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez jabbed back, referencing the 2022 NCAA championships where Gaines had tied for 5th place with trans-identifying male swimmer Lia Thomas.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It&#8217;s *always* &#8220;we support women&#8217;s rights!&#8221; until it&#8217;s a woman who wants the right to compete &amp; undress free from less than mediocre men
Keep your mentally ill men out of our sports, locker rooms, prisons, etc.
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1982885793954967637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;It&#8217;s *always* &#8216;we support women&#8217;s rights!&#8217; until it&#8217;s a woman who wants the right to compete &amp; undress free from less than mediocre men,&#8221; Gaines replied. &#8220;Keep your mentally ill men out of our sports, locker rooms, prisons, etc.&#8221;
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now.
&#8220;It’s always hilarious when they think they’ve landed a &#8216;gotcha&#8217; by pointing out I was the 5th-fastest woman *in the nation* yet they conveniently forget the mediocre man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division lol. Misogynistic dunce,&#8221; Gaines added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It’s always hilarious when they think they’ve landed a “gotcha” by pointing out I was the 5th-fastest woman *in the nation* yet they conveniently forget the mediocre man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division lol
Misogynistic dunce <a href="https://t.co/d1aiAHHoYQ">https://t.co/d1aiAHHoYQ</a>
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1982886290912883102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gaines, host of OutKick&#8217;s &#8220;Gaines for Girls&#8221; podcast, joined Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;The Ingraham Angle&#8221; and challenged Ocasio-Cortez to debate her.
&#8220;I’ll debate her anytime. She can defend socialism — I’ll defend capitalism. She can defend removing God — I’ll defend a biblical worldview. She can defend child sacrifice — I’ll defend the sanctity of life,&#8221; the 12-time All American offered.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨RILEY GAINES CHALLENGES <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AOC</a> 🚨
“I’ll debate her anytime. She can defend socialism — I’ll defend capitalism. She can defend removing God — I’ll defend a biblical worldview. She can defend child sacrifice — I’ll defend the sanctity of life.” —<a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Riley_Gaines_</a> <a href="https://t.co/teaTLDh5Vp">pic.twitter.com/teaTLDh5Vp</a>
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) <a href="https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/1982979855772987600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ocasio-Cortez tried to jab at Gaines again, responding to her debate challenge by saying, &#8220;And I would like to challenge this person to get a real job.&#8221;
&#8220;I have a real job. I&#8217;m a mom. It&#8217;s the most important &amp; rewarding job in the world. I think if you had a baby girl like I do, you&#8217;d understand my positions a little better,&#8221; was Gaines&#8217; reply.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I have a real job. I&#8217;m a mom. It&#8217;s the most important &amp; rewarding job in the world.
I think if you had a baby girl like I do, you&#8217;d understand my positions a little better. <a href="https://t.co/to8syxkXjP">https://t.co/to8syxkXjP</a>
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1983009006122684775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Photo courtesy of Riley Gaines

AOC Takes Cheap Shot At Riley Gaines, And Gaines Lets Her Have It: ‘Misogynistic Dunce’

AOC Takes Cheap Shot At Riley Gaines, And Gaines Lets Her Have It: 'Misogynistic Dunce'

alexandria ocasio-cortez

General

Lia Thomas

social media

Three years ago, NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines declared October 10 “XX Day,” an opportunity to celebrate female athletes who refuse to bow to radical left-wing gender ideology. 
This October 10, the XX-XY Athletics Fund announced several new 2025 Courage Wins Champions from a group of young women who hail from two of the most radical states in the nation, Oregon and California.
These female athletes didn’t just talk about fairness in sports. They put their names, reputations, and safety on the line to defend it.
They are high school athletes with no publicists or powerful sponsors backing them up. But despite the mainstream media and other powerful forces opposing them, these athletes stood proudly for the truth.
Jennifer Sey, the founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, says that deep personal conviction is contagious. 
“At a time when threats and bullying have escalated to violence, we are more determined than ever to use our voices and to reward those brave enough to use theirs to stand up for truth and biological reality,” Sey told The Daily Wire of the new winners.
“We need more speech, not less,” she added. “So we’re doubling down and awarding more winners than ever.” Sey added that these athletes are fighting “giants” like Nike and California Governor Gavin Newsom from “ground zero of the battle for fairness in sports.”
She went on, “It’s also notable that today is the deadline for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to honor the sex-based rights of women in his state or cave to ideological bullies’ demands. He’s a coach and he knows the realities of sport. Young athletes like Kendall Kotzmacher are saving the day so high school girls won’t be erased and humiliated in their own sport.”
“By acknowledging and celebrating these brave young women, we hope to encourage more to stand up in defense of women’s sports as well,” Sey concluded.
Oregon is a state where track and field reigns supreme and where Nike, one of the most aggressively “gender progressive” sports brands, is headquartered. This is where five high school girls made a stand that challenged their state’s athletic programs.
Reese Eckard, Maddie Eischen, and Sophia Carpenter refused to compete against a male athlete at the Chehalem Track and Field Classic last spring. They knew it might cost them friends, rankings, and potentially their athletic futures, but they did it anyway.
<div id="attachment_983855" style="width: 738px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-983855" class="size-large wp-image-983855" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Alexa-Anderson-728x576.jpg" alt="Alexa Anderson" width="728" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Alexa-Anderson-728x576.jpg 728w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Alexa-Anderson-300x237.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Alexa-Anderson-768x607.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Alexa-Anderson.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px" />XX-XY Athletics</div>
“I am so grateful for the support XX-XY Athletics has given me as I speak out for fairness in girls’ sports.   I’ve gained so much courage from the other athletes here in Oregon who are also standing up for equal opportunity. Thank you to XX-XY for empowering me to share the truth. Together, our message becomes even stronger,” Eckard said in a statement. 
Their act of defiance sparked something bigger. When All-American runner Sophia Castañeda, the fastest female sophomore in Oregon history in the 400m, lost to a male athlete and was bullied for speaking up, she joined forces with the others. Together, they filed suit against the Oregon Schools Athletic Association.
<div id="attachment_983857" style="width: 777px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-983857" class="size-large wp-image-983857" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Sophia-Castaneda-767x576.jpeg" alt="Sophia Castaneda" width="767" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Sophia-Castaneda-767x576.jpeg 767w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Sophia-Castaneda-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Sophia-Castaneda-768x577.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Sophia-Castaneda.jpeg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" />XX-XY Athletics</div>
And that’s not all. In a now-viral image, Alexa Anderson and Eckard can be seen stepping off the podium after a male competitor was crowned the girls’ state high jump champion. 
“I just didn’t think that it’s fair to biological females to allow and encourage biological males to compete among us, not only for myself and the other girl that stepped down, but the girl who should have been on the podium and the girl who didn’t even get to go to state because she was beaten by a biological male at districts,” Anderson said. 
“It is not about hate or transphobia at all. It’s about protecting women’s rights and their right to fair and equal competition within sports,” she said.
These are high schoolers fighting the same multi-billion-dollar sports industry that silenced adult Olympians. Their courage didn’t just win applause. It earned them the title of 2025 Courage Wins Champions.
Over in California, the ideological capital of this cultural madness, Governor Newsom’s administration is suing the federal government to preserve policies that force girls to compete against biological males. 
At Jurupa Valley High School, three teenage girls, including sisters Alyssa and Madison McPherson and their teammate Hadeel Hazameh, are refusing to play along.
<div id="attachment_983859" style="width: 506px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-983859" class="size-large wp-image-983859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Hadeel-Hazameh-496x576.jpeg" alt="Hadeel Hazameh" width="496" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Hadeel-Hazameh-496x576.jpeg 496w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Hadeel-Hazameh-258x300.jpeg 258w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Hadeel-Hazameh-768x892.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Hadeel-Hazameh.jpeg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px" />XX-XY Athletics</div>
“Standing up for what’s right shows more strength than any win or medal ever could,” Hazameh said of their efforts.
They’ve faced everything from online harassment to physical intimidation to threats against their faith. Still, they joined a lawsuit against their school district and the California Department of Education, demanding what should never have been controversial: that girls deserve their own sports.
“It’s not always easy to speak up, but that’s what makes it so powerful. Taking a stand shows other girls that they can be strong, fearless and true to themselves,” Alyssa McPherson said.
Courage Wins Award winners receive up to $5,000 and a spot in a leadership program designed to help them continue speaking up without being punished financially or socially.
That’s the heart of what Sey and XX-XY Athletics are building: a movement that makes standing for truth possible again.
Previous honorees include Brooke Slusser, Lauren Miller, Payton McNabb, Emmy Salerno, Stephanie Turner, Sia Liilii, and the Lincoln Middle School Five, a group of middle schoolers who took on adults and won.
The girls honored this year didn’t ask to be activists; they were just seeking fair competition. But they were unafraid to call out injustice when they saw it, rather than going away quietly. 
The Goliaths they’re fighting, Nike, Newsom, and every screeching activist with a platform, should take note. Because these brave Davids are the new face of women’s sports. 
As Sey put it, “We’re not done yet.”

Reese Eckard

High School Girls Defy Nike And Newsom, Earn ‘Courage Wins’ Awards For Defending Women’s Sports

High School Girls Defy Nike and Newsom, Earn 'Courage Wins' Awards for Defending Women’s Sports

Athlete

gender ideology

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump is directing the Department of Homeland Security to develop policies to block male international athletes from competing against women in the United States, The Daily Wire can exclusively report.
On Monday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will issue guidance building off Trump&#8217;s Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order, ensuring that certain athlete-related petitions and applications will be available only to women.
“Men do not belong in women’s sports,&#8221; USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser told The Daily Wire. &#8220;USCIS is closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s a matter of safety, fairness, respect, and truth that only biological female athletes receive a visa to come to the U.S. to participate in women’s sports,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The Trump administration is standing up for the silent majority who have long been victims of leftist policies that defy common sense.&#8221;
The agency&#8217;s update will clarify and revise guidance related to the visa categories &#8220;O-1A aliens of extraordinary ability,&#8221; &#8220;E11 aliens of extraordinary ability,&#8221; &#8220;E21 aliens of exceptional ability,&#8221; and &#8220;national interest waivers (NIWs).&#8221;
When considering these categories, if USCIS is considering a male athlete who says he is a transgender woman and thus wants to compete in women&#8217;s sports in the United States, USCIS will view the fact that this man has competed against women in the past as a negative factor when determining if he is among &#8220;the small percentage at the very top of the field.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_955815" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/?attachment_id=955815" rel="attachment wp-att-955815"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-955815" class="wp-image-955815 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197854021-1-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197854021-1-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197854021-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197854021-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197854021-1.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Riley Gaines watches as President Donald Trump delivers remarks before signing the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order in the East Room at the White House on February 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)</div>
Similarly, when looking at a male athlete who has &#8220;gained acclaim in men&#8217;s sports and seeks to compete in women&#8217;s sports&#8221; in the United States, USCIS will not consider him to be trying to &#8220;continue work in his area of extraordinary ability.&#8221;
The agency also says that male athletes who want to enter the country in order to compete in women&#8217;s sports &#8220;do not substantially benefit the United States&#8221; and that it is not in the national interest of the United States to &#8220;waive the job offer and, thus, the labor certification requirement for male athletes whose proposed endeavor is to compete in women’s sports.&#8221;
The move, which is part of USCIS&#8217;s efforts to protect all-female athletic opportunities, will ensure that &#8220;male aliens&#8221; who want immigration benefits aren&#8217;t coming to the United States to participate in women&#8217;s sports by pretending to be women.
A USCIS spokesman told The Daily Wire that the president&#8217;s February executive order was the catalyst for the agency&#8217;s decision. That order directed that all funds be rescinded from &#8220;educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,&#8221; saying that allowing men in women&#8217;s sports is &#8220;demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.&#8221;
&#8220;It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth,&#8221; Trump&#8217;s executive order stated.
The move is also interesting since the next Summer Olympic Games will be held in the United States in 2028 ( the 2026 Winter Olympics, will be hosted by Italy). The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee quietly changed its policy in July to comply with the president&#8217;s executive order and ban men from competing against women, a major win for conservatives and the White House.

President Trump Signs No Men In Women’s Sports Executive Order

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Updates Visa Categories To Block Men From Women’s Sports

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