Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter doubled down on his decision to bar Enes Kanter Freedom from future WNBA games at Wintrust Arena, claiming the former NBA player was no more entitled to a warning than someone who would &#8220;shoot a gun at someone.&#8221;
Alter told OutKick that Freedom had been identified as a threat when he stood up and approached the court, hands raised — at Sunday&#8217;s game featuring the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky — in response to comments shouted at him by Sky guard Natasha Cloud. He went on to suggest that Freedom had not been given a &#8220;warning&#8221; before he was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/enes-kanter-freedom-banned-from-chicago-sky-home-games-as-potential-threat">ejected from the game</a> because the threat he represented was so serious.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter says Enes Kanter Freedom became a “potential threat” when he stepped toward the court, defending the decision to eject him without warning.
Asked why Freedom wasn’t warned first, Alter compared it to shooting a gun: “Certain threats don’t get… <a href="https://t.co/95l3PP8Iir">pic.twitter.com/95l3PP8Iir</a>
— OutKick (@Outkick) <a href="https://x.com/Outkick/status/2092738568309682530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;He wasn’t given a warning because certain threats don’t get warnings. He was given a lot of leeway, as I was saying, he was sitting there and he was trash talking her and all that, so he was certainly given leeway, but at a certain point, when somebody — I mean, to use an extreme example, when you shoot a gun at someone, you don’t get a warning, ‘Don’t do that again.’ Your action doesn’t deserve a warning. You take action that becomes a threat, you don’t get a warning,&#8221; Alter said.
Freedom responded to the wild comparison, saying of Alter, &#8220;I mean, he needs to check himself.&#8221;
The former NBA player — who has declared for the 2027 WNBA draft based on the league&#8217;s vague guidelines regarding gender identification — said he may pursue legal action against the team and its owner.
&#8220;I’m not talking about against the WNBA, but I think against Michael Alter and the Chicago Sky for sure. Like, I don’t think they know what they’re talking about,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Me and my legal team will definitely be taking actions against Chicago Sky and Michael Alter.&#8221;
Freedom said he was at the game to support Fever shooting guard Sophie Cunningham, whom he calls a friend, who has been the target of harassment since she went public with her support for biological women and girls in athletics.

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WNBA Owner Compares Enes Kanter Freedom To Shooting A Gun

WNBA Owner Claims Enes Kanter Freedom Posed Threat Equal To Firing A Gun

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An HHS-commissioned study found an association between support for &#8220;radical gender ideology&#8221; and a greater willingness to justify political violence. 
The <a href="https://opa.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2026-08/gender-ideology-report.pdf">report</a>, released Wednesday by the Department of Health and Human Services, was written by researchers affiliated with Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute, and the Network Contagion Research Institute.
The preregistered survey asked more than 1,200 U.S. adults to rate their agreement with five transgender-affirming positions and whether six politically motivated acts of violence could be justified.
Those scenarios involved killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, killing President Donald Trump, killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, setting fire to ICE buildings, damaging wealthy people&#8217;s property, and attacking police officers.
Strong support for the transgender-affirming positions was positively correlated with greater justification for all six acts. The strongest association involved killing Trump, which had a correlation of 0.35, followed by setting fire to ICE buildings at 0.34 and killing Kirk at 0.31. 
The correlations were weaker for damaging wealthy people’s property at 0.28, killing Thompson at 0.27, and attacking police at 0.23. 
The researchers measured left-wing authoritarianism separately, which the report describes as a psychological disposition characterized by aggression toward perceived oppressors, support for censorship and institutional enforcement, and hostility toward conventional institutions.
Left-wing authoritarianism showed a stronger association with justification of political violence, with correlations ranging from 0.47 to 0.54 across the six scenarios.
Both transgender-affirming beliefs and left-wing authoritarianism remained significantly associated with greater justification of all six acts after researchers controlled for respondents&#8217; political identities.
“Together, these findings support the paper’s core claim: gender ideology may function as an ideological accelerant, telling left-wing authoritarian psychology who the enemy is, why the situation is urgent, and — in those already disposed toward force — that violence is legitimate,” the researchers wrote.
Both the researchers and HHS <a href="https://health.gov/hhs-releases-study-finding-individuals-who-associate-left-wing-authoritarian-beliefs-and-radical">acknowledged</a> that the study found an association but could not establish causation.
The report comes as the political views and transgender associations of several people accused or convicted of targeting prominent conservatives face ongoing scrutiny.
Tyler Robinson, the man charged with Kirk&#8217;s September 2025 murder, was living with a male roommate and romantic partner who identified as transgender, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Robinson sent his roommate messages confessing to the shooting and saying he &#8220;had enough of [Kirk&#8217;s] hatred.&#8221; Robinson’s mother <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-the-disturbing-texts-between-tyler-robinson-and-his-trans-love-after-charlie-kirk-assassination">previously told investigators</a> that her son became more political and left-leaning in the year before Kirk&#8217;s killing and had grown more supportive of pro-transgender views.
Ryan Michael English, 26, also known as Raleigh Jane English, was sentenced last week to 73 months in prison for bringing a knife and two improvised incendiary devices to the U.S. Capitol as part of a plot to kill then-Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent.
English, a man who identifies as a transgender woman, approached a U.S. Capitol Police officer in January 2025 and turned himself in. English later pleaded guilty to two federal weapons charges.
A second study is currently being designed to further investigate the correlation between left-wing ideology, trans-ideology, and political violence.

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HHS Study Links Transgender Ideology To Justification Of Political Violence

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Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is quietly trying to erase women and mothers from his state&#8217;s health code. 
The Democrat&#8217;s administration has removed female terminology and replaced it with transgender-inclusive language in a proposed overhaul to Pennsylvania&#8217;s health code. The terms “pregnant woman&#8221; and &#8220;mother of a newborn&#8221; have been replaced with “pregnant or postpartum individual&#8221; throughout the 502-page proposal, which was announced on August 8. Women who have given birth to a stillborn baby are no longer called a &#8220;mother&#8221; but are instead referred to as a &#8220;postpartum individual&#8221; in the proposed <a href="https://www.irrc.state.pa.us/docs/3490/AGENCY/3490PRO.pdf">regulation</a> changes.
Shapiro is pushing to give Pennsylvania’s Department of Health centralized police powers under the guise of “disease control measures” through expansive proposed regulatory changes to the health code, as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/josh-shapiro-arms-himself-with-draconian-police-powers-amid-re-election-fight">previously reported</a>. These expanded powers include the ability to enter homes and schools without a warrant, access confidential medical records, and impose statewide school mask mandates for disease prevention. The Department of Health reports to the governor’s office, meaning this change would give Shapiro — and his successors — the ability to single-handedly implement draconian policies across the state. 
&#8220;Somehow, in the midst of hundreds of pages of new government mandates, the department also found it necessary to erase words like &#8216;pregnant woman&#8217; and &#8216;mother&#8217; in the regulations and replace them with terms like &#8216;pregnant individual,'&#8221; Pennsylvania lawmaker Michele Brooks told The Daily Wire.
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<div id="attachment_1166545" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1166545" class="wp-image-1166545 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM-1024x568.png" alt="" width="1024" height="568" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM-1024x568.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM-300x166.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM-768x426.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM.png 1360w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot of proposed changes to the Pennsylvania health code that remove the term &#8220;woman.&#8221;</div>
Transgender activists believe men can <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breastfeeding-group-promotes-trans-lactation-with-horrifying-photo">give birth</a> and that obstetricians and gynecologists should use transgender inclusive language when delivering female healthcare. The American College of Obstetricians &amp; Gynecologists (ACOG) told doctors to “make their offices inclusive and inviting to all individuals who need obstetric or gynecologic health care” and to “educate themselves and their medical teams about appropriate language and the health care needs of transgender patients,” in an online statement.
“Some postpartum transgender individuals may not identify as ‘mothers;’ thus, obstetrician–gynecologists and other health care professionals should be mindful of the language they use. It may be appropriate to use a more neutral term, such as ‘parent,’&#8221; wrote ACOG in a March 2021 committee opinion titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2021/03/health-care-for-transgender-and-gender-diverse-individuals">Health Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals</a>.&#8221;
Randall Wenger, chief counsel of the Independence Law Center, told The Daily Wire that Shapiro’s language changes reveal a “triumph of ideology over biology.&#8221;
“The changing of language in the [Department of Health] regulations represents the triumph of ideology over biology,” Wenger told The Daily Wire. “This change of language doesn’t reflect reality; it obscures it. It erases female identity as a stable category in favor of a fluid concept of gender. The Shapiro administration is so concerned with affirming transgender identity that it can no longer recognize the realities of biological sex. The department cannot pretend to fight dangerous diseases with its delusions about gender.&#8221;
Shapiro ardently supports transgenderism and allowing children access to harmful sex-change interventions. 
&#8220;I want to say, especially to our trans children, I see you and I love you,&#8221; Shapiro said at a <a href="https://www.wgal.com/article/governor-josh-shapiro-pride-festival-harrisburg-trans-children/61716119">July 2024</a> pride event in Harrisburg. &#8220;I&#8217;ve gone to court to protect our trans kids and I&#8217;ll continue to stand in the town squares and town halls in every community across Pennsylvania — rural, urban, and suburban — and proclaim loudly and clearly that we love all God&#8217;s children, including our trans children.&#8221;
Shapiro joined a group of state attorneys general in his capacity as Pennsylvania&#8217;s Governor and <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/commonwealth-of-massachusetts-et-al-v-donald-j-trump-et-al-complaint-2025.pdf">sued</a> the Trump administration for banning pediatric transgender medical procedures such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries, in August 2025. 
Shapiro created the Governor’s Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs in <a href="https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/governor/documents/20230606_Governors-Advisory-Commission-on-LGBTQ-Affairs_Final-Executed.pdf">June 2023 </a>that engages in LGBTQ activism throughout Pennsylvania and provides the administration with legislative and policy recommendations. Ashleigh Strange, who<a href="https://www.pa.gov/governor/administration/advisory-commissions#accordion-3c14ae505f-item-4419d2d9db"> identifies</a> as “they/them,” is the executive director of the Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs and is paid an annual salary of $106,289, according to a government transparency <a href="https://pennwatch.pa.gov/Employees/Salaries?handler=ExecuteSearch">website</a>. 
&#8220;We are an advisory commission, so there are 30 people all across the Commonwealth who are dedicated to getting the information from the LGBTQ community to the governor&#8217;s office. And everyone in the governor&#8217;s office and all of the agencies under his purview are dedicated to making sure that the LGBTQ community is safe, seen, and heard,&#8221; Strange said in a July 2026 <a href="http://facebook.com/reel/1566902568198581/?fs=e&amp;s=TIeQ9V&amp;mibextid=wwXIfr&amp;rdid=9PB0QxX7tuo86quH&amp;share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fr%2F1GdDVHRU52%2F%3Fmibextid%3DwwXIfr#">social media post</a>. &#8220;We know that our communities are under attack. The governor knows this.&#8221;
Governor Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Health did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment.

Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro speaks at the

Democrat Governor Wants To Remove ‘Mothers’ And ‘Pregnant Woman’ From State Health Code 

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A drag performer who goes by the stage name &#8220;Chlamydia Berns&#8221; is raising money to fight back against a Republican campaign ad featuring a photograph of him alongside Democratic congressional candidate Paige Cognetti. 
Cognetti, the Democratic mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, is challenging Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan in the state’s competitive 8th Congressional District.
The dispute began after Bresnahan and the National Republican Congressional Committee launched an advertisement earlier this month attacking Cognetti’s record and political affiliations. The ad features a photograph of Cognetti standing beside Frank Carey, a local drag performer who performs as “Lady Lydia,” and more provocatively, “Chlamydia Berns.”
The photo was taken at Scranton’s 2025 Pride flag-raising ceremony, where Carey performed “Rainbow Connection,” and was later published on the city&#8217;s social media accounts. The ad describes Cognetti as “a member of the radical group trying to force grown men in girls’ bathrooms and women’s sports.”
Carey subsequently launched a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/not-a-political-prop-stand-with-lady-lydia-udzpd?utm_campaign=natman_sharesheet_dash&amp;utm_medium=customer&amp;ts=1786748244&amp;utm_source=native_options&amp;utm_id=97757_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1demonyz7gdv0&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawTwKtFwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR7_NJCS3P9wnaYw-6KA4ySyeB7ZfI3_xWbvxoP6aCrkVq5oIiJIbFjRQNyIXQ_aem_Vb4tFEARGCRCYdOpvxjuQA">GoFundMe campaign</a> that has raised more than $2,000 for potential legal fees. 
“This was certainly never a situation I expected to find myself in,” Carey wrote on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/frank.carey.161/posts/pfbid02TXVrFoEB5ZYPaCEvJhzfTyFgaWyB7DXk9FktNzxLATTs7mCaq1i4z4mqBSm6Ky7Rl?rdid=MwFFI0fUssndeMWJ#">Facebook</a>, “But sometimes you have to stand up and say enough is enough.” 
“This Queen isn’t going quietly,” he added.
Carey has said the advertisement misrepresents him, noting that he is a man who performs in drag and does not identify as transgender. He said he supports transgender-identifying people but uses men’s restrooms even while performing. 
He also said he was appearing as Lady Lydia, which he describes as his “family-friendly” drag persona, at the Pride event rather than as Chlamydia Berns. <a href="https://www.wvia.org/news/local/2026-08-17/dragged-into-it-drag-performer-raises-money-to-challenge-appearing-in-bresnahan-ad">Local news coverage</a> of the event shows children were present.
The Republicans, meanwhile, have repeatedly pointed to Carey’s other stage name in defending the advertisement. 
“Paige Cognetti owes voters answers for her voluntary association with activist groups who are pushing sex change surgeries for kids and why she chose to appear with someone who refers to themselves as ‘Chlamydia Berns’ at an event with small children present,” NRCC spokesman Reilly Richardson told the <a href="https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/2026/08/17/drag-performer-upset-over-political-ad-that-used-photo/">Scranton Times-Tribune</a>.
Cognetti’s campaign has repeatedly declined to comment on the controversy, despite requests from multiple local news organizations.
The fight has since expanded beyond the original advertisement. Democratic allies have sought to turn the issue back on Bresnahan, highlighting photographs of the Republican congressman participating in events involving drag performers and LGBTQ-friendly organizations.
Bresnahan and his wife attended a 2023 fundraiser for the KISS Theatre Company in Wilkes-Barre, where Carey was then a member. Democrats have also circulated photographs of Bresnahan wearing <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/08/20/2026/in-pennsylvania-house-race-its-pink-heels-vs-drag-queens">bright pink heels at a breast cancer awareness event.</a>
Carey has said he supports Cognetti but did not intend to become involved in the congressional race.
“I know and support trans people,” Carey said, while emphasizing that drag performance and transgender identity are separate things.
Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District includes Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike counties and portions of Luzerne and Monroe counties. The Bresnahan campaign has used the controversy to argue that Cognetti is too far to the left for the district. 
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STD-Themed Drag Queen Comes After Republicans Over Dem Attack Ad

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Fed-up parents in North Carolina blasted their school district at a local school board meeting over the hiring of a transgender-identifying teacher at an elementary school, with families alleging that children are being forced to address the biological male teacher with a woman&#8217;s name.
The fireworks erupted at the August 18 meeting of the <a href="https://www.wcpss.net/">Wake County Public School System</a> board following weeks of escalating outrage over the hiring of a biological male who identifies as a woman to teach music to children at Middle Creek Elementary in Apex.
The controversy exploded in late July after Republican State Rep. Erin Paré went public on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1453185436615954&amp;id=100057735353852&amp;mibextid=wwXIfr&amp;rdid=Iti8Uu68D02sNzrz">Facebook</a>, saying she had received calls and emails from outraged constituents. She wrote:
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I’ve received your emails and phone calls about the hiring of a transgender biological male, who dresses as a woman, music teacher, in one of our local elementary schools. I have brought your concerns to the attention of the Wake County Public School System leadership. I don’t care how adults choose to live outside of the professional work day. But I will ALWAYS protect our children.
</blockquote>
Paré called out district leadership for exposing young children to complex adult topics, writing, “It is important that WCPSS policies regarding employee dress and appearance should protect children from being exposed to more complex and mature gender-identity questions and concepts at too young of an age. WCPSS can treat employees with dignity and respect, and at the same time ensure young children aren’t exposed to age inappropriate concepts.”
When the school board met for the second time this month on the issue, furious parents showed up to make sure their voices were heard, publicly slamming the district for the hire and alleging that children were forced to engage in compelled speech by addressing a male teacher using a female honorific and pronouns.
One father delivered a fiery defense of traditional values, declaring that ordinary Americans are done quietly accepting leftism in primary education. Expressing religious objections, he noted the sheer absurdity of sending children to school only to have them handed over to a transgender-identifying instructor. He said the school had &#8220;surprised parents by placing their 5-year-olds in the custody of a trans teacher.&#8221;
“Here&#8217;s what our detractors are telling us, by the way: ‘You don&#8217;t support school hiring a trans teacher? Maybe public school isn&#8217;t for you or your family. Maybe homeschool, maybe private school,'&#8221; the father said. &#8220;That&#8217;s right, maybe pay taxes into the school system and then pay again to escape from it.&#8221;
&#8220;Parents, not administrators, not academics, not social justice activists, remain the primary moral authority,” he concluded.
Another parent took direct aim at the administration&#8217;s political agenda, questioning whether the hiring was a deliberate attempt to reshape school culture. She pointed out that the school’s principal had completed a doctoral dissertation focused on &#8220;equity-focused school improvement,&#8221; leaving families to wonder whether activists are prioritizing political dogma over basic education.
A third mother reminded board members that the classroom should focus on subjects like reading, writing, math, and music, not adult topics of sex and gender.
“These children are being told to address a male teacher as female. This is compelled speech and raises legitimate concerns. The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld that compelled speech violates the First Amendment. Elementary schools should be places where children learn reading, writing, math, music, science, and history. They are not to be places where they&#8217;re expected to navigate adult topics of sex and gender,” the mother said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
MUST WATCH: Parents at <a href="https://x.com/WCPSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WCPSS</a> in NC are BLASTING the school board after the district hired a male transgender teacher and are reportedly forcing students to refer to him as a woman.
&quot;Parents shouldn&#39;t have to pass an ideological test to participate in public education.&quot;
&quot;These… <a href="https://t.co/9eZ8QjvOxp">pic.twitter.com/9eZ8QjvOxp</a>
&mdash; Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2090832157778264511?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The message to Wake County school officials remains loud and clear: the classroom belongs to the kids, not the activists.

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Parents Blast School Board Over Trans Elementary School Teacher

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Trans-identifying illegal immigrants being held in federal immigration detention centers will no longer have access to hormones aiding their so-called transitions.
Specialized treatment for transgender detainees in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ended altogether under the Trump administration, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/nyregion/transgender-migrants-ice.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
&#8220;To be clear: we will NOT waste taxpayer dollars to provide hormone therapy to illegal aliens seeking to change their sex,&#8221; DHS said in an X post on Thursday.
The number of ICE detainees who identify as transgender makes up a small percentage of those being held.
Between October 2023 and September 2024, ICE held 244 detainees who identified as transgender, according to agency data.
The agency no longer shares that data, but ICE&#8217;s last public count listed 47 transgender detainees in ICE custody as of January, according to The New York Times. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also scrubbed an Obama-era policy &#8220;on the care of transgender individuals in custody&#8221; from its website.
Meanwhile, activists have reported instances of harassment, abuse, and retaliation against trans-identifying detainees from ICE agents and fellow detainees.
Venezuelan illegal immigrant Camila Toro de Paula, 25, a transgender-identifying man, told The New York Times that he has been assaulted and threatened, while also being denied hormones. He has been held in solitary confinement, where he claims to lack access to water for up to 24 hours at a time.
According to DHS, Toro de Paula has a rap sheet that includes charges for felony assault and criminal possession, which were dismissed and sealed. His lawyer claimed the charges stemmed from his June 30, 2025, arrest in the Bronx after he allegedly hit a man on the head with a skillet.
Toro de Paula&#8217;s attorney said the Venezuelan national was fighting off a robber.
The transgender-identifying illegal immigrant was also charged with prostitution in Queens, which was later dismissed, according to The New York Times. Later, he was charged with pickpocketing in Queens and pleaded guilty to jostling.
Bridget Crawford, the legal director at Immigration Equality, told the outlet that &#8220;the administration is creating a humanitarian disaster” with its policies.
The New York Times also reported that &#8220;safeguards&#8221; for transgender ICE detainees &#8220;have vanished&#8221; since Trump&#8217;s return to the White House.
DHS has denied that any &#8220;detainees are being beaten or abused.&#8221;
“No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States,” the department said.

Demonstrators Hold President’s Day Protest

Trump Stops Giving Hormones To Trans-Identifying Illegal Immigrants In ICE Detention

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After 11 years as a sports columnist at The Seattle Times, Matt Calkins has resigned from the paper, saying editors refused to publish a column arguing that opposing biological males competing in women’s sports does not make someone “transphobic.”
The columnist <a href="https://x.com/Matt_Calkins/status/2090483833057751064">announced</a> his resignation Thursday, saying the decision was entirely his own but came after the newspaper declined to run his piece on the debate over biological males competing in women’s sports.
“The impetus was the Times declining to run a column I wrote from the perspective of two female student athletes who were opposed to competing against biological males,” Calkins wrote. “It was one of several pieces of mine that had been spiked, and I no longer felt like I could properly do my job as a columnist.”
The decision came after Calkins interviewed 16-year-old Ahnaleigh Wilson, a student-athlete who had lost to a biological male in a track race and attended a matchup between the Indiana Fever and the  Seattle Storm carrying a sign reading, “Thank You, Sophie For Speaking Up For Girls!” Wilson’s experience at that game became the catalyst for Calkins’ unpublished column.
During the game, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-co-owner-accused-of-cursing-out-teen-girls-over-xx-xy-shirts">confronted</a> Wilson and another teenage girl who were supporting Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who has publicly opposed biological males competing in women’s sports. 
Keaton allegedly called the girls “f***ing insane” and told Wilson, “I hope Jesus can forgive you,” leaving the teenager in tears. The WNBA subsequently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-co-owners-tirade-at-sophie-cunningham-fans-ends-in-fallout">suspended</a> Keaton from attending five home games and fined her over the incident.
For Calkins, the episode raised a question he believed deserved to be addressed by a sports columnist: Why should a teenage girl who believes women’s sports should remain female-only automatically be treated as hateful or bigoted?
Wilson told Calkins that she did not hate transgender people and simply believed girls should have their own sports. Another Washington student-athlete, Frances Staudt, told him she had faced verbal abuse at school after refusing to play against a biological male.
Calkins ultimately published the rejected column on his Substack under the title, “<a href="https://substack.com/home/post/p-211906384">Agreeing with Sophie Cunningham’s stance doesn’t make you transphobic.</a>”
“Some people saw bigotry. I saw bravery,” Calkins wrote of Wilson. “I saw a teenage girl speaking up on an issue that so many adults shy away from.”
The column argued that the separation of male and female sports exists precisely because of biological differences in physical performance, and that supporting that separation does not necessarily amount to hostility toward transgender people. But the Seattle Times declined to publish it.
Calkins <a href="https://substack.com/home/post/p-212028578">said</a> he initially submitted the column to his editor on July 31 and was told that editors were reviewing it. Several days later, he said, he was informed that the piece would not run because he had failed to notify his editor in advance that he was working on it.
“I didn’t buy this reasoning,” Calkins wrote. “If that were the case, the piece would have been killed on the spot, not passed through the hands of multiple editors over several days.” 
He resigned immediately afterward.
The decision was not, according to Calkins, simply about one column. He said the Times had previously spiked columns questioning whether the U.S. women’s soccer team was actually the victim of discrimination in its equal-pay lawsuit, criticizing cancel culture in sports, and defending a black high school basketball coach who urged Americans not to stereotype police following George Floyd’s death.
Calkins said the common thread was that the pieces challenged narratives that he believed a columnist should be willing to question.
 “I’ve always thought that it was a columnist’s duty to generate discussion on the most hot-button issues,” he wrote. “To avoid such topics was to leave the reader shortchanged.”
“I guess in the end, I just didn’t feel like I could do my job properly anymore,” he wrote.
Calkins acknowledged that leaving a long-established newspaper job without another position lined up was frightening. He said he has no idea what his career will look like in the coming years and joked that he could even end up working as a dental assistant.
But he said the uncertainty was preferable to self-censorship.
“To be honest, I’m scared sh—tless right now,” Calkins wrote. “But that fear beats the indignity of being muzzled.”

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Sports Columnist Breaks Up With Paper Over Biological Reality

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Media Bias

Seattle

Seattle Storm

Sophie Cunningham

Transgender Athletes

Women's Basketball

Women's sports

xx-xy athletics

Two WNBA coaches took aim at fans who rallied on Wednesday to protect women’s sports, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/lynx-valkyries-coaches-rip-save-womens-sports-movement-pro-trans-mob-rocks-1st-rally-non-fever-game">slamming</a> the growing &#8220;Save Women&#8217;s Sports&#8221; movement as nothing more than political noise.
Ahead of Wednesday’s showdown between the Minnesota Lynx and Golden State Valkyries at the Chase Center, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve brushed off a rally supporting female athletes, labeling the movement a mere &#8220;talking point that people are buying into.&#8221; Reeve, who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/espn-praises-wnba-coach-after-trans-sports-jab-at-sophie-cunningham?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=40&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=ESPN+Praises+WNBA+Coach+After+Trans+Sports+Jab+At+Sophie+Cunningham">donned</a> a &#8220;trans kids belong&#8221; shirt on the sidelines earlier this month, called for further education and insisted the issue shouldn&#8217;t be used to marginalize a community.
Not to be outdone, Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase took her own swing at the rallygoers, taking to the podium to preach that there is &#8220;too much hate speech&#8221; in sports today and urging people to &#8220;lead with love.&#8221;
The coaches&#8217; pregame comments served as the backdrop for a chaotic scene outside the Chase Center, where a small group of peaceful women’s rights advocates found themselves encircled by an aggressive, chanting mob of pro-trans counter-protesters.
Family rights attorney Erin Friday told Fox News, &#8220;We were outside of this Chase Center holding signs peacefully. There were about eight to nine women, majority are lesbians, majority are Democrats or former Democrats, and the crowd came by us yelling profanities, telling us to get out.”
Arianne Gieringer, vice president of LGB Alliance USA and a lifelong Bay Area native, revealed that an aggressive protester screamed that she &#8220;didn&#8217;t belong&#8221; in the city.
Arena security stepped in to keep the peace, forcing activists to ditch their signs before heading inside to watch the Lynx beat the Valkyries 77-66.
The San Francisco circus was just the latest explosion in a wild culture war tearing through the league. Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham ruffled trans advocates’ feathers by boldly declaring that biological males have no business in female locker rooms or athletics. Cunningham’s straight-shooting stance sparked nationwide &#8220;Save Women&#8217;s Sports&#8221; rallies outside arenas from Seattle to Atlanta.
Fever head coach Stephanie White recently flew off the handle in an unhinged, expletive-laden tirade, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sophie-cunninghams-coach-tells-critics-to-go-to-hell-after-quiet-reaction-to-brutal-hit?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=18&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Sophie+Cunningham%E2%80%99s+Coach+Tells+Critics+To+%E2%80%98Go+To+Hell%E2%80%99+After+Quiet+Reaction+To+Brutal+Hit">telling online critics</a> to &#8220;go to hell&#8221; after being torched for failing to react when Cunningham was hard-fouled and left bleeding by Chicago’s DiJonai Carrington. Meanwhile, ESPN commentators have used live broadcasts to hype up Coach Reeve’s leftist talking points.
Despite the hostility from league leadership and screaming mobs on the street, the &#8220;Save Women&#8217;s Sports&#8221; movement isn&#8217;t backing down. With demonstrations popping up at nearly a dozen games in less than a month, fans are making it crystal clear that the real battle in the WNBA is happening far beyond the court.

MixCollage-20-Aug-2026-08-50-AM-8179

WNBA Coaches Slam ‘Save Women’s Sports’ Movement As Tensions Flare Outside Arena

Leftists

LGBT

A Maine-based breastfeeding group is facing major backlash for promoting “trans lactation” and displaying a disturbing image of what that looks like.
The Maine State Breastfeeding Coalition posted the image last week on Instagram in honor of National Breastfeeding Month. 
“National Breastfeeding Month is for every family,” the group wrote. “We&#8217;re proud to celebrate and uplift trans lactation, chestfeeding, and Two-Spirit families during National Breastfeeding Month. Every family deserves affirming, respectful, and evidence-based care. Creating inclusive spaces means recognizing that parents use different words to describe their feeding journeys, and honoring each person&#8217;s identity and lived experience.” 
“Milk makes families, and every family belongs,” the group added.
Predictably, comments on the social media post are turned off, but a screenshot of the post shared by Libs of TikTok set off a firestorm on X. 
“You will live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension,” Libs of TikTok <a href="https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2089766034181890141">wrote</a> in response to the image of a bearded woman, or possibly a man pumping fake (or actual) breast milk out of his or her chest.
“Those people are not just insane but pure evil. WTF?” one comment <a href="https://x.com/pattyandbeagle/status/2089908380546551939">said</a>.
“This is disgusting and wrong on so many levels,” another person <a href="https://x.com/GNFranzia/status/2089864084934074574">agreed</a>.
The Maine State Breastfeeding Coalition touts itself as <a href="https://www.mainebreastfeeds.org/about">having a mission</a> to “empower and nurture Maine families throughout their human milk feeding journeys.” The group offers an FAQ document for “LGBTQIA2S+ Parents” which includes some instructions on “chestfeeding” for men and other abominations.
“Inducing lactation in transgender women is very similar to inducing lactation in cisgender women. While there are transgender women who have successfully established a milk supply, the amount produced varies from woman to woman,” the <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/623c93ab859fd10054a0c136/t/6961055db3607530a4c75381/1767966058235/Q%2B+Parent+Resource.pdf">resource material</a> says.
The document also downplays any risks of “chestfeeding” a newborn baby while taking testosterone.
“Currently, not much evidence exists as to the safety of taking testosterone while chestfeeding,” it says. “The studies that do exist show that taking testosterone (either via cream, gel, orally, or injection) does pass into human milk in low levels, but this low amount does not adversely affect the baby or increase the levels of testosterone in the baby’s blood. It is currently considered safe to chestfeed while on testosterone.”
The organization encourages “non-birthing parents” to bond with the baby by inducing lactation. This practice sometimes involves biological males using a breast pump to produce a milk-like substance from their bodies.
“It is important to know that inducing lactation can take a lot of time and energy, but it is worth it for many families,” the document states.

Trans breastfeeding

Breastfeeding Group Promotes ‘Trans Lactation’ With Horrifying Photo

Breast Milk

Maine

WASHINGTON — A man who identifies as a transgender woman has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for plotting to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, yet another example of a trans-identifying individual who plotted politically motivated violence.
Twenty-five-year-old Ryan Michael English (who goes by Reily or Raleigh Jane English) of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in March to weapons charges stemming from a plot to assassinate Bessent. On Tuesday, a judge sentenced English to 73 months and 36 months of supervised release, according to the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/massachusetts-resident-sentenced-attempt-assassinate-cabinet-member-nominee-us-capitol">Justice Department</a>.
His gender identity was not publicly known until Tuesday, when court documents and testimony showed that English identifies as a woman.
Though prosecutors asked for 10 years, Judge Rudolph Contreras rejected the government&#8217;s request for a maximum sentence, a person who attended the proceedings told The Daily Wire. The judge highlighted that English identifies as transgender and took into account that English&#8217;s family did not accept his gender identity, saying that English had suffered because of this.
The government had argued that English should receive the maximum sentence to send a message that political violence is unacceptable. But Contreras rejected the government’s request, saying this was a low-visibility case and wouldn&#8217;t deter political violence because few people would learn about it.
According to the attendee, Contreras also asked prosecutors what message President Donald Trump&#8217;s pardons of January 6 defendants and efforts to establish a fund to compensate them sent about deterring political violence.
Contreras also said he would recommend housing English in a women&#8217;s prison, according to the attendee. A separate source familiar with the matter told The Daily Wire that English still has male genitalia.
English had approached a Capitol Police officer near the south door of the Capitol building on January 27, 2025, and said, &#8220;I&#8217;d like to turn myself in,&#8221; then admitted to possessing a knife and two Molotov cocktails, according to court documents. After officers searched English, they found that he had a folding knife and two improvised incendiary devices in his pockets, as well as a green lighter.
“I was going to kill Scott Bessent,&#8221; he admitted after he was handcuffed, according to authorities. He also told them: &#8220;For everything I’ve said, yes, I was going to kill a man in cold blood who I never met, yes.&#8221;
English struggled with his physical health, mental health, and substance abuse, the court filings state.
He told investigators that before focusing on Bessent, he had considered killing other government officials, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, or attacking a Washington think tank, which Fox News identified as the Heritage Foundation. After seeing Bessent on TV while at a library in the D.C. area, he changed his mind and decided to kill the Treasury Secretary.
Brian Phillips, Vice President of Communications at the Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Wire, &#8220;We are grateful to law enforcement for getting these lunatics off the street. As always, vigilance is the price of freedom.”
<div id="attachment_1160321" style="width: 872px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/transgender-identifying-man-sought-to-kill-scott-bessent/senate-confirmation-hearings-for-us-president-elect-donald-trumps-nominees" rel="attachment wp-att-1160321"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1160321" class="wp-image-1160321 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2194287780-862x576.jpg" alt="" width="862" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2194287780-862x576.jpg 862w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2194287780-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2194287780-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2194287780.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 862px) 100vw, 862px" /></a>Scott Bessent speaks during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen building on January 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)</div>
&#8220;Judith dear god I am so sorry,&#8221; English wrote in a note recovered by authorities, according to court documents. &#8220;You must understand I can feel myself dying slowly b/c of my heart. This is terrible but I can&#8217;t do nothing while nazis kill my sisters. I love you. This is awful. Im so sorry. I love u. Please stay alive and heal. you can. you are strong enough. F*ck them for pushing us so far. you don&#8217;t deserve this. Im so sorry for lying and plotting and lying. Please survive.&#8221;
That message was written on a receipt and accompanied by drawings of seven hearts, according to court documents. English also had the words &#8220;NO FUTURE NO CHOICE&#8221; handwritten on his arm.
When officers asked him why he was in Washington, he told them, &#8220;pretty much the words on my arms say everything.&#8221;
He also revealed that he was inspired by Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
&#8220;I was planning on burning down [a Washington, D.C.-based think tank] which is near the White House,&#8221; he told authorities, the court documents show.
&#8220;I was going to go there under the guise of I applied for an internship&#8230;I was going to go to the [think tank], tell them what they wanted to hear, and basically say that I was &#8216;oh I was emailing with [individual-1] for a while, oh it must have been a scam, oh that&#8217;s so unfortunate&#8217; and introduce myself&#8230;.&#8221;
English detailed that he was trying to think of ways to meet a certain individual within the think tank and kill them &#8220;for revenge,&#8221; and if not, he was planning on &#8220;burning down the building.&#8221;
&#8220;I was making all of these plans in my head of what I could do,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If all else fails, I was going to slit my wrists on the White House steps. Just because that&#8217;s all you can do if you can&#8217;t hurt anyone else and you&#8217;re out of options and you&#8217;re out of time and you need to have an outlet and you need to show people how serious it is and you need to make one dramatic f*cking thing.&#8221;
English also told authorities that he had considered staking out Washington and looking for opportunities to harm &#8220;big players,&#8221; according to the filings.
English said he fixated on Bessent after seeing him on television, then stumbling on a Reddit post about Bessent saying the federal minimum wage should not be increased. &#8220;I believe he&#8217;s a billionaire &#8230;&#8221; English told authorities. He was particularly bothered by how Bessent smiled as he said the minimum wage should not be increased from $7.25.
&#8220;He said it with a smile on his face and that got under my skin &#8230; and this is how I decide who deserves to live or die right? Because I don&#8217;t get to make that decision, but it&#8217;s as if they&#8217;re making it for themself.&#8221;
English is one of a number of trans-identifying individuals who have been implicated in plots or acts of violence targeting Americans over politics or religion in recent years. The Daily Wire reported in September 2025 that Nicholas Roske, the man who attempted to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-attempted-kavanaugh-assassin-identifies-as-transgender-woman-legal-filings-show">identifies as a transgender woman</a> and was deeply mentally ill and suicidal.
On August 27, 2025, trans-identifying shooter Robert Westman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-we-know-about-the-trans-identifying-gunman-who-slaughtered-catholic-school-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killed Catholic school children</a> in Minnesota before taking his own life. Westman’s attack came just two years after another trans-identifying killer targeted Christian school children in Nashville.
In May, Sebastian Gorka, the senior director for counterterrorism at the White House National Security Council, told The Daily Wire that the new White House Counter Terrorism Strategy includes “rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups,” including those subscribing to transgender ideology.
Gorka slammed previous administrations for ignoring real threats while weaponizing agencies against Americans, saying that &#8220;Americans have witnessed the politically motivated killings of Christians and conservatives increasingly committed by violent Left-wing extremists, including the assassination of my friend Charlie Kirk by a radical who espoused extremist transgender ideologies.&#8221;

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Testifies To Senate Finance Committee On Treasury Dept’s Budget

Transgender-Identifying Man Sought To Kill Scott Bessent

Heritage Foundation

Scott Bessent

WASHINGTON— Activist groups are pressuring Democrats to go all-in on transgenderism ahead of the midterm elections — a topic that proved fatal for the left in 2024.
During a Democratic National Committee meeting in Texas this month, the Human Rights Campaign <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/aug/15/democrats-plan-decade-long-strategy-push-pro-transgender-narrative/">revealed its plan</a> to spend $15 million on the midterm elections in order to push transgender ideology. Activists articulated a plan to highlight stories of trans-identifying teenagers in a pitch to gain sympathy from voters who believe they&#8217;ve been discriminated against, <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/aug/15/democrats-plan-decade-long-strategy-push-pro-transgender-narrative/">The Washington Times reported.</a>
The strategy is particularly notable given how badly transgenderism has consistently polled for Democrats: the latest polls show that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/08/11/most-americans-are-uncomfortable-with-transgender-athletes-on-sports-teams-that-dont-match-their-birth-sex/">most Americans are against</a> men in women&#8217;s sports and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/voters-widely-oppose-taxpayer-funded-gender-surgeries-revealing-democrat-partys-vulnerability-poll">oppose taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries</a>. During the 2024 election, President Donald Trump aggressively and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-trump-learned-to-embrace-the-transgender-culture-wars">successfully highlighted Democrat support</a> for gender ideology.
Republicans aren&#8217;t too worried about this messaging, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee shared.
&#8220;If Democrats want to keep lighting money on fire to push transgender propaganda, Republicans won&#8217;t stop them from torching it,&#8221; National Press Secretary Natalie Baldassarre told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Their woke gender ideology has already backfired, and another 10 years of &#8216;narrative work&#8217; won&#8217;t change the fact that Americans don&#8217;t want sick freaks forcing this into classrooms, invading women&#8217;s sports, or exposing themselves in bathrooms.&#8221;
Conservatives have long maintained that Democrats are beholden to far-left activist groups like the HRC — groups flush with cash that can sway the priorities of the Democrat party.  Conservative activists and strategists who spoke with The Daily Wire about the upcoming midterm elections suggested this is still very much the case.
&#8220;The national party is not following public opinion polls,&#8221; The Heritage Foundation&#8217;s Jay Richards told The Daily Wire on Monday. &#8220;It is continuing to follow the most radical, and well-funded, parts of their coalition, such as the Human Rights Campaign. HRC would have little reason to exist but for the gender ideology cause.&#8221;
HRC strategist Sam Alleman, who spoke to the DNC on the topic, shared that his organization has a 10-year plan to change how Americans view transgenderism. That includes flooding the airwaves with personal stories of people who identify as transgender — a strategy activists <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/media-keeps-claiming-abortion-bans-hamper-emergency-pregnancy-care-but-the-examples-dont-hold-up">successfully deployed</a> during the 2024 election cycle on abortion.
“Anti-trans attacks are going to be used in this election at the largest scale we have ever seen them used before, and we have to be ready and prepared for that,” Alleman told the DNC, the Washington Times reported. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Wire. “It’s now our turn to show up for the trans community and continue doing that work and driving narrative work.&#8221;
He added: “And we really believe that in terms of shifting opinion on these issues when it comes to sports, healthcare — where it might be tough — the way we do it is by sharing our stories and not backing down and making ourselves more visible.&#8221;
The Trump White House isn&#8217;t impressed with the DNC&#8217;s planning.
“Leave it to Democrats to find themselves on the wrong side of an 80-20 issue,&#8221; White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Daily Wire on Monday. &#8220;While Democrats continue doubling down on a radical, left-wing agenda, the Trump administration will continue to protect young children from unscientific and irreversible child mutilation procedures.”
That&#8217;s a position that the White House has held for quite some time. Late last month, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referenced criticism of Sophie Cunningham as she told The Daily Wire that the Trump administration&#8217;s stance on transgenderism reflects widespread public opinion.
“They are clearly very out of touch with the American public on this issue, which again is an 80-20 issue,” Leavitt said in late July. “It’s common sense. It’s rooted in basic biological fact that men should not be competing against women on playing fields across the country.”
Groups like the HRC and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have fought long and hard to change sentiment on transgenderism in the United States, crafting the phrase &#8220;gender-affirming care&#8221; to act as a euphemism for transgender surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers. That clinical sounding euphemism is particularly effective when used in polling questions and framing.
When Americans are polled honestly on the topic, according to the American Principles Project&#8217;s Terry Schilling, they are adamantly against gender ideology in almost every form.  Schilling shared that his organization just got back message testing in Michigan and Wisconsin on Democrats pushing transgenderism on young people and children.
“It’s still shifting voters at incredible levels,” he said.
&#8220;People have seen how the trans agenda has sterilized and maimed even children to build a $4.5 billion medical industry,&#8221; Schilling argued. &#8220;They’ve seen men invading women’s private spaces and endangering our daughters. They’ve seen the victims of this trans agenda commit mass shootings and human atrocities when they can’t get the authentic care they deserve — acceptance and celebration of the sex and bodies that God gave them.&#8221;
Schilling does see one silver lining in the Democrat messaging — &#8220;they aren’t gaslighting us or telling us that it doesn’t happen anymore,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We are at least making progress there!&#8221;
Groups on the right like the Independent Women&#8217;s Forum have fought for years to combat Democrat messaging on topics like men in women&#8217;s sports. Neeraja Deshpande, a policy analyst at Independent Women, argues that Democrats think they have a messaging problem when in reality they have a policy problem. They are fundamentally misunderstanding the American desire to safeguard children.
&#8220;So long as Democrats continue gunning for men in women&#8217;s sports and spaces, and for transitioning impressionable kids who are too young to consent, no amount of lipstick-on-pig messaging is going to change that these are insane policies that the majority of Americans believe are morally wrong,&#8221; Deshpande said.
During the 2024 campaign,  team Trump zeroed in on the Left’s embrace of transgenderism, pouring millions into television ads that warned: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” Those ads didn’t have to do much heavy lifting since they quoted Harris herself, saying: &#8220;Surgery, for prisoners, every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access.&#8221;
Even before the 2024 election, the ad’s success prompted a slew of legacy media stories on the Trump campaign’s strategy to use “anti-transgender” messaging, and how effective that strategy was. According to Democratic testing results <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/us/politics/trump-republican-transgender-ads.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reviewed</a> by the New York Times, the “Kamala is for they/them” ad was not only the campaign&#8217;s most viewed ad, it was also their most effective ad.  It aired across the nation throughout those last days of the campaign, including during football games.
Several of these ads are making the rounds right now. In Texas, for example, Ken Paxton partnered with the American Principles Project to run an AI ad against Senate candidate James Talarico, who has made waves trying to justify transgenderism with Christianity. Modeled after the &#8220;Daisy&#8221; ad from former President Lyndon Johnson’s campaign, the ad opens to a little blonde girl lying on an operating table as she awaits a transgender sex-change surgery.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
James Talarico is too radical for Texas. <a href="https://t.co/PxUCmm9GZP">pic.twitter.com/PxUCmm9GZP</a>
— American Principles Project (@approject) <a href="https://x.com/approject/status/2085795525354234239?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
“She dreams of growing up, falling in love, becoming a mother,&#8221; says a narrator in the background, and as the little girl picks the petals off a daisy in a field, counting each petal, a doctor&#8217;s voice can be heard saying: “Keep counting.” As the girl&#8217;s face is covered with a gas mask, the doctor&#8217;s mask drops, revealing the face of Talarico himself.
“The transient brain plays on confused children, irreversible puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, sex-change surgeries,&#8221; the narrator concludes. &#8220;This November, stop them before its too late.&#8221;
There&#8217;s certainly a lot of confidence when it comes to this issue on the right, but that comes with a few cautions. The Heritage Foundation&#8217;s Jay Richards, for example, has been an aggressive participant in the war on gender ideology for years. He warned that though the battle for public sentiment has &#8220;made great strides in the last few years,&#8221; Republicans should be careful about celebrating transgenderism&#8217;s demise too early.
&#8220;Gender madness should hang like a millstone around the neck of Democratic candidates for office,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The only question is whether the Republicans will succeed in reminding voters that the Dems have not surrendered on this most radical, and anti-child, part of the agenda, even though it likely cost them the 2024 election.&#8221;

Screenshot 2026-08-17 at 3.30.34 PM

Democrats Prepare To Step On The Transgender Rake Yet Again

Donald Trump

Human Rights Campaign

Midterms

The Atlanta Dream issued a statement on Monday, effectively blaming &#8220;WNBA Security&#8221; for a confrontation at Sunday&#8217;s game that led to a mother and daughter being forced to cover up their pro-woman attire.
&#8220;The Atlanta Dream believes in creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone,&#8221; the statement read. &#8220;Unfortunately, at last night&#8217;s game, WNBA security took actions that fell short of that standard. At no point was Dream personnel involved in the decisions made by WNBA security.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://t.co/NBILzMBYXS">pic.twitter.com/NBILzMBYXS</a>
— Atlanta Dream (@AtlantaDream) <a href="https://x.com/AtlantaDream/status/2089481993163591795?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The league issued this statement earlier today,&#8221; the Dream added. &#8220;&#8216;The WNBA is aware of interactions at last night&#8217;s game in Atlanta in which fans were asked by league security to cover their shirts. This should not have happened.'&#8221;
At the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/see-it-sophie-cunningham-fans-targeted-again">game in question</a>, which featured the Indiana Fever playing the Dream at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Kasey Thomason and her daughter Annie said that after shelling out thousands for good seats, they were approached by arena security and told to cover their XX-XY Athletics shirts or leave. As The Daily Wire previously reported, Kasey’s shirt featured the XX-XY logo in red, white, and blue; Annie’s shirt, with an XX on the front, came from the Riley Gaines collection and read, “For the Girls,” across the back.
They had gone to the game to show their support for Fever shooting guard Sophie Cunningham — who recently drew fire from the far-Left when she defended sex-based rights for women and girls in athletics — and with just two minutes left in overtime, they were told to cover up their shirts because someone had determined that they were &#8220;offensive.&#8221;
“Biology and science is offensive?” Kasey asked. But Kasey and Annie ultimately put on the offered Atlanta Dream “Wellness &amp; Health Night” shirts so that they could see the end of the game — which the Fever won, 95-91.
Kasey and Annie said they believe another fan — who had come to the game wearing a shirt that read &#8220;Trans Kids Belong In Sports&#8221; — had tipped off security to come and get them. That same woman, they said, commented on their newly acquired &#8220;Wellness &amp; Health Night&#8221; shirts in mocking tones after they were forced to put them on.

WNBA: AUG 16 Indiana Fever at Atlanta Dream

Team Blames ‘WNBA Security’ For Targeting Sophie Cunningham Fans

Atlanta Dream Blames ‘WNBA Security’ For Targeting Sophie Cunningham Fans

Atlanta

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