WNBA Player Comments On Statement Made During Another Players Interview

The WNBA’s transgender athlete debate is not cooling down. If anything, the temperature just went up another few degrees.

Golden State Valkyries star Gabby Williams has now stepped directly into the middle of the controversy, saying she would welcome a transgender athlete on her team or as an opponent.

“I think trans rights, right now, is our new battle,” Williams said in a recent interview. “We see people’s trans rights being stripped away from them; there’s a lot of discourse around trans athletes and what they can compete in.”

Then she made her position crystal clear.

“I would welcome a trans athlete on my team or against my team, anytime,” Williams said. “I don’t think it’s a problem in the world.”

Well, there goes any chance of this discussion quietly disappearing before the playoffs.

Williams appears to be the first active WNBA player to publicly say she would welcome a transgender player into the league. Her comments come just weeks after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham kicked off a national argument by telling ESPN that young girls “shouldn’t have to go against biological men” in sports.

Cunningham has since tried to move the conversation back toward basketball, but the debate has shown little interest in cooperating.

Williams also referenced former WNBA player Layshia Clarendon, who became the league’s first openly non-binary player. Clarendon, who was assigned female at birth, came out as non-binary in 2020 and ended an 11-year WNBA career in 2024.

Video of Williams’ remarks circulated online with branding from sports website The Local W. It was not immediately clear whether Williams was speaking with one outlet or a larger group of reporters.

Naturally, social media handled the discussion with its usual sense of calm and restraint.

One person wrote, “Watching the WNBA implode in real time. Priceless.”

Another suggested Williams might feel differently if a transgender player took her roster spot and pushed her to the bench.

Others praised Williams. One commenter wrote, “Good for her, love to hear it,” while arguing that inclusion in sports should also apply to transgender athletes.

Meanwhile, Cunningham returned home to Indianapolis, where the response looked very different from what she recently faced on the road.

Outside Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Thursday, one protester showed support for Cunningham’s position on transgender athletes in women’s sports. Inside the arena, fans carried signs reading, “I want to play like Sophie” and “Thank you for standing up for girls, Sophie!”

That was quite a contrast from stops in Seattle, Portland and Minnesota.

Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a shirt during Sunday’s game reading, “Trans kids belong.” Cunningham and the Fever are also expected to encounter another rally when they travel to Chicago on Saturday.

Cunningham, however, says she is done feeding the story.

“I was asked a question and that’s simply what it was,” she said Wednesday. “I wasn’t trying to make a statement. I was trying to clear the air, and I did that, back in February, so it is what it is.”

She added that her focus remains on the season, her teammates and the Fever locker room.

There is one detail worth keeping front and center while this argument grows louder: The WNBA currently has no transgender players who were assigned male at birth, and it never has.

Transgender athletes are also extremely rare at the college level. In 2024, NCAA President Charlie Baker estimated that fewer than 10 transgender athletes were competing across NCAA sports at the time.

So the league is now having one of its loudest arguments over a situation that has not actually occurred in the WNBA.

Williams says she would welcome it.

Cunningham says women should not have to compete against biological males.

And with players, coaches, protesters and fans now choosing sides, the basketball may be the easiest part of the WNBA’s schedule.

Daily Mail