A mother and daughter who paid $1,000 apiece for courtside seats at an Indiana Fever game in Atlanta say WNBA security ordered them to hide their XX-XY Athletics shirts or leave the arena, and the league now concedes the whole thing never should have happened.
Kasey and Annie Thomason were sitting three rows from the court at State Farm Arena on Sunday when, roughly halfway through overtime, a security guard pulled them aside. Someone in the stands, the guard explained, was "offended" by their shirts, apparel from XX-XY Athletics, a brand that promotes female-only competition. The Thomasons were handed Atlanta Dream, themed shirts and given a choice: cover up or get out.
The ESPN broadcast captured the change in real time. With two and a half minutes left in overtime, the Thomasons were still wearing their XX-XY gear. Ninety seconds later, they were in Dream shirts. Sophie Cunningham, the Fever guard whose outspoken defense of women's sports has made XX-XY a flashpoint, went on to celebrate her 30th birthday with an overtime win. The fans who came to support her spent the final moments of the game in someone else's clothes.
Kasey Thomason told the guard what she thought of the order.
"Biology and science is offensive?"
Annie Thomason's shirt featured a Riley Gaines collaboration design with the words "for the girls" on the back. Neither woman had caused a disturbance. As Kasey told Fox News, the guard himself seemed baffled by the complaint.
"He didn't know what was offensive about it. He said he didn't even understand but since someone told on us and said that they were offensive, we had to cover up."
Annie offered her own account of the trigger. A fan wearing a pro-transgender shirt had been told by arena personnel to zip up her jacket. That fan, Annie said, then pointed security toward the Thomasons in retaliation. "She was the one who told on us," Annie said, because personnel had "told her to zip up her jacket."
Conservative activist Adam Francisco spoke with the pair after the game. The mother's summary was blunt: "We did nothing. We were just sitting there."
Late Monday, the WNBA and the Atlanta Dream issued statements acknowledging the incident. A league spokesperson told Front Office Sports flatly: "This should not have happened." The Dream's statement went slightly further, as Just the News reported:
"The Atlanta Dream believes in creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Unfortunately, at last night's game, WNBA security took actions that fell short of that standard."
The Dream emphasized that its own personnel were not involved in the security decision, the order came from league-level security staff. But neither the team nor the WNBA said whether anyone would face discipline for the incident. The Dream did not answer queries about its policies, the New York Post noted.
State Farm Arena's prohibited-items policy bans clothing with "derogatory characterization towards any person(s)" and reserves the right to "prohibit other items as deemed necessary." The Dream's own code of conduct prohibits apparel with "discriminatory or hateful messages." A shirt reading "XX-XY", a reference to basic chromosomal biology, does not obviously fit either category. No one from the league or the team has explained how it was classified as a violation.
The Atlanta incident did not happen in a vacuum. Cunningham, a 30-year-old sharpshooter, endorsed female-only sports in a lengthy ESPN profile published July 21. She said the WNBA has "more believers than you would actually expect" because Christians tend to keep quiet, and accused the league of wanting to "hush" players who speak against the "look" and "style" the WNBA promotes.
Soon after that profile ran, Cunningham appeared at a Minnesota Lynx game alongside XX-XY founder Jennifer Sey, the 1986 U.S. Women's All-Around National Champion gymnast, and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines. The response from inside the league was immediate. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a pro-transgender shirt at a subsequent game. Seattle Storm player Stefanie Dolson did the same.
The hostility went beyond wardrobe choices. On July 28, when the Fever visited Seattle, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton allegedly cursed out teenage Cunningham fans who were wearing XX-XY gear. Security at Climate Pledge Arena refused to remove Keaton. The WNBA eventually suspended her for five home games, though it cited only unspecified "behavior." Seattle journalist Brandi Kruse, who helped organize a pro-Cunningham rally outside that game, reported that the teenage fans at the Storm arena were not told to cover their shirts or hide their signs, a contrast with what happened in Atlanta.
The Fever itself has not exactly rallied behind its own player. After the July 28 Storm game, the team blocked both Cunningham and Caitlin Clark, described by observers as the league's most valuable asset, from speaking to the media. Head coach Stephanie White appeared to dismiss the severity of a clothesline foul on Cunningham by an ejected Chicago Sky player.
The league's mea culpa has not convinced everyone. Annie Thomason, as Breitbart reported, was skeptical that anything would actually change.
"It's 100% going to happen again until people actually do something about it."
Her skepticism has some basis. The WNBA held an "anti-hate task force" meeting the prior week that referenced "ongoing discussions on transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online." When pressed on whether the league's collective bargaining agreement, which limits eligibility to "women", refers to biological sex or gender identity, the league declined to answer. A spokesperson said the WNBA "strongly denounce[s] the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others" and denied any "immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA."
That dodge matters because the eligibility question is not theoretical. This spring, former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White officially declared for the WNBA draft based on self-identification as women, a move designed to expose the policy gap. Transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner, who won an Olympic gold medal before transitioning, told Fox News the standard should be straightforward: "XX you're in, XY you're out." Jenner accused the WNBA of hypocrisy and warned that Title IX progress would be "ruined" by letting males play in women's leagues.
The suppression has extended beyond arenas. A moderator of the WNBA's Reddit discussion group banned all mentions of Cunningham, telling one user the policy existed "because it tends to [weed] out trolls and people that aren't fans of the WNBA." An avowed member of the Democratic Socialists of America was circulating a screenshot related to the controversy. Faith Driven Consumer launched a "Stand with Sophie" petition highlighting Cunningham's Christian witness.
Broader polling suggests the league is on the wrong side of public opinion. A 2025 New York Times/Ipsos survey found 79 percent of Americans, including 67 percent of Democrats, oppose transgender athletes competing in women's sports. Tennis great Chris Evert said she respects the views of Jenner and transgender tennis pioneer Renee Richards, who now opposes males who have undergone puberty competing in girls' sports.
Legal battles are advancing on parallel tracks. A federal lawsuit by female athletes against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, over male athletes dominating girls' track events, was reinstated by a federal appeals court nearly two years ago. A court docket order from last month sets the discovery deadline for Feb. 15, 2027. In New Hampshire, parents removed from girls' soccer games for wearing "XX" armbands are awaiting a ruling from the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments in November but has yet to decide the First Amendment case.
The Fever sits fourth heading into the playoffs. Cunningham keeps shooting. Her fans keep showing up. And a league that says it values "inclusion" still cannot explain why two women in biology-themed shirts were the ones told to leave.
