Sophie Cunningham answered calls for punishment over her comments about transgender athletes with four words.
“I said what I said,” she remarked.
The Indiana Fever guard posted the message Thursday on Instagram with a saluting emoji after her comments about keeping biological men out of women’s sports set off backlash from WNBA fans and drew support from the White House.
The fight started with Cunningham’s ESPN comments about girls, locker rooms and female athletes being asked to compete against biological males.
WNBA player Sophie Cunningham DEFENDS her statements about keeping males out of female sports
"I said what I said. I think it's kind of common sense… When it comes just to protecting young girls in sport and women in sport, I feel very strongly about that. I think that's why…
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“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” Cunningham said.
“I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest,” she continued.
“And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
Me when my wife says she doesn’t know where our daughter got her attitude from pic.twitter.com/kKfPNRWvPe
— Ricky (@MrRickySpanish) June 25, 2026
Online criticism quickly moved past disagreement. Some WNBA fans demanded that the league fine or ban Cunningham, while other responses on X turned abusive toward the 29-year-old Fever player.
By the time Cunningham faced reporters before Indiana’s Wednesday night game against the Connecticut Sun, she made clear the reaction had not changed her position.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 30, 2026
“There’s going to be some negative comments but there’s also a lot of positive comments too. It is what it is,” she stated.
“We’re all human, I really don’t care what other people have to say. I said what I said, I think it’s common sense and I think I will always believe in that. I stand on what I said.”
Cunningham tied her stance to Title IX protections, female spaces and young athletes rather than political branding.
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“I’ll always believe in that,” she added. “It’s really important to protect children, and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category.”
She also rejected the idea that speaking out on this issue meant she was trying to become a political figure.
“I am not a very political person but I have beliefs, I have morals and I will always be true to who I am,” Cunningham noted.
“I think people are going to take it how they want to take it. When it comes to protecting young girls and women in sports, I feel very strongly about that.”
The White House backed her up Thursday. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump was following the story, though she did not believe he had contacted Cunningham personally.
“I don’t believe he has reached out to her,” Leavitt said when asked if Trump reached out to Cunningham. “I know he is following the story.”
Leavitt said the uproar around Cunningham showed how far leftist activists were from the public on the issue.
“This is something the president feels strongly about as well, and the American people do too,” Leavitt stated.
“That men should not be playing in women’s sports. It’s completely ludicrous that anyone could support that.”
Cunningham’s critics, Leavitt argued, were targeting a female athlete for stating the same view.
“It’s even more ludicrous that you do have Sophie Cunningham, a female athlete herself, very accomplished in her own right, coming forth and speaking that truth that men shouldn’t play in women’s sports,” Leavitt went on.
The press secretary called the backlash “astonishing” and said the administration’s position matched public opinion.
“They are clearly very out of touch with the American public on this issue, which again is an 80-20 issue,” Leavitt pointed out.
“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.”
Cunningham was also asked whether her comments could now “come back” on the trans community. Her answer stayed on the same line she had drawn from the start.
“I extend love, I don’t dislike anyone. I think there’s room for everyone here and there’s room to love everyone. I truly think when you get people in the same room and you have conversations, you actually have a lot in common with a lot of people,” Cunningham said.
She said her willingness to show love did not change what she believes women and girls are owed in sports.
“I’m there to love but I am also there to love biological women and I think that there are rights that need to be protected. Like I said, I am going to stand true to that. I’ll never falter in my beliefs for that,” she added.
“But I’ve never said I hated the trans community. I think there is space for everyone.”
The backlash was not the only response Cunningham heard. She said many people welcomed seeing someone in the league speak plainly on the issue.
“Me coming out with that, there are so many people like ‘finally someone has said something’. I know whatever I say, I’m gonna get hate and I am gonna get love,” she detailed.
“That’s just what this world is. I am confident in who I am, I am happy being me and I am going to continue to be that.”
Cunningham had already been pulled into the transgender-athlete debate in 2022, when she shared CBS Sports host Josh Pate’s post about former Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas competing on the women’s team.
Pate’s post read, “Female collegiate athletes deserve so much better than this.”
Cunningham later released a statement saying she “stands” with athletes while calling for “fair” competition.
Her latest moment of political attention was not limited to the women’s sports debate.
And here's Sophie Cunningham on becoming a meme over the past week + The White House using a clip of her in a post: pic.twitter.com/2c8GcvNk4a
— Tony East (@TonyREast) July 3, 2026
The Fever guard also declined to criticize Trump after the White House used a viral clip of her pointing at opponent DeWanna Bonner during a game.
In the clip, Cunningham was standing up for Caitlin Clark when Bonner told her not to point.
Cunningham kept pointing anyway, stretching the gesture long enough that the moment became internet material.
When the White House joined the trend, Cunningham treated it like another viral post rather than a political statement.
“I think Everyone around the world is posting it, every company has done it,” Cunningham said. “They’re just the ones also to get on board and I don’t really think twice about it.”