Sophie Cunningham shared a message to her fans who have been rallying behind her MAGA-inspired stance on transgender athletes.
The Indiana Fever guard, who was branded “MAGA Barbie” over her comments on transgender athletes, responded to a question on Saturday about how her supporters have championed her in anti-trans rallies outside her games.
“Yeah, you know, I think I said what I said, and these are—it’s nothing new, it’s happened every game,” Cunningham, 30, told reporters in a video shared on X by Kris Pursiainen. “And so, um, I’ve already kind of stated how I feel about all that.”
“I’m focused on New York tonight. I think, yeah, we clinched the playoffs, but for me, it’s dialing in with basketball,” she continued. “It’s cool that people are using their freedom of speech and doing what they want to do, but that’s them, and I’m in my two feet, I’m where I’m at, so I’m just focused on New York.”
Saturday night’s game between Cunningham’s Fever and the New York Liberty drew sizable groups of demonstrators on both sides.
Ahead of the game, New York City’s Barclays Center was surrounded by protesters carrying signs -- including “Feminists for Women’s Sports,” “Women Deserve a Fair Shot,” and “Thank You, Sophie!” -- and chanting as tensions between the opposing sides escalated.
At one point, a man wearing a Mexico jersey and a sombrero barged into the pro-trans rally, shouting that he wanted to declare for the WNBA draft, according to the Daily Mail.
After the protesters responded with whistle-blowing and chants of “Trans kids belong,” the man was escorted away by several police officers, the Mail reported.
The Fever lost to the Liberty 109-102.
Cunningham has been continually booed at her basketball games since she said that she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room” and prevent “biological men” from competing against women in sports.
Her remarks, published in a July ESPN profile, sparked a political firestorm—branding her a pariah on the left and a paragon of the right.
“I’m very much in the middle. I agree with things on both sides, disagree with things on both sides,” she said. “And that’s all I’ve ever said about my political beliefs. But people love to assume.”
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she added. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest.”
