Last week the co-owner of the WNBA's Seattle Storm was suspended for cursing out young female fans sitting courtside, who were supporting Sophie Cunningham of the visiting Indiana Fever, and her stance against biological men participating in woman's sports, a story many in the liberal media decided not to discuss. This past Sunday, Minnesota hosted Cunningham and the Fever, and Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve wore a "Trans Kids Belong" shirt, which led to a passionate discussion Monday on Fox News's The Five, which included at least one surprise take.
Kennedy introduced a clip of WNBA Golden State Coach Natalie Nakase, who also defended biological males playing women's sports.
NAKASE: Sports is about belonging....it's about allowing everyone to be their authentic self.... So I'm all about women, little girls deserving to play. And that includes trans women.
Dana Perino then unleashed on Nakase.
PERINO: I would really like to see that last lady play anybody on the Golden State Warriors.... Actually, the guy that gets the water for the Golden State Warriors, I'd love to see her play him one-on-one and see how it goes. It really drives me crazy that we have to care more about women's sports and protecting girls in women's sports than people who are like a coach or an owner of a WNBA team. I've never seen a business so focused on destroying it self just when they are getting a foot hold.
A wound up Perino was nowhere near finished.
PERINO: And also Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark are like, look, we're just trying to play basketball here. We're not trying to get involved in politics. They're not saying trans kids don't belong....What they're saying here is that girls sports should be protected for girls who can then hopefully grow up and be like us.
Kennedy then referenced a hard elbow taken to the face by Cunningham during that Sunday game in Minnesota, where she, Cunningham, was called for the foul on the play. She then threw it to left winger Jessica Tarlov, who sounded sympathetic, at first, but then tried to separate the shirt from the real issue.
TARLOV : Yeah, that was definitely a rough foul. We have seen Caitlin Clark gets pushed around way too much.... I think that the coach's shirt actually is important because it said trans kids. And kids are very different than people that are playing competitive sports like this. There's not one WNBA player who is trans. There are only ten trans athletes on the NCAA level out of 500,000.
PERINO: Ten too many.
TARLOV: I'm just saying that this is a minuscule issue.
They always try the "minuscule" argument. Next, Greg Gutfeld stepped in, and would follow up on Tarlov's defense of the shirt, and speculate on its true meaning.
GUTFELD: That shirt says it all. Trans kids belong. That takes it out of this little debate that we're having, to how do you diagnose trans kids? What is the time frame in which you can say, ah, I have a trans kid. There's no way to do it.... Think about it. Why not wait?...Because they disappear. The phase goes away. They become gay, they become lesbian. So why do they do it? Why would you go after children? ... It's because the intervention actually perpetuates it. It creates a higher persistence of the dysphoria.
Gutfled then headed back to the shirt, and the coach wearing it, and didn't mince words.
GUTFELD: That woman wearing that shirt has no idea what she's talking about. This isn't Bigfoot. This isn't wearing a Loch Ness Monster T-shirt where you know it's fake and it doesn't hurt anybody. That actually destroys lives. She's an idiot and she's a coward.
When it was his turn, he made it clear he wished he was somewhere else.
WATTERS: This is week three of The Five covering the WNBA. I have to say, I'm done. I hate the WNBA. I don't mind women's basketball. My girls play basketball. But I don't want to cover women's basketball. I don't want to be a WNBA analyst. We get paid to have an opinion about everything, and this is something that I don't care about. Every time I open up the rundown and see the WNBA in it, I feel like.... we have to do this again? Really?
And if he wasn't making himself clear enough, there was more.
WATTERS: Someone wore a T-shirt at a WNBA game? I remember when they were throwing dildos. Remember that? That was funny. That's a news story. This isn't a news story....We don't even cover the NBA. Why are we covering the WNBA? This is ridiculous. I feel like boycotting this segment.
A surprise ending to a passionate and worthwhile segment.
