INDIANAPOLIS – What a difference a red state makes.
Unapologetic and steadfast, Riley Gaines, the nation’s leading advocate for the preservation of women’s sports for biological women, gets under the skin of woke leftists without even trying.
She travels the country, and says that biological men don’t belong. The audacity!
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In some places in this country, Gaines gets booed for speaking this simple logic and truth. She gets yelled at. Even spit on for her beliefs.
That was the kind of reception Gaines got at her very first WNBA game in Minneapolis earlier this summer, when she dared to take a sign into the arena that praised Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham for bravely speaking up for girls in girls’ sports.
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Fast-forward to her second-ever WNBA game, Friday night in Indianapolis at an Indiana Fever game in which former NBA player Royce White (now sometimes going by “Roysha”) made a surprise appearance, and Gaines got a much different reception.
Hugs, smiles, requests for photographs.
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Blue state, red state. Delusional, sensible. Hostile, friendly.
Perhaps this is part of the problem with the powder keg that is the WNBA. There are 15 teams in the league, and only two are located in solid red states: the Indiana Fever and the Dallas Wings. Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix have teams, but those states aren’t reliably red, more purple. The league is adding Cleveland in 2028, so that might help, but the scale will still be far from balanced.
“My main takeaway is that when Minneapolis is booing you, it’s generally a good sign,” Gaines told OutKick with a bit of tongue-in-cheek during halftime of Friday’s game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, which the Fever won easily over the Connecticut Sun, 111-91. “Especially for those of us with common sense and an ounce of integrity and a shred of honesty.”
If there were people in the Fever crowd on Friday that were more Minneapolis than Indianapolis, you wouldn’t know it. Just a different atmosphere and decorum altogether. And that fuels Gaines.
The poor reception in Minneapolis didn’t deter her at all. Knowing that so many people across the United States agree with her does.
On Friday, as she supported Cunningham and White, Gaines proudly sported a black T-shirt with neon green XX-XY lettering, a label so controversial in some (blue!) WNBA cities that fans at an Atlanta Dream game were recently asked to cover that same shirt.
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The nonsense on gender in the WNBA is incessant. And neither White nor Enes Kanter Freedom could stand to sit back and watch it a second longer.
Earlier this month, White joined Freedom, another former NBA star, in saying that they now identify as trans women while also declaring their interest in joining the WNBA next year via the 2027 WNBA Draft.
Freedom and White decided to fight lunacy with lunacy, using their over-the-top declarations as a way to push back on the WNBA’s lack of spine and clarity in the trans in women’s sports dilemma.
If the WNBA can’t define a woman, can’t put clear language into its bylaws that limits participation in the league to strictly biological women, then Freedom and White say that they will take this fight as far as they can. They say that trying to play in the WNBA isn’t talk, that they are prepared to walk that walk if necessary. They are also prepared to fight through litigation if necessary.
While Freedom was ejected from a WNBA game he attended last week in blue Chicago (Sky player Natasha Cloud sniped at him during the game, he responded, fans booed him, and he was ultimately permanently banned from Wintrust Arena), White was received warmly in red Indiana.
No boos. No yelling. Instead, fans approached White with smiles and respect and outstretched arms for handshakes and fist bumps. They asked for photos. They thanked him, told him they loved what he is doing for women’s sports.
“You can’t expect that, it was overwhelming,” White told OutKick, regarding his Indiana welcome. “But…I think people have a lot of appreciation for what Roysha is doing and some of the other people who are fighting as well. It’s just so crazy to me the difference in response here in Indiana versus in Chicago (for Freedom). But one city is run by people who have common sense and the other one isn’t, so there’s that.”
Gaines received similar treatment at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“Let me tell you the difference, being here in Indiana, a home game for the Fever,” Gaines said. “The looks that you’re getting are smiles, people are winking. People are coming up and saying thank you. People are expressing their gratitude for the stance that I (have taken).
“Not the same response I had in Minneapolis.”
Gaines expects nothing less from blue cities and blue states now. She understands her messaging in those areas requires her to bring a much stiffer upper lip, and an extra layer of Teflon coating.
And even though that’s expected, it’s not always easy, which is why she so deeply respects and appreciates what Freedom and White are doing. Gaines and White talked at length at halftime of Friday’s game about their convictions on the trans in women’s sports dilemma.
Gaines said that it is ironic that WNBA players like Cloud from the Chicago Sky are missing the point of what Freedom and White are trying to do.
“I was watching the altercation between Enes Kanter Freedom and Natasha (Cloud) where obscenities were yelled back and forth, at least on Natasha’s end at Enes, and I thought to myself, ultimately, Natasha really should be thanking Enes, because what he’s fighting for…is her,” Gaines said. “He is fighting for her to have the opportunity and the ability to achieve and to exceed in her sport and even beyond.”
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Others besides White and Freedom are fighting alongside Gaines for the very same thing.
The Indiana Attorney General, Todd Rokita, who sat with Gaines and her husband during Friday’s game, has been active in trying to protect girls and women in sports.
“I’m pleased to host my friend Riley Gaines tonight with her husband and we’re having a good time,” Rokita told OutKick. “But the fact of the matter is, there are a lot of leaders in this country who see the obvious, and the obvious is that sports teams should only have the same biological sex because there are differences. And I am so happy that these biological men (Freedom and White) are proving the point when they are coming to apply for the WNBA solely because the WNBA can’t get its own bylaws straight.”
What is happening in the WNBA, with the ambiguity surrounding eligibility, concerns Rokita because it could just as easily happen elsewhere, which creates a slippery slope.
“As Indiana’s Attorney General, I am looking at this very closely, from the perspective of whether you are for-profit or non-profit, the fact that you have bylaws that make sense and comply with all laws and that they are clear and non-abusive,” Rokita said. “And if you can’t define in your bylaws what a woman is and who’s eligible to be on your teams, you’re entering a real gray area in terms of law, in terms of being abusive or deceptive to those you serve.
“If the WNBA can’t make some simple decisions about what their bylaws should read, you may see a lot of states, a lot of my friends, get involved, including Indiana.”
Now wouldn’t that be something? How ironic if it is a couple of men pretending to be women, along with red-state fans and politicians, who ultimately save the very woke and leftist and blue WNBA from itself. It really could be as simple as that.
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