The Sad and Ominous Story of Sophie Cunningham

If you thought the pendulum of woke nonsense had swung back toward normalcy in recent years, the unfolding drama surrounding Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham should serve as a stark wake-up call. It reveals precisely what awaits when the next administration takes the reins of government and the cultural enforcers regain full momentum. The lunatics are still out there, poised to launch hatred at anyone who dares disagree with their opinions—no matter how ludicrous those opinions might be.

Mindless zombies have been fed a steady diet of narratives in recent years, all designed to destroy America: open borders as a moral imperative, “safe and effective” vaccines and lockdowns, a climate "crisis" that demands we eat bugs and shut off our ovens, and the notion that young children can simply choose a gender of their preference. Any one of these would strain credulity as a bad movie script. Yet the zombies nod along and take to the streets in service of their puppet masters.

In the specific case of men playing in women’s sports, this should not be controversial. Biology is not bigotry. Among the many achievements of which America can be justly proud, the struggle and eventual success of the women’s movement stands as an example to the world. Title IX carved out funding and established clear rules to ensure young women had a protected place to compete in competitive sports. We did this because embedded in our national culture is the competitive spirit, the discipline of hard work, and the tangible sense of achievement that can best be learned at a young age on an athletic field. We as a nation determined that young girls should not be deprived of these formative lessons. We are all better for it, and we should be proud of that accomplishment.

Ironically, if one seeks evidence of how thoroughly America supports its young women, look no further than the U.S. women’s national soccer team, which dominates the rest of the world. Soccer ranks relatively low among the sports most Americans follow with passion, even as it remains the primary sport across much of the globe. Yet our women regularly dominate international competition. Why? Because in large parts of the world, young women are still not afforded the opportunity—or even the basic right—to play the game at a high level. The irony deepens when one notices that some of these very same American athletes are among the most vocal critics of how oppressive the United States supposedly is and how unfairly they claim to be treated.

This culture of perpetual victimhood and reflexive anti-American rhetoric finds its purest expression in the WNBA. A league that has long struggled for attention due to the obvious disparity in athletic spectacle relative to the men’s game has become a cesspool of woke ideology. It glorifies identity politics around race, sexuality, and gender while trafficking in anti-American posturing. One might expect the women who loudly complain about being underpaid to welcome athletes capable of driving attendance and television ratings—the very metrics that generate revenue for the league and, ultimately, player compensation. Yet when those athletes arrive in the form of Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham—talented, marketable, attractive, white, straight, Christian women—the woke mind virus prefers poverty to any dilution of its ideological purity.

The dominant storyline around the league has often featured physical play and flagrant fouls directed at Clark, frequently interpreted through the lenses of skin color and sexuality. Cunningham, her teammate, has vowed to defend her. What should be a straightforward athletic rivalry has been hijacked into something resembling a WWE storyline filtered through liberal politics.

The latest chapter arrived when Cunningham was asked about her views on biological men competing in the WNBA as transgender athletes. To anyone not steeped in the current American cultural script, her response seemed measured, if anything. A restrained half-answer to an obvious question. It is the “W” NBA. The “W” stands for women. Of course biological men cannot play in the league. Cunningham went out of her way to stress that while she opposes biological men competing in women’s sports, she loves all people and wants everyone to feel loved and respected. The core of her position was simple and rooted in fairness: it is essential for young girls to have a protected space in which to compete, and the presence of biological males makes that space impossible. She repeatedly emphasized that she does not hate anyone, that there is “room to love everyone,” and that her stance is grounded in protecting children and the integrity of women’s sports under Title IX. It was a fine answer—founded in good faith, logic, and genuine care.

But it was not good enough for the lunatics taking orders from their woke puppet masters. Her common-sense remarks have ignited a national controversy. Fans have relentlessly booed Cunningham at road games. Opposing coaches and players have come out to denounce her and openly advocate for the inclusion of biological males in the women’s league. Pure insanity.

America stands at a dangerous moment. We face serious challenges: a crushing national debt, runaway fiscal spending, determined enemies abroad, and an economy that feels perpetually on the edge. The fundamental flaw of democracy is that when more than half the people desire their own demise, they possess the ability to drag the entire country down with them. One need only listen to the mindless zombies screaming at Sophie Cunningham to sense that we are drifting uncomfortably close to that territory.

Cunningham has refused to back down. She has doubled down, calling her position “common sense” and insisting that protecting young girls and biological women is non-negotiable. In doing so, she has become a lightning rod—and a reminder. The cultural forces that seek to erase biological reality, rewrite women’s hard-won spaces, and punish dissent have not disappeared. They are merely waiting for the next opening. Ordinary Americans who still believe in fairness, in the protection of women’s sports, and in the simple truth that gender is real must remain vigilant. Title IX was not an accident. It was a deliberate national commitment. Letting biological males erase that commitment is not progress. It is surrender. And surrender is the one outcome Sophie Cunningham—and the rest of us who still value common sense—must refuse to accept.