Over the past month, the right-wing hate machine has found the WNBA as a new site in which to wage its anti-trans culture war. Hate groups began showing up in city after city where the Indiana Fever were playing, in support of guard Sophie Cunningham after an ESPN profile in which she expressed her belief that trans women and girls should not play women’s sports. Cunningham doubled down on those comments several days later in a press conference, saying that she would “never falter” in her belief that the “rights” of “biological women” need to be “protected.”
The rallies in cities like Seattle and Minneapolis have been small, but have monopolized the news cycle in an outsized way. As Fox News continues to amplify the anti-trans messaging around the WNBA, longtime fans of the league have begun to feel unsafe and unwelcome in arenas that used to feel like safe havens.
When New York Liberty fans saw the Fever were coming to town on Aug. 22, they decided they would take control of the narrative. Trans Liberty fans and their allies wanted the atmosphere outside of Barclays Center to be different—and on Saturday, it was. Instead of being dominated by a small group of people’s hatred and anger, the scene at Barclays became about joy, whimsy and celebration. The way the supportive demonstrations came together is a testament to the power of community, and of an incredible network of local women’s sports fan groups.
As fans entered Barclays, they encountered demonstrations outside the arena. On one side was a group of 40 or so anti-trans protesters holding signs with photos of Cunningham with the words “let Liberty and fairness ring” and slogans like “Save women’s sports.” They were corralled by a police barricade.
On the other side, approximately 200 trans people and their supporters sang, danced and chanted as part of the Trans Joy Rally, organized by various members of the trans community who came together to put on the rally. There were bubbles, lawn games and dancing. Signs read “Dunk on Transphobia,” “Liberty Fans Stand with Trans Kids,” and “Liberty, Justice, and Trans Rights for All.”
At the rally outside Barclays Center hosted by Trans Safety Alliance NYC before the NY Liberty vs. Indiana Fever game tonight. About 100 folks are here as anti-trans attacks targets women's basketball—a league with no openly trans women players.
— alex nguyen (@alexjn.bsky.social) August 22, 2026 at 5:45 PM
“We focused on trans joy because we don’t want to feed into the narrative that we are monsters,” organizer Hannah McCarty tells Xtra. “We don’t want to show up and be angry, even if we are. Instead, we are here to show you we are just human beings and we just want to be included like everyone else.”
“Instead of being on the defensive and trying to change the minds of the opposition with arguments and facts, they decided to reclaim the space by supporting one another and protecting one another’s peace.”
This was a lesson that organizers had learned while advocating for other issues around the city—including going to school board meetings to fight a local chapter of the far-right group Moms for Liberty—that had left them feeling drained, says Auggie, another organizer who asked that only their first name be used. “Week after week, we would go back to these meetings just to be yelled at the whole time,” they say. “It felt terrible.” That’s when they decided to consult with a friend who had done work with Theatre of the Oppressed, a community group that uses performance as protest. Auggie brought those tactics back to their group of trans organizers. Instead of being on the defensive and trying to change the minds of the opposition with arguments and facts, they decided to reclaim the space by supporting one another and protecting one another’s peace.
“They are always going to frame us as evil and looking to destroy sports, assault women in restrooms, all the things they say we are doing. So when we are going to get big news coverage, it is important for the masses to see that it’s not true,” says Chloe Elentári, who attended the rally on Saturday.
The Trans Joy Rally was planned by experienced organizers. They had a police liaison who spoke with the NYPD and Barclays representatives to communicate that the goal of the action was not violence or aggression, but celebration. There was an experienced safety team that had taken de-escalation training. And organizers had learned from abortion clinic escorts on how to handle the opposition: do not engage, under any circumstances. Participants were instructed not to debate with anti-trans protesters or to be lured into conversations with news media or content creators, to avoid giving the opposition any clips or sound bites they could use to further their agenda.
Inside the arena, another operation was underway—to hand out signs that read “Trans People Belong in Sports” to as many people as possible. This action was organized by two season-ticket holders, both of whom wish to remain anonymous, and who felt that “someone should do something,” only to realize that they were that “someone.” The strategy behind the sign distribution was to reflect the reality of the community: that the Liberty fan base is predominantly supportive of trans inclusion in sports.
“Part of the challenge right now is if you’re a fan, you’re living in two worlds,” says Caroline Fitzgerald, the founder of Women’s Sports Rally, a group that organizes events and actions for NYC women’s sports fans and assisted the season-ticket holders with their action.
“In your actual fan community, in person or fan communities on Discord, where it’s actual humans and people who follow the team, you’re not seeing this transphobia and trans hate,” she says. “But then out in the general social media, because of all the funding that’s going into a media campaign around this, it’s like [an] upside-down world—it’s a distortion of the reality.”
Leah, a pseudonym for one of the organizers, says the goals were twofold: to create visibility in support of the trans community, and to use that visibility to raise funds for the Brooklyn Community Pride Center (BCPC), a non-profit that directly serves the Liberty fan base by providing mental health services and other programming, including hosting queer and trans-inclusive sports. There was a QR code on the back of the sign encouraging fans to donate $30—$1 for each of the WNBA’s 30 years. At the time of publication, they have raised over $3,500.
Having never organized an action before, the season-ticket holders posted in a group chat explaining what they hoped to do and were quickly connected to an entire network of women’s sports-related advocacy groups. They had calls with Women’s Sports Rally; The Echo, a supporters group for the PWHL’s New York Sirens and Cloud 9, the supporters group for the NWSL’s NY/NJ Gotham FC. The template for their signs came directly from the NWSL fans’ Trans People Belong Coalition.
@xtramagazine The U.S. Supreme Court just upheld laws in two states banning trans women and girls from competing in sports. The ruling sets a new precedent around existing and future legislation restricting the rights of trans people in sports and more broadly. And it’s likely to have a much wider impact as these bans have already been replicated in at least 25 other U.S. states. In 2020, Idaho became the first state in the U.S. to ban trans women and girls from women’s sports teams with the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. Lindsay Hecox sued the state after she was barred from the varsity women’s track team at Boise State University, alleging that the law violated her right to equal protection under the U.S. Constitution. In the case of Becky Pepper-Jackson, the 16-year-old shot-putter challenged West Virginia’s law on the basis that since she had undergone gender-affirming treatment at a young age, she did not have an unfair advantage in intramural sports. At the heart of all of this is Title IX. The landmark 1972 law bans sex-based discrimination in education programs that are publicly funded. For student athletes, this means providing equal opportunity, treatment, scholarship funding and facilities regardless of gender. But today’s opinion, authored by Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, argued that because Title IX explicitly allows sports teams that are segregated by biological sex, states should be able to limit athletes by their assigned sex at birth. Those against trans women and girls competing in women’s sports want you to believe that it’s just about protecting young girls from unfairness—but that’s not the case. Study after study has not shown any competitive advantage for trans women and girls in sports. This ruling is just another example of enshrined rights being rolled back for political theatre—and all at the expense of trans women and girls in the U.S. who just want to play sports. #lgbtqnews #supremecourt #transrights #transathlete ♬ original sound – Xtra Magazine Advertisement
The signs ended up in many shots on the Jumbotron, as did supportive messages purchased by Liberty fans. The broadcast was a different story, however, with very few signs being shown on TV, potentially to try to avoid more controversy. Even still, the participants of the Trans Joy Rally were touched to see how many signs showed up in photos on social media, and to know that cis allies and season-ticket holders brought their vocal support into the arena with them.
“A lot of us got priced out of going into Barclays last night, but all these people showed up and after they were out of our line of sight, they [still] held up those signs and made sure they were seen,”says McCarty. “They kept their momentum going even after they walked away from us.”
“We believe that fans made this league, so fans can lead the way,” says Leah. She says she wants fans in other cities to know that they can take action too. The template for the “Trans People Belong in Sports” signs is available for others to use for their own team. She says she was heartened to see photos from fans in Chicago on Sunday night who had done just that, keeping the visible support going.
Ultimately, organizers of the Trans Joy Rally say that they expected the event to be draining by nature of who they were going up against, but that wasn’t what happened at all. “This action left me feeling really uplifted,” says McCarty. “For the first time in a while, we felt good when we went home.”
“I’m going to keep showing up for the Liberty,” Auggie says. “I hope the Liberty will continue to show up for us.”
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