While dozens of calm and cordial Cunningham supporters rallied outside of the United Center, they were met by a group of mask-wearing, sign-holding, profanity-spewing counterprotesters playing loud music that included incredibly vulgar and inflammatory lyrics such as:"And we'll never rest again until every Nazi dies" and "F— these f—ing fascists"Demonstrators protest outside the United Center prior to the game between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever on Aug.8, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.
(Michael Reaves/Getty Images)CHICAGO SKY ADDRESS SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM RALLY PLANNED OUTSIDE HOME GAME VS FEVERWhen asked to clarify if they believed the Cunningham supporters were Nazis and fascists for believing women’s sports should remain female, they instead called me a Nazi.Typical.When I had the chance to actually speak to one protester, flanked by signs that included, "Go Home Losers", "Trans Kids Belong in Sports", and "Rise Up Against Trans Hate," a self-identified transgender woman told me, "I feel like our rights are being violated.
Our trans youth are being taken advantage of.They just want to play sports."After that comment, a mask-wearing fellow protester jumped in front of me, cutting off the interview claiming I was "hostile media."After a failed attempt to chat with another protestor, that same woman cut me off again in a vulgar way saying, "F— you, right-wing scumbag!" The party of love and tolerance, ladies and gentlemen.After I spotted a couple wearing pro-trans trans t-shirts, I went up to them at a side entrance to the arena, and asked what they thought about Sophie Cunningham and her supporters.
The man wearing a "Protect Trans Athletes" shirt refused to do an interview on camera, but told me that they weren't fans of Cunningham and the question of: Do you support biological men competing in the WNBA?, he called the phrasing a "non sequitur," refusing to define what a woman is, while stating definitively that biological sex is not determined by XX ...