By The Daily Wire (World News) | Created at 2026-08-07 13:55:53 | Updated at 2026-08-07 15:35:48
7 hours ago
Golden State Valkyries star Gabby Williams became the first active WNBA player to declare she’d gladly share a locker room with biological men identifying as women.
Williams called trans inclusion “our new battle” while claiming rights are being “stripped away” from transgender individuals.
“I think it’s trans rights that now is our new battle,” Williams stated. “That’s what I think I was saying, that the battles have changed. Our intentions have been the same, but now the environment has changed. We see trans people’s rights being stripped away from them. There’s a lot of discourse around trans athletes and what they can compete in. I would welcome a trans athlete on my team or against my team anytime. I don’t think it’s a problem in the world, it’s just another way to kind of attack trans people.”
Williams singled out former “non-binary” WNBA player Layshia Clarendon for praise.
“You know, we’ve seen players like Layshia Clarendon, who stepped into that forefront and have been brave enough and courageous enough to kind of step up. So I guess that’s the next battle that we have to fight as athletes.”
Williams’ radical invite comes on the heels of a league-wide rift sparked by Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who stood up for protecting women in sports. Cunningham ignited the debate last month by bluntly stating she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” before shutting down online mobs with a defiant, “I said what I said.”
The feud reached a boiling point on the court when Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve strutted out in a “Trans Kids Belong” t-shirt, earning a public plug from ESPN announcer Rebecca Lobo. Meanwhile, Fever head coach Stephanie White ducked the issue entirely, claiming she wasn’t “educated enough from a scientific standpoint” to take a stand.
While corporate execs and coaches hem and haw, Cunningham’s common-sense defense of female athletics has rallied fans nationwide, even drawing backing from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and activist Riley Gaines.
The heat has even spilled into the stands. In Seattle, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was punished after flying off the handle in an expletive-laced tirade against two 16-year-old girls wearing gear supporting Cunningham’s position.
