Enes Kanter sues Chicago Sky for kicking him out of WNBA game over ‘adult human female’ shirt
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom filed a federal complaint against the Chicago Sky for kicking him out of a WNBA game at their arena and for banning him from all future games at that location. Freedom was wearing a t-shirt in support of women’s sports that said a woman is an “adult human female.”
“See you in Court!!!” Freedom wrote. “Just filed a federal complaint. I’m taking legal action over my ejection from the Chicago Sky game while peacefully exercising my First Amendment rights.”
“My T-shirt,” he went on, “did what the whole WNBA apparently couldn’t: define a woman. No threats. No violence. Just biology. And somehow, that required a security escort.
“You don’t have to agree with my speech but you don’t get to silence me for it. I will not be intimidated. I will not be silenced. I will continue to stand for women and defend free speech.”
He had been ejected from the game after WNBA player Natasha Cloud complained about him when he cheered for Sophie Cunningham from his court side seats at the game. In an interview, he said that she yelled at him that Cunningham wasn’t going to sleep with him, despite his being there to support her for speaking out in favor of women’s rights and to advocate for protecting women’s sports.
This concept defining women has been an affront to trans activists who claim that men who say they are women are also women and should be permitted to play in women’s sports. Coaches and players in the WNBA backed that notion, saying these men should be allowed to play in the WNBA. When Freedom and fellow former NBA player Royce White said they were in their “feminine era” and went out for the WNBA draft, however, the league balked and claimed they were not eligible and that their seeking to join the league as a “publicity stunt.”
Freedom is not the only WNBA audience member who has faced backlash for wearing a shirt. In Atlanta, a mother and daughter who were wearing XX-XY shirts to support Cunningham, the one female athlete in the WNBA who spoke out for women’s rights to fair play, were made to cover up their clothes. XX-XY founder Jennifer Sey has taken friends in XX-XY shirts to multiple games to support Cunningham and protests against them have been staged outside WNBA games.