The WNBA is dealing with another controversy after league security ordered fans at an Atlanta game to cover shirts carrying messages about women’s sports, prompting the league to acknowledge that the intervention should never have happened.
The incident occurred Sunday during an Indiana Fever-Atlanta Dream game at State Farm Arena, according to the Associated Press.
“The WNBA is aware of interactions at Sunday night’s game in Atlanta in which fans were asked by league security to cover their shirts,” the league said in a statement. “This should not have happened.”
Among the fans involved were mother and daughter Kasey and Annie Thomason, who said they attended the game to support Fever player Sophie Cunningham. The pair wore shirts associated with XX-XY Athletics and carrying the phrase “For the Girls,” reflecting their position that women’s sports should be restricted on the basis of sex.
According to the AP, another fan wearing a “protect trans rights” shirt was also asked to cover her clothing.
🚨 JUST IN: The WNBA is entering PANIC MODE after admitting to a mom and daughter being threatened with ejection from their $1K seats because they wore shirts that said “XX” and “XY” — Women and men, BASIC BIOLOGY
Security said: COVER IT UP, or you’re out 🤯
WNBA: “This should… pic.twitter.com/DBXqB3r32K
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 18, 2026
That detail makes the incident somewhat broader than an attempt to suppress only one side of the debate. The league’s statement likewise referred generally to “fans” being asked to cover their shirts and did not defend security’s treatment of either message.
Still, the Thomasons’ experience quickly attracted attention because of the increasingly public argument over transgender participation in women’s sports.
They said they had come specifically to support Cunningham, who has spoken publicly in favor of preserving women’s athletic competition for female athletes.
The debate presents an unusually complicated problem for the WNBA because sex-based competition is fundamental to the league’s existence.
The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement states: “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.”
That eligibility language has taken on greater significance as sports organizations across the country confront disputes over how transgender athletes should be classified for competition. Those arguments have produced litigation, legislation, changes to athletic policies and intense political disagreement.
For the WNBA, however, Sunday’s problem was more immediate: paying spectators wearing shirts expressing positions on that debate were told by security to conceal them.
The league now says that was a mistake.
The Thomasons’ shirts were also connected to a player whose comments have already placed her near the center of the controversy.
Cunningham has attracted supporters for publicly opposing the inclusion of transgender women in women’s competition. That stance has also drawn criticism from people who support transgender inclusion.
The issue previously spilled into another WNBA game involving Cunningham supporters. Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was disciplined by the league following an incident involving teenage fans at a July game in Seattle, according to the supplied material.
Meanwhile, the WNBA is experiencing unprecedented levels of attention around players including Caitlin Clark, Cunningham’s Fever teammate. That increased audience means controversies that might once have remained confined to individual arenas can now become national stories almost immediately.
Sunday provided another example.
What began as a dispute over T-shirts became a public-relations problem serious enough for the league to issue an unusually direct response. There was no lengthy defense of the security decision or attempt to explain it away.
“This should not have happened.”
The wording leaves little ambiguity about the WNBA’s assessment of how security handled the situation.
There are still unanswered questions about exactly who made the initial complaint, what arena or league policy security believed it was enforcing, and why the fans were told to cover their shirts. Claims about the motives of other spectators cannot be established from the information provided.
But the basic sequence is clear enough: fans arrived at a WNBA game wearing clothing expressing competing positions on a contentious issue, security intervened, and the league subsequently said that intervention was wrong.
That is particularly awkward for a professional sports league built specifically around women’s competition.
