Media personality Skip Bayless has supported the ban on trans athletes in the WNBA by citing Caitlyn Jenner as an example.
Caitlyn Jenner won the 1976 Olympic gold medal in the decathlon as Bruce Jenner before transitioning to a woman and becoming one of the most high-profile trans people in the world.
However, Jenner also supports the view that trans women athletes shouldn’t participate in women’s sports, something that Skip Bayless believes is pertinent to the recent WNBA debate.
Skip Bayless wants the WNBA to listen to Caitlyn Jenner
Bayless shared his point of view on X, urging the WNBA to listen to Jenner as a living example of a biological male athlete who completed the transition to being a trans woman.
“Caitlyn Jenner, as Bruce Jenner, won gold in the Olympic decathlon. Caitlyn Jenner now says biological boys/men should NOT be allowed to compete against girls/women: “We have to protect women’s sports.” Listening, WNBA?”
The WNBA doesn’t have a trans athlete prospect to consider, or has ever had one in its 30-year history, so the recent debate over the subject has polarised the league’s fanbase unnecessarily.
This also led to former NBA players Enes Kanter and Royce White declaring for the WNBA Draft to make the imagined problem into reality.
The WNBA is standing firm that they will not change their eligibility criteria because of ‘bad-faith actors,’ but they will likely have to release a nuanced eligibility criteria to avoid blanket banning trans athletes while protecting biological women in the WNBA.
What are Caitlyn Jenner’s views on trans athletes in the WNBA?
Jenner recently went on Fox to discuss Kanter and White declaring for the WNBA Draft, supporting their action in a way to point out the WNBA’s hypocrisy and advocating for a ban on trans athletes.
“Yes, they are. Enes is the other one that’s out there. He’s been doing the same thing. They’re showing the hypocrisy of what’s going on out there in the WNBA… XX, you’re in; XY, you’re out. It’s that simple. We have to protect women’s sports.”
Jenner has been very outspoken in recent years against trans women competing against biological women, which many consider a blow to trans athletes, as one of their biggest potential advocates is one of their biggest detractors.
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