Cameras caught it first. Cheryl Reeve and Sophie Cunningham, standing on the court before tip-off, deep in conversation. Nobody watching knew what was said. After the game, Reeve told them.
The Minnesota Lynx beat the Indiana Fever 108-100 on Sunday. The win snapped Indiana’s five-game streak. But the pregame moment between the two women drew more attention than the final score. Reeve wore a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt under her blazer that night. It was a direct answer to Cunningham’s recent comments opposing transgender athletes in women’s sports. Yet witnesses described the pregame exchange as calm, not combative.
Reeve confirmed that read was accurate.
“I think it’s great,” she said postgame. “I think both of us understand that we have platforms and we both talked about, more than anything, wanting to educate. And there’s some things we have in common, and maybe some things you differ on, just like any issues. I think it’s how you handle things. So it was nice to be in person, for sure.”
Cunningham did not speak to reporters after the loss. Her side of the conversation remains unknown.
She has said in recent weeks that she wants to protect “young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
She first shared that view in an ESPN profile last month and has stood by it since, calling it “common sense.”
The exchange came after three straight Fever road games drew organized rallies. Fans have gathered outside arenas in Seattle, Portland, and now Minneapolis. Some support Cunningham. Others counter with pro-transgender messaging. A separate incident during the Seattle stop led the WNBA to suspend Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton for five games. She had confronted two teenage girls wearing shirts referencing chromosomes. Cunningham has never backed out from speaking her mind, she also went against the tide when talking about WNBA officiating at the start of the 2026 season.
Cheryl Reeve Has Not Softened Her Own Position
Before Sunday’s game, Reeve laid out her broader thinking on the topic. “I come from a space of inclusion,” she told reporters. “The narrative that I think is problematic is to suggest that transgender athletes are the biggest problem in women’s sports.”
She said every kid has a right to sports. She also said the conversation gets more complicated once athletes reach elite or Olympic-level competition.
Reeve pointed to what she sees as bigger, longer-running issues in women’s sports.
“Whether it’s cisgender men that have held us down for years in spaces like being able to have access to facilities and uniforms and locker rooms, all the things that these young girls that are sitting at games with anti-trans signs, do they understand actually what the real problems are and how they’re being marginalized,” she said. “We’re still not in a space where we have equality.”
Those comments drew pushback from Cunningham’s supporters. They argued Reeve was dismissing the experiences of young athletes who have competed against transgender opponents. Reeve has not walked the remarks back.
Caitlin Clark, Cunningham’s teammate, has avoided wading into the debate directly.
Asked after Sunday’s loss how the team is handling the attention, she said, “I think it’s for leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions. Our focus is on basketball.” Pressed further, she added only, “I just answered.”
The WNBA itself has stayed quiet. Its current collective bargaining agreement states that only players who are women are eligible to play. But the league has not defined how that applies to transgender or intersex athletes. It did not respond to multiple requests for clarification this week. Until it does, moments like the one between Reeve and Cunningham will keep filling the space where a policy should be. Brief, private, and open to interpretation, they say more than any shirt can.
