Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham met divided crowds in Portland on Friday night, as supporters of her position on women's sports rallied outside the Moda Center while fans inside the arena booed her each time she checked in against the Portland Fire.
The demonstration was the latest stop in the «With Love Is Truth» rally series, organized by the women's rights group Women Are Real, advocate Amy E. Sousa and independent journalist Brandi Kruse. Organizers said the series began July 28 with a rally outside Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, where local supporters, including Washington high school athletes, gathered before the Fever played the Seattle Storm. That first event drew pushback from counter-demonstrators and gained wider attention because of what happened inside the arena.
About 90 minutes before Friday's tip-off, dozens of people joined Sousa outside the Moda Center, including former Olympic cyclist Inga Thompson and attorney Kara Dansky, a board member of Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender and former president of Women's Declaration International USA.
Sousa told the crowd the group had come to Portland «in solidarity with those girls, in solidarity with Sophie Cunningham, and in solidarity with all female athletes,» a reference to an incident at the Seattle rally. At that game, Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton, who was later fined and suspended, berated two teenage girls seated courtside who wore XX-XY Athletics T-shirts and held a sign reading «Thank You Sophie For Speaking Up For Girls.» A Nordstrom store director, Marco Esquivel, was also caught berating the girls, their mothers and other Cunningham supporters. Nordstrom has not made a public statement about the incident.
The Portland rally also drew about a dozen counter-protesters. One woman wore a «Protect Trans Kids» shirt featuring a rose and a knife, a design previously worn by Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. Another counter-protester, dressed in a frog suit, held a sign reading «Trans People Just Want To Live.» Several other counter-protesters declined to discuss their views, and some responded with profanity when approached by a reporter at the scene.
During the rally, an Associated Press photographer told a reporter that a group of children holding «Thank You Sophie» signs did not know what they were supporting. When asked directly why they were there, one girl replied: «No boys and girls in the same sports. Like no boys in girls sports.»
Cunningham's public support for keeping women's sports and spaces female has made her one of the most polarizing figures in the WNBA, and that divide was on display inside the arena. Fans waved transgender and gay pride flags throughout the game, and the Fire's in-arena presentation promoted them repeatedly. A «companion cam» segment before the second quarter, which featured several same-sex couples kissing and a group of trans supporters waving flags, drew some of the loudest cheers of the night. Cunningham received boos again when she touched the ball on offense.
Cunningham said before the game that she did not intend to change how she handles the attention. «I'm here to play basketball, but I'm also here to be me, and I'm not going to like shadow that or hide or, you know, dim my light just because maybe people don't agree with that,» she said.
Organizers said the next rally is scheduled for Sunday in Minnesota, where the Fever are set to play the Minnesota Lynx.
