By Ryan Ottiger, Staff Writer
In the current era of modern American political corruption under the hateful and divisive Trump administration, one would hope that the vast majority of citizens would be protesting and standing firmly against hurt Americans. Instead, there still seems to be a concerning number of people taking issue with nonexistent, manufactured culture wars rather than the blatant corruption right in front of them, orchestrated by a president with an ongoing history of perpetuating these meaningless issues.
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom is the latest poster boy for fake outrage over a manufactured “trans athlete” culture war that is not based in reality. This month, Freedom claimed he would be declaring for the WNBA draft under the guise of “protecting women,” despite the fact that there is not a single cisgender man or transgender woman in the WNBA.
There are fewer than 10 transgender athletes among the 500,000-plus college athletes, while transgender individuals more broadly make up around 1% of the U.S. population. Instead of focusing on an issue that actually exists, Freedom is only trying to create fear and controversy over a nonexistent issue about cisgender men joining the WNBA just to stir up hate.
The fact that Freedom has only ever suggested he is a woman in the same breath as declaring for the WNBA draft makes it abundantly clear that he is, in fact, not an actual transgender woman and has no intent of helping women or the league.
After Freedom’s declaration was declined by the league, he later showed up at a Chicago Sky game in a T-shirt that read “woman: adult human female.” Subsequently, he was kicked out of the game after engaging with Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud, who rightfully took issue with Freedom’s presence. He is now banned from the arena after arguing with security while being kicked out.
Freedom seems to have taken inspiration from Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham, who was the pioneer for hypocrisy and voicing her opinions on the fake transgender-athlete issue. Cunningham stated in July that she wants to “protect young girls in the locker room” and that “they shouldn’t have to go against biological men.” Despite the fact that the average person is about four times more likely to get struck by lightning than take on a transgender athlete, she felt the need to protest this.
Staff Writer Ryan Ottiger argues that Enes Kanter Freedom’s publicity stunts distract from tangible issues
If Cunningham cared about things like protecting young girls in locker rooms, she would look no further than President Donald Trump, who has boasted about barging into young teenage girls’ dressing rooms at his old beauty pageant for Miss Teen USA.
“I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed and ready … and I’m allowed to go in, because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it.” President Trump said. “‘Is everyone OK?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody OK?’ And you see these incredible-looking women, and so I sort of get away with things like that …”
On top of these disgusting comments, there are mountains of other despicable comments, sexual assault allegations and implications in the Epstein files, if Trump being found civilly liable for sexual abuse was not already enough.
If Cunningham’s hypocrisy could not be any more apparent, she still took the politically homeless approach, claiming she is “in the middle” despite joyfully appearing with right-wing commentator Riley Gaines and saying nothing more after Karoline Leavitt of the Trump administration and other right-wing media endorsed her.
“The WNBA media, all we ever do is cover everything except basketball … we gotta keep the main thing the main thing.” Cunningham said.
Since this quote, she has averaged a measly 5.7 points per game, 2.2 rebounds and one assist.
The hypocrisy and talking points from Freedom and Cunningham logically present a few possibilities: The two are either unaware of real political issues and Trump’s comments, willingly ignorant of the real political issues and Trump’s comments or they think the real political issues affecting millions of Americans and Trump’s comments are less harmful than their manufactured transgender culture war.
In a broader sense, the actions and responses to these actions by right-wing media championing Freedom and Cunningham are all part of the modern Republican playbook. Do not think about tangible self-destructive domestic, foreign and economic policies. Do not think about the fact that they are being put in place by a criminal president with 34 felony counts, and spews violent rhetoric daily. Do not think about the loads of sexual assault allegations both inside and outside the Epstein files. Instead, focus on the pressing issues like transgender athletes in sports.