Critics of Enes Freedom and Royce White say they are not really transgender women, but men pretending to be transgender women, so they must not be allowed to play in the WNBA.
However, their critics cannot explain the difference between a man pretending to be a woman and a man pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman, or how the WNBA can make such a distinction.
Put simply, in New York City, where the WNBA is based, gender identity is entirely self-reported. It is “self-ID”.
Title 8 of the New York City Administrative Code was amended in 2002 to include actual or perceived sex, gender identity, and “gender expression” in the city’s definition of “gender” as a human right. Under this rubric, a man identifying as a woman “for the purposes of basketball” is an expression of gender.
Nothing about Freedom or White, “including [their] actual or perceived gender-related self-image, appearance, behavior, expression or other gender-related characteristic, regardless of the sex assigned to that person at birth” prevents them from being ‘women’, according to the city of New York.
A male who says he is a transgender person must be allowed to use single-sex facilities, including restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and hospital rooms “consistent with their gender identity”. He says he is a woman, so let him in.
To exclude him is discriminatory.
His beard is irrelevant.
His penis is irrelevant.
His medical history is irrelevant.
He does not owe us femininity, proof, or documents.
If women object to his presence in their spaces and sports, the city of New York does not care, because those women are clearly bigots.
The NYC Commission on Human Rights can impose civil penalties up to $125,000 for normal violations of this law, or $250,000 for willful violations, plus damages.
Civil complaints can also be filed in city courts. New York City courts are required by the city law to construe the statute broadly, independent of state or federal laws that would be narrower.
Of course, the city law applies to accommodations, not sports teams, but the controversy highlights that contradiction, embarrassing the WNBA.
The WNBA could fix their public relations problem by simply defining what the word ‘woman’ means. The league could just say that Enes Freedom and Royce White are adult human males and clarify that the WNBA is for adult human females only.
This current WNBA cannot do that, however, because it has been among the most ‘woke’ professional sports leagues in the nation. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has chosen to let her current term expire rather than confront the issue of what a “woman” is.
Mr./Ms. Freedom recently attended a Chicago Sky home game against the Indiana Fever wearing a shirt that read: “WOMAN noun: Adult Human Female”. Freedom stepped onto the court after Sky guard Natasha Cloud apparently started a shouting match with him.
Freedom was then ejected and banned from Sky home games at the arena.
Club owner Michael Alter confirmed the ban, citing a remark that Freedom had supposedly made in reaction to a three-pointer by Sophie Cunningham. “It was pretty clear to us that his purpose of coming here was trying to be provocative and see how much attention he could get.”
“The whole thing changed when [Freedom] decided to get up.”
“I got up and I took a step, but I never crossed the baseline”, Freedom says. he maintains that he was removed for “supporting women” and claims he was subject to viewpoint discrimination.
Wintrust Arena is owned and operated by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, a public entity. When public officials or public-entity security enforce a fan code of conduct, First Amendment and Illinois constitutional constraints apply.
Enes Freedom is not a lawyer, but he has lawyers. It is not a stretch to suggest he might have done his homework before he arrived at the arena in that shirt. Thanks to Natasha Cloud, he has established a pattern of conduct at league games.
This is all consistent with a possible plan to punish the WNBA through lawfare.
Lawfare has been used against critics of gender ideology for a very long time. Litigants against the gender critic usually enjoy deferential authorities and helpful systems. Judges have been trained to use pronouns. Laws have been rewritten in advance of the lawsuit.
Sex realist activists and organizers will likely be subject to increased lawfare in the near term. Everyone subject to lawfare risk should understand what it is, how it works, and what it costs.
That last bit is important. There are things that a retired NBA player can do, that you cannot, because he can afford lawyers.