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Cheryl Reeve doesn't want to give the XX-XY movement "oxygen"
Sophie Cunningham’s supporters have been showing up outside WNBA arenas with XX-XY shirts and signs since July. Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve doesn’t want to give them any attention.
Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve addressed the XX-XY rallies that have been organized outside WNBA games, including Lynx matchups, by supporters of Sophie Cunningham’s comments about transgender athletes in youth sports.
Cunningham’s comments — she said she wants to “protect young girls in the locker room” — have since sparked a weeks-long discourse and prompted former NBA players such as Enes Kanter and Royce White to attempt to declare for the WNBA Draft.
Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said she doesn’t want to give XX-XY supporters “more oxygen”
“I just don’t want to give them more oxygen,” Reeve said.
“I have said this before, trans kids belong. And I think, as we’re seeing sort of politically, in this country, they’ve found a talking point that people are buying into, and the only thing I ask is that people educate themselves further on these issues and what we’re capable of doing together. And that something is not used just to marginalize a community.”
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve re-addressed the topic of trans athletes in women’s sports as a rally in support of protecting women’s sports is set to take place outside of the Chase Center before tonight’s Valkyries game.
“I have said this before, trans kids belong. And I think, as… pic.twitter.com/OHmmlS5VjV
— Jackson Thompson (@JackThompsonFOX) August 20, 2026
Reeve has been one of the most outspoken critics of Cunningham’s recent comments as she wore a “Trans Kids Belong” T-shirt during the Lynx’s recent game against the Indiana Fever.
The rallies themselves have been organized by XX-XY Athletics, a nonprofit that advocates for sex-based categories in women’s sports. Multiple events have been held outside WNBA arenas this summer in support of Cunningham, who sparked the season’s most sustained controversy with her comments to ESPN about protecting female athletes from biological males in locker rooms and competition.