SC Women's Basketball Coach Dawn Staley Takes A Stand For Trans Athletes

A Far-right content creator expected a different answer when he questioned South Carolina Basketball coach Dawn Staley about her views on transgender women playing in sports.

Coach Staley had just talked about the importance of focusing on her next game, the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship, today against Iowa, when he asked his most pressing question. (18 miniutes in)

Coach Dawn Staley: I do think it will be a -- I hope it's the most watched game. I've been a part of witnessing from the outside looking, looking into the most watched game. It's going to be fun to hopefully be a part of it, like in the mix of things. I hope that everybody gets exactly what they want out of it, and I just hope the viewers, the people in attendance will take tomorrow's moment and carry it to the rest of the history of our sport.

Coach Dawn Staley: Hopefully we can keep the eyeballs and demand where it needs to be.

Right wing content creator: You just talked about what a massive weekend this is for women's basketball, women's sports in general. One of the major issues facing women's sports is the debate/discussion topic about transgender athletes, biological males in women's sports. I was wondering if you could tell me your position on that issue."

Coach Dawn Staley: Damn, you got deep on me, didn't you? I'm on the opinion of if you're a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That's my opinion. You want me to go deeper?

Right wing content creator: Do you think transgender women should be able to participate?

Coach Dawn Staley: That's the question you want to ask, I'll give you that. Yes, yes. So now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game, and I'm okay with that. I really am.

H/T Erin In The Morning

Kickout content creator DAN ZAKSHESKE reported on this exchange that he considers himself a feminist. But he said that he does not support transgender women competing in sports qualifying that by saying if the Olympics were 'gender neutral' men would win everything.

The Olympics have never been or will ever be "gender neutral" for that reason Dan. You chose to say that as hate click bait and possibly to scare her into silence. You failed.

IOC position is it "will not discriminate against an athlete who has qualified through their IF, on the basis of their gender identity and/or sex characteristics."

NBC also reported on South Carolina Basketball coach Dawn Staley's courageous stand against transphobia and faux feminism.

Iowa coach Lisa Bluder declined to answer the same question later on.

“I understand it’s a topic that people are interested in, but today my focus is on the game tomorrow, my players,” Bluder said. “It’s an important game we have tomorrow and that’s what I want to be here to talk about, but I know it’s an important issue for another time.”

The topic of transgender athletes in sports has become a hot-button wedge issue in recent years, despite the fact that as of 2023, only 34 trans athletes had openly competed in college sports, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. That comprises an infinitesimal amount of the more than 500,000 participants in NCAA athletics.

South Carolina Women's Basketball Coach Dawn Staley refuses to take the bait and Takes A Stand the day before the NCAA Championship supporting transgender Athletes "All women should play."

Related:

Appeals Court Upholds Injunction Banning Texas from investigating Families With Trans Children

The ruling is a lifesaving win for transgender children and families who remain in Texas to celebrate during the Transgender Day Of Visibility. Conversely, it's a sad reminder of their life before being forced to flee for those who have sought refuge.

The Texas Court of Appeals, Third District, today upheld injunctions in two related cases against the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and former Commissioner Jaime Masters, barring them from implementing the agency’s rule expanding the definition of child abuse to presumptively treat the provision of gender-affirming care as child abuse, the ACLU of Texas said in a press release Friday.

The legal battle began after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered the state agency in February 2022 to launch investigations into parents who provide their children with the treatment, which has been deemed safe, effective and potentially lifesaving by many major medical groups but was banned in September by state law, CNN reports.

The governor’s order came shortly after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared gender-affirming surgical procedures in children and prescribing drugs affecting puberty should be considered child abuse. Abbott ordered the Department of Family and Protective Services commissioner “to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas.” Within two weeks of the directive, the state had opened at least nine investigations of families, according to the department.

The court of appeals upheld a trial court decision in the Friday order, ruling in favor of LGBTQ+ advocates and families in two related Texas lawsuits asking a state court to block the agency from investigating parents who provide their children with gender-affirming care.