TWIBS: Brave Man Defends Women by Saying He’d Dominate Them in Sports
Enes Kanter, a former basketball player who you may never have heard of, says he could declare himself a woman and dominate the WNBA.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
Good golly, miss Molly, you sure like to ball! A cis basketball bro has thoughts on the WNBA and the potential participation of transgender women in sports, and I am currently rushing to assemble the committee so we can give him an award. It’s a bit short notice, but I am nothing if not a fan of folks talking trash way outside their lane.
Enes Kanter started his NBA career in 2011 when he was drafted to the Utah Jazz and ended it in 2022, when he was traded from from the Celtics to the Rockets… who waived the pick. Kanter’s basketball career was ended by disinterest from on high, and he claims this is because he is an outspoken opponent of the People’s Republic of China, or whatever.
That’s all very silly and not super important. Here’s what’s important:
screenshot from twitter.com
Fantastic! Another dopey dude trotting out the same tired argument we’ve been listening to since the mid-2010s: If transgender women are allowed to compete in women’s sports, cisgender men will pretend to be trans and enter into women’s sports to dominate the field! Yeah, just about every anti-trans pundit in the world has uttered some variation of this bizarre theory since the public debate about trans athletes began.
If this were a real risk, it would be happening. It would already have happened. You would be able to point to at least one single example of it happening—but you can’t! Most of these guys would never be caught dead “pretending” to be women (that would be Gay™️, don’t you know!), and besides that, most sports organizations have some sort of restrictions in place for trans competitors. Most of them just defer to the International Olympic Committee’s 2015 stance on trans athletes.
Besides that, none of these guys care about women’s sports at all. At least, not until transgender women might get involved in them. They don’t tweet about the WNBA, the WFA, the WPF, the PHF, the NWSL. They don’t tweet about huge sporting events like the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
You couldn’t get these dudes to give a shit about female athletes at gunpoint!
So that begs the question: Why are they suddenly so eager to speak up about the supposed “unfair advantage” that trans women have over cis women in competitive sports?
screenshot from Fox News
Oh, of course! Clout!
A few weeks ago, Kanter expressed a desire to seek political office as soon as 2028. What important issues would drive his platform, you ask? Education, nationalism, and censorship, according to Kanter. He also said he’d like to get elected somewhere with a lot of “sunshine and beach.”
Given Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ perpetually freefall approval ratings, there’s absolutely a non-zero chance that we could all be talking about the new Florida Governor Enes Kanter in 2030. And from the looks of it, he intends to start establishing his socially conservative platform now, by talking shit about trans women in sports.
Nobody likes a copycat, Kanter. You just aren’t gonna beat DeSantis on transphobia, trust me!
We know Kanter doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about… but what about the people who do?
screenshot from marca.com
Earlier this year, Brittney Griner—a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a six-time WNBA All-Star—spoke out in defense of trans athletes.
“Everyone deserves the right to come here and sit in these seats and feel safe and not feel that there's a threat and that they can't be who they are,” she said after stating that the rights of trans athletes are very high on the list of things she plans to be vocal about and fight for.
And listen, if this woman can spend nearly a year held hostage in Russia and show up a few months after she gets home to talk about how important trans rights are to her, I don’t think a single one of you has an excuse not to care.
She’s not the only one, either. Phoenix Mercury player Brianna Turner went on a righteous Twitter tirade back in April about the inclusion of trans women in sports, pointing out that none of the so-called defenders of women’s sports seem to care about them unless there’s a trans woman to bash.
Even back in 2021, Layshia Clarendon came out as the first openly non-binary WNBA player, and even pursued top surgery.
Regardless of what Enes Kanter and every other self-appointed champion of women’s sports thinks, most female athletes welcome their trans sisters to the field, court or rink with open arms. So if you’re on the fence, maybe you should stop listening to dweebs like Kanter and start listening to the people who actually give a shit about women’s sports.