Stop talking to Enes Kanter Freedom. Start talking to this trans athlete.
Enes Kanter Freedom has elevated himself by hijacking the conversation about the inclusion of trans athletes in women's sports.
Mark
Enes Kanter Freedom has certainly gotten his wish.
With his bogus declaration that he’s now a woman — and thus eligible for next year’s WNBA Draft — and his much-ballyhooed appearance at a recent Indiana-Chicago game, the former NBA player has hijacked some of the conversation about the inclusion of trans athletes in women’s sports and made a mockery of women and trans people.
For that, he’s become a darling of conservative media, making appearances on Fox News and other outlets, with hosts on Newsmax referring to him as “she.”
Introducing him as a guest on his radio show, Clay Travis called Kanter Freedom “the bravest woman I know,” adding to the disingenuous mockery of women whether or not his tongue was planted firmly in his cheek.
To be sure, the conversation about trans women in women’s sports isn’t remotely a right vs. left issue. Some of the loudest voices against trans women in women’s sports are liberal women and feminists.
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Yet it’s been the anti-trans conservative media who have embraced and elevated Kanter Freedom in an attempt to turn the conversation upside down.
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The debate over trans athletes is not as easy as left vs. right
The perspective of people on the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports isn’t easily defined by ideological labels.
Stop talking to Kanter Freedom. Start talking to Karleigh Webb.
As someone who has been in this conversation about trans inclusion in sports for over 20 years, it’s all been disheartening to watch.
I’ve listened to people on every side of this conversation — and taken arrows from all sides too — hoping to find policies that do actually “protect women’s sports” and create a path to participation for trans women in said sports.
I’ve spent so many years talking to people with every perspective imaginable on this topic.
Mianne Bagger, the first trans woman to compete in women’s pro golf, has gifted me with hours and hours of her time over many years on this topic. After wrestling with it for years, she has landed on a desire to see trans women like her banned from women’s pro sports.
Helen Carroll, the Hall of Fame LGBTQ sports advocate and former coach, has shared with me insights she’s learned about the importance of trans inclusion in any sports policy, particularly for trans youth.
Nancy Hogshead-Makar has brought me along her journey from pushing hard for women’s sports policies that find a path to inclusion for trans women, to now advocating for full bans of those very trans women.
Most recently, masters swimmer Jennifer Rines — a trans woman herself — has opened conversations with me, bringing yet another personal perspective to the conversation I have constantly in my head about this.
CeCe Telfer, Gabi Ludwig, Martina Navratilova, Chris Mosier, Shannon Minter, Donna Lopiano, Chelsea Wolfe, Stephen Alexander and so many other people highly engaged and informed on this topic have helped me understand so many of the important nuances and perspectives that should be driving these conversations.
Even amongst these trans athletes, cis women and others, many of them have reached various conclusions.
Yet there’s no one I’ve talked with more on this topic than Outsports contributor Karleigh Webb.
In the years I’ve worked with Karleigh, she’s offered me so much insight into the life of a trans woman, the pain she has experienced as well as the triumphs.
She’s also talked with me about the real athletic impact of medical transition, the power of sports participation in her life and the lives of so many trans people, as well as the joy it has brought her as someone who wrestled with her gender for so many years.
Like me, Karleigh will talk with anyone about this topic. As a trans woman from Nebraska, she can talk on-the-level with small-town and rural America, and she relishes in it.
Karleigh has a story to tell, she has a perspective, she’s willing to take a stand and, as both an athlete and a journalist, she knows how to communicate to the media and to the public on the topic.
People like Clay Travis, Laura Ingraham and others should be talking a lot more with Karleigh and a lot less with Kanter Freedom.
Some of my favorite conversations on the topic have been between members of the LGBTQ community and conservative media. I’ve personally loved talking with folks on “the other side” on this topic.
I spent an hour talking to Will Cain about trans athletes on his radio show. I’ve been a guest on Laura Ingraham’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News. I’ve appeared on Newsmax. Trans athlete and researcher Joanna Harper gave Fox News probably the best five-minute TV interview you’ll ever see on the topic.
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Joanna Harper expounded to Tucker Carlson on Fox News about trans participation in sports, leaving the host speechless.
Instead of more disingenuous conversations in conservative media — Kanter Freedom is not a woman no matter how many times he says it with his little smirk — it would be amazing if Clay Travis and the folks at Fox News and Newsmax talked with Karleigh Webb.
Will a 10-minute interview on The Clay & Buck Show change any minds in the mostly conservative audience? Of the 6+ million people who listen monthly to the show, maybe a couple.
Yet the point isn’t changing minds with one conversation, but rather elevating the conversation and building understanding.
Most Americans say they don’t know a trans person. Karleigh is a trans woman who has stories to tell.
Stop talking to Enes Kanter Freedom. Start talking with Karleigh Webb.
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