Indiana Fever reserve guard reignited a nationwide debate on the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports with her comments on the subject in a Julty 21 ESPN profile.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,'” Cunningham said in the feature. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
However, her superstar teammate, Caitlin Clark, has kept the focus squarely on basketball.
“I think, for us, it’s not really a discussion we really have in our locker room,” Clark said after being asked about the issue. “I think it’s for leagues and the governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions, but our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins, and, obviously, we didn’t do that tonight.”
Many conservative pundits took exception to Clark declining to take a stance, and now Riley Gaines is speaking out about her “main problem” with the Fever’s phenom.
“You know, I think a lot of at least conversations that we see online from conservative profiles, conservative commentators, conservative influencers, they take the approach that Caitlin Clark should have this like moral obligation to speak up,” Gaines said on The Charlie Kirk Show.
Riley Gaines gives her unvarnished take on Caitlin Clark.
“I think my main problem with Caitlin Clark in all of this isn’t that she isn’t necessarily taking a hardline stance because we can tell.”
“I think it’s safe to assume what Caitlin Clark thinks about this issue. I’m not… pic.twitter.com/YqCbdekSKo
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) August 25, 2026
“And I actually don’t really agree. I really don’t. I don’t think you can volunteer someone for the position that I have found myself in, that Sophie Cunningham has now willingly accepted and has done so with such confidence and with such courage. I don’t think you can volunteer someone for that position. I mean, you guys know the effects of what happens when you do, whether it’s the negative comments, the false headlines, the pressure, the smear campaigns, death threats…. I just don’t think that’s something that you can volunteer someone for.
Gaines went on to say that she feels it’s clear what Clark thinks, even if the guard isn’t taking a hard-line stance.
“I think my, my main problem with Caitlin Clark, um, in all of this isn’t that she isn’t necessarily taking a hard-line stance, because we can tell. I think it’s safe to assume what Caitlin Clark thinks about this issue. I’m not going to say what I know personally and how she thinks on this issue, but it’s safe to assume how she feels about this issue when asked about it.”
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