‘Men showed up at my house’: Samantha Ponder was ‘silenced’ after speaking against trans athletes participating in women’s sports

The discourse surrounding the WNBA has been dominated by the topic of the fairness of transgender athletes participating in women’s sports. The conversation was, in large part, sparked by comments Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham made in a July profile in ESPN.

“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” Cunningham told the Worldwide Leader. “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.”

Since her initial comments, debate has raged online and on news networks about the fairness of transgender athletes’ place in the WNBA, and the Fever have had multiple rallies of support for Cunningham outside of their games.

Now, former ESPN star Sam Ponder is sharing her experience after publicly taking a similar stance to Cunningham’s.

“I stopped posting about 9 months ago when 2 men from the NY Post showed up at my house, filming my daughter and me, because I had the audacity to tweet that she shouldn’t have to keep playing boys in a girls bball league,” Ponder posted on X.

I stopped posting about 9 months ago when 2 men from the NY Post showed up at my house, filming my daughter and me, because I had the audacity to tweet that she shouldn’t have to keep playing boys in a girls bball league. They put an unemployed homeschool mom of 3 as the sole… https://t.co/uceu9JqzVg

— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) August 13, 2026

“They put an unemployed homeschool mom of 3 as the sole cover of the NY Post for something that is so elementary, fundamental and obvious that it feels absolutely insane that we are still discussing this. Stop with the ‘it’s only a few’ argument… since when is that a reason to not care about injustice and the truth? The WNBA should be courageous. Stand for women. You can’t stand for something you can’t even define.

“Acknowledge that the inherent differences between men and women were the whole reason we needed the WNBA in the first place. Boundaries, clarity and exclusion are not hateful in sport… they’re the prerequisite to playing and loving the game. Without the lines, without the rules, without the honesty about who’s in and who’s out, there is no fair competition.”

The WNBA recently put a task force together to address the topic, as well as several others, but no final judgement has been made.

“Today’s meeting covered a wide range of topics, including ongoing discussions on transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online,” the task force said via statement.

“We will continue to engage all league stakeholders in the coming weeks and months. We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league. There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others.”

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