The Atlanta Dream called Sunday night's game a "Wellness and Health Night" for women and girls across Georgia.
A Georgia mom and her teenage daughter wore biology T-shirts to the basketball game.
These two were the women and girls – but the Dream still spent the night trying to throw them out of the arena.
What Actually Happened in Atlanta
Kasey Thomason and her 17-year-old daughter Annie bought seats two rows from courtside and wore their XX-XY Athletics shirts to the Indiana Fever-Atlanta Dream game.
Kasey wore the stars-and-stripes version.
Annie wore a Riley Gaines collaboration with "XX" on the front and "For the Girls" on the back.
Nobody said a word for three-plus quarters.
Then overtime hit.
A security guard approached and asked them to leave their seats.
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Kasey asked if it was about their shirts.
The guard confirmed it – a nearby fan was offended.
Their options: put on complimentary Atlanta Dream "Wellness Night" shirts or get escorted out of the building.
Kasey responded the way any reasonable person would.
"Biology and science is offensive?" she asked.
They put the shirts on.
They weren't going to miss the final two minutes of overtime for this.
The fan who apparently made the complaint?
A woman sitting courtside in a "Protect Trans Rights" shirt – the same woman who had been featured on the video board earlier in the game.
She mockingly told Kasey and Annie "I like your shirt" once they had complied.
The woman's jacket was zipped up by the end of the game, no longer displaying the trans messaging.
Whether security told her to cover up too remains unclear.
The WNBA Has a One-Way Tolerance Policy
Let's be absolutely clear about what XX-XY means.
XX chromosomes. XY chromosomes. Basic human biology taught to every kid in middle school.
State Farm Arena's prohibited items policy bans clothing with "explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterization towards any person(s)."
The NBA Fan Code of Conduct bans "obscene or indecent messages on signs or clothing."
Four letters representing chromosomes.
That's what they decided was indecent.
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Meanwhile, the woman in the "Protect Trans Rights" shirt was on the video board.
The WNBA has spent years painting political slogans on arena floors and warming up in "Vote Warnock" shirts.
The Atlanta Dream players themselves wore those shirts in 2020 to campaign against their own team's co-owner.
Political expression in the WNBA has always been welcome – as long as it runs in one direction.
This Is a Pattern, Not an Incident
Three weeks ago in Seattle, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton walked up to two teenage girls sitting courtside in XX-XY shirts – girls holding a sign reading "Thank you Sophie for speaking up for girls" – and called them "f***ing insane."
One of them cried.
The WNBA suspended Keaton for five home games.
In Chicago earlier this month, Cunningham supporters rallied peacefully outside the United Center and were met by counterprotesters screaming song lyrics about Nazis dying and chanting profanities at families on the sidewalk.
The pattern is clear.
Fans who support Sophie Cunningham and women's sports are being targeted and harassed by the very institutions claiming to stand for women – a team co-owner cursing out children, and now an arena security guard siding with the offended fan in the trans-rights shirt over the two women wearing science.
The Dream Just Torched Their Own Event
The Atlanta Dream's "Wellness and Health Night" was designed, in their own words, to "use the power of sport to improve health outcomes for women and girls across Georgia."
Kasey and Annie Thomason are women and girls from Georgia.
They bought tickets.
They wore shirts defending the biological definition of womanhood – the same definition that makes women's sports possible in the first place.
The fans around them, by their account, loved the shirts and showed support all game long.
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The Dream's response was to force them into branded event merchandise in the final minutes of overtime while the woman who complained kept her courtside seat.
You do not get to hold a night for women's health and spend it siccing security on a mother and daughter for wearing chromosomes on a T-shirt.
The WNBA has a decision to make. Either political expression is allowed in their arenas or it isn't.
Either "Protect Trans Rights" shirts and "Vote Warnock" uniforms are acceptable, or XX-XY shirts are acceptable, or nobody wears political messaging.
What is not acceptable – what cannot stand – is a policy that protects one side and punishes the other.
Fox News Digital and OutKick reached out to the Atlanta Dream for comment.
They had not responded as of publication.
Sources:
- Jon Root, "Mom and daughter told to cover up XX-XY T-shirts, say they were threatened with ejection at Fever-Dream game," OutKick/Fox News Digital, August 17, 2026.
- Daily Wire Staff, "WNBA Co-Owner Accused Of Cursing Out Teen Girls Over XX-XY Shirts," The Daily Wire, July 2026.
- BizPac Review Staff, "WNBA suspends team co-owner for berating girls in pro-female sports shirts," BizPac Review, July 2026.
- OutKick Staff, "Sophie Cunningham supporters rally in Chicago, while protesters showcase what's wrong with America," OutKick, August 8, 2026.