When Kasey and Annie Thomason wore shirts stating a scientific fact to a WNBA game, they never imagined they’d be threatened. The mother-daughter duo was informed by a security guard at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta that they needed to cover their XX-XY apparel with new shirts given to them or leave. 

The Thomasons’ shirts came from the popular brand XX-XY Athletics, a sportswear company whose logo is the chromosomal codes for women and men. 

“The WNBA finally has something it desperately wanted, thanks to Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham: fans,” Laura Ingraham said on Monday during Fox News’s “Ingraham Angle.” “So, naturally, it’s trying to alienate them. Instead of rolling out the red carpet for this massive new audience, the league and the woke Left are treating common-sense fans and some of the players at times like public enemy number one.”

The Thomasons explained that their tickets to the Indiana Fever vs. Atlanta Dream game cost around $1,000 apiece. “We did nothing. We were just sitting there,” Kasey recounted in a video filmed immediately following the game. 

Kasey and Annie told Ingraham they believe they were asked to cover their shirts after another game attendee wearing a shirt in support of transgender-identifying individuals “told on” them for wearing “offensive” apparel. 

According to the Thomasons, the pro-trans shirt-wearing fan was asked to cover their shirt as well. Kasey was shocked that anyone would be asked to cover their shirt is ridiculous. 

Annie, who is 17 years old, told Ingraham she was “flabbergasted” by the situation. “It’s the first time I’ve ever experienced anything like that. And I just, I had no words, except like who’s offended by a t-shirt at this point?”

Macy Charles, legislative strategist for Concerned Women of America, told The Washington Stand that the WNBA enabled this attack on free speech. 

“They’re not protecting sports, they’re controlling the conversation. Female athletes standing up for themselves exposes their true anti-woman agenda. The WNBA is solidifying itself as a left-wing political organization rather than a league focused on competitive opportunities for women. That’s why CWA has called on the WNBA to stop policing speech and start protecting women by making one thing clear: women’s sports are for women only.”

In a statement, the WNBA described what happened as wrong. “The WNBA is aware of interactions at last night’s game in Atlanta in which fans were asked by league security to cover their shirts. This should not have happened.” 

Annie said that despite this acknowledgement, she is not comforted. “It’s 100% going to happen again until people actually do something about it. And no, it does not make me feel better because they’re not going to do anything about it,” she argued. 

Women’s sports advocate and XX-XY spokesman, Riley Gaines, called out the WNBA in a post on X: “The WNBA acts like they don’t know what a woman is with their performative meetings, yet they know women have two X chromosomes. How do I know they know? Because they made these women cover up shirts that said exactly that.”

Founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, Jennifer Sey, also addressed the situation. “Yesterday in Atlanta, a mom was told she had to cover up her XX-XY Athletics tee or leave. The more the WNBA, the stadiums, and the teams try to censor the story of the groundswell of support for the protection of women’s sports, the bigger it gets. When will they learn?” she posted on X Monday. 

Sey made it clear to Barclays Center in New York City, the venue of another Indiana Fever game on August 22, that Sey will be attending with a group of fellow girls’ sports advocates. “I suggest everyone wear their @xx_xyathletics shirts,” she wrote. “We are coming. In love and truth. And XX-XY Athletics tees.”