A pro-transgender counterprotester told supporters of Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham that they “should have been aborted” during a rally held outside Target Center in Minneapolis on Thursday night, ahead of the Fever’s game against the Minnesota Lynx.
The man made the remark through a bullhorn while wearing a T-shirt printed with the word “abortion.” He was addressing a crowd of Cunningham supporters who had gathered to rally in support of protecting women’s sports.
A separate counterprotester used a bullhorn to repeatedly call XX-XY Athletics, a women’s sports apparel company that opposes biological males competing in women’s sports, a “hate group.”
NCAA softball player Kendall Kotzmacher, who attended Thursday’s rally, told OutKick the man with the bullhorn was the same person who had allegedly told her she “should’ve been aborted” at the first Cunningham rally in Minneapolis on Aug. 2.
“He had a megaphone and was just yelling everything about how awful people we are,” Kotzmacher said of the earlier incident. “At one point, I got told that I should’ve been aborted when I was younger.”
Kotzmacher, a Minnesota native who plays softball at Colorado Christian University, has become an advocate for women’s sports after her high school team lost a state championship game to a team that included a transgender pitcher.
Thursday’s rally was the second held in Minnesota tied to Cunningham. The first, on Aug. 2, drew supporters including Riley Gaines, former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya and XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey, along with pro-transgender counterprotesters.
The rallies began after Cunningham publicly voiced support for keeping biological males out of women’s and girls’ sports. Similar demonstrations have taken place outside Fever games in Seattle, Portland and other WNBA cities this season.
Cunningham has said she was not involved in organizing the rallies but has praised attendees for exercising their right to free speech.
“I’m here to play basketball, but I’m also here to be me,” Cunningham said earlier this season, according to ESPN. “I’m not gonna shadow that or hide or, you know, dim my light just because maybe people don’t agree with that.”
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