Statements of common sense in the public square have always been welcome. Doubling down on those statements under pressure even more so. Tripling down, so to speak, is the best of all, for it indicates that the pressure levers pulled by petty tyrants have broken and that their ability to force people back into their boxes is fading.
That is the situation facing basketball star Sophie Cunningham, who plays for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). In an interview with American sports publication ESPN this week, Cunningham addressed the allegation that she is a "MAGA Barbie", and in particular the claim that she hates transgender people.
"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", Cunningham told ESPN.
Naturally, the modern media could not let a statement like that pass unchallenged, and two days later, at an Indiana Fever press event, a reporter asked Cunningham about her comments and whether she wished to elaborate.
"I mean, I think I said what I said. I think it's kind of common sense and I think I'll always believe in that", Cunningham said, adding that "it's really important to protect children, and that's little girls who are also involved in that category".
"I stand on what I said, and I'm always going to believe that", she said.
A Star With a Lot to Lose
The truth feels like a breath of fresh air after more than a decade spent inhaling the toxic fumes of falsehood, and Cunningham deserves credit for throwing open the window. She did not do so without risk. The Indiana Fever guard shot to social media stardom last month after needling a rival with nothing more than a pointed finger, an image destined to become a meme.
And so it has.
She is also a popular player in her own right, and is close to her Indiana Fever teammate, WNBA megastar Caitlin Clark. As such, she has much to lose. But she weighed the risk and came out swinging.
She tripled down on her position with an Instagram post that capped off a contentious week, sharing pictures of herself with the simple caption: "I said what I said."
In terms of institutional support, Cunningham has that in abundance. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in response to a question about the athlete's comments, said that it was "ludicrous" that Cunningham had to "speak that truth" in the first place.
Leavitt described the backlash Cunningham was receiving as "from Democrats and left-wing figures across the country is astonishing".
"They are clearly very out of touch with the American public on this issue, which, again, is an 80/20 issue", she said.
She is also backed up by last month's US Supreme Court ruling, which upheld West Virginia's and Idaho's women's sports laws, ensuring that men cannot compete in women's sports. Christian legal-advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom, which supported the states in their bid to enforce their laws, described the ruling as a win for reality that "empowers states across the country to enact and enforce similar laws protecting female athletes".
It is a war that is far from won, but the momentum has shifted, driven along its new course by images that people of good conscience could not ignore.
Images That Cannot be Ignored
One of the most powerful of those images, and one with truly global reach, was surely that offered by the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Viewers around the world were shocked by the spectacle of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif beating Italian boxer Angela Carini, who quit after a 46-second bout in which Carini said she had "never felt a punch like this".
They were shocked because Imane Khelif, the public now has good reason to understand, was competing in the women's welterweight category despite having failed a sex-eligibility test, thanks to the International Olympic Committee's lax standards, standards far looser than those of bodies like the International Boxing Association and World Boxing.
It was the situation gender critics had long feared and warned against, and the vigorous defense of Khelif mounted by sex deniers spoke to a blindness that made it possible, and that persists still.
It is a blindness of the heart, one remedied above all by courageous stands like the one Sophie Cunningham is currently making.