WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert will be in hot water with the far-left crowd after she told Republican lawmakers that former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White cannot join the league because they are biological men.
Her testimony is the result of a national debate on whether female athletes should be forced to compete against males. Several major sports organizations have altered their rules to ensure that athletes play in sports that correspond with their birth sex.
From Fox News:
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told Republican lawmakers that former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White are ineligible to play in the league because they are "both men," responding to a congressional inquiry without supplying the definition of "women" that lawmakers had requested.
"With respect to your questions regarding eligibility, only women are eligible to play in the WNBA and the individuals you cite in your letter are both men," Engelbert wrote in the Oct. 16 response. The letter, which is dated Oct. 16, was provided to OutKick by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), which represents Freedom.
The letter answered a Sept. 17 inquiry from Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., and four other House Republicans about eligibility, player safety and confrontations with fans. Freedom and White had announced plans to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft while saying they identify as women.
The lawmakers asked how the league defines "women" under Article XIII, Section 1(a) of its collective bargaining agreement, and why the two former NBA players had been deemed ineligible. That provision of the 2026 agreement states: "Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA." It does not define the term in that eligibility provision.
Stutzman welcomed Engelbert’s statement as an acknowledgment of a distinction based on biological sex.
"The WNBA has just taken the first step in defining what a woman is for the sports community," Stutzman said in a statement.
"By clearly labeling Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White as men they have acknowledged that identifying as a woman does not change basic human biology."
Engelbert’s letter did not announce a new eligibility rule or spell out a broader policy governing transgender athletes.
Freedom, meanwhile, argued that the response left unanswered the central question of what standards the WNBA applies when deciding who qualifies to compete.
🚨 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF AMERICA, THE MOMENT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! The @WNBA has officially responded! IS THE #WNBA TRANSPHOBIC? Apparently, the WNBA still can’t define what a WOMAN is, but they’re absolutely certain they know what a MAN is! How convenient! WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has declared that I am a man. Who gave her the authority to decide who I am? Who gets to define my identity? And how can the WNBA determine who is a man without explaining what qualifies someone as a woman? Is the WNBA denying people the right to define their own gender identity? You can’t have it both ways! America, read this letter for yourselves. THE WNBA HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!
— Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) October 20, 2026
Freedom commented on the matter during an interview with OutKick, saying Engelbert “cannot clearly define what a woman is, but she’s absolutely certain that I’m a man.”
When asked whether Engelbert had misgendered him when writing a letter to Congress, Freedom said, “Yes, 100%.”
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Freedom and White launched a coordinated publicity stunt in August in which they declared themselves to be women, which means they are eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft. The stunt was aimed at drawing attention to the league’s inability to provide a clear definition of “woman” in its collective bargaining agreement.
🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: After MONTHS of deliberations, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and her team STILL can't define "woman" — but the league is now BLOCKING Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White from competing, because they're "men" CLOWN WORLD 🤡 She wrote that "only women are eligible to play in the WNBA and the individuals you cite in your letter are both men" So she can spot a man just fine. She just can't put the definition of a woman on paper! 😭 ANYTHING to avoid offending the transgender cult. Kanter Freedom nailed it: "Cathy Engelbert cannot clearly define what a woman is, but she's absolutely certain that I'm a man." 💯
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 20, 2026
Freedom further argued that, “If simply declaring who you are is all that’s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in WNBA.”
White’s and Freedom’s actions came after Indian Fever guard Sophie Cunningham advocated for protecting young girls from biological male athletes.