In a statement on Thursday, the WNBA announced it has fined and suspended Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton from five home games after she cursed two sign-holding Cunningham supporters who sat courtside at the Storm-versus-Indiana Fever game.
The girls, both teenagers, said Keaton was yelling when she called them “[expletive] insane” for their pro-Cunningham signs and for their XX-XY shirts that support female athletes.
They were not aware at the time the woman cursing them is a team co-owner.
The girls, who were also harassed by other game attendees, attended the WNBA game after participating in a pro-Cunningham rally outside the basketball arena.
Brandi Kruse, an independent journalist and Seattle resident, helped organized the rally and used social media to report on the girls’ harassment at the game.
After the game, Cunningham wrote a lengthy X post stating, “Bravo to those girls for standing up for what they believe."
She also called Keaton’s action’s “truly embarrassing” for the Storm and the WNBA.
Cunningham further wrote she “truly believes there is a safe space and love for EVERYBODY. Biological girls, biological boys, trans women, and trans men. Everyone is welcome at my table! You can disagree and still be kind."
The teen girls’ courtside support for Cunningham came a week after the Fever guard refused to back down after defending female-only athletics in an ESPN article. At a press conference the next day, July 22, she refused to cave on her view that females, especially young girls, shouldn't have to compete against males.
“I said what I said. I think it's kind of common sense,” she said when reporters tried to get her to back down.
Macy Petty Charles, of Concerned Women for America, told American Family News it was sad to see an adult, Keaton, curse at teens over a disagreement.
“I think that shows a lack of maturity from the people above them,” Charles said. “I think it says a lot about these young girls and the role models that they have, like Sophie.”
Charles is a former high school and college volleyball player. She turned from athlete to female-sports advocate after competing against a female-identifying player in a high school match in 2019.
