West Wilson stepped into one of sports’ most heated debates. He landed on the opposite side from his own podcast co-host.
Days after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham stood firm against transgender athletes in women’s sports, the Summer House alum pushed back. He called the whole controversy overblown.
West Wilson argued trans athletes are being unfairly portrayed as a threat to sports
Wilson shared his take in a TikTok video on Saturday, July 25. “Transgender athletes in American sports are such a borderline non-existent issue,” he said. Wilson, 31, and Cunningham, 29, have been friends since high school and cohost the “Show Me Something” podcast.
On the trans athletes question, Wilson argued the fear does not match the numbers. “Right-wingers have convinced a massive portion of people in our country that these people are, like, a threat to sports in America, when mathematically it’s not the case at all,” he said. Spotlighting the issue, he added, only isolates transgender people further.
Wilson also said the panic pulls focus from bigger problems. “There’s like 10 athletes in all the NCAA, “he said, arguing it should not overshadow housing, healthcare, and wars. The number of support that scale.
The NCAA counts more than 500,000 student-athletes, and president Charlie Baker told a 2024 congressional hearing that fewer than 10 are transgender. A 2024 IOC-funded study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine also found trans women faced some disadvantages, including weaker lower-body strength and lung function.
Cunningham sees the debate about trans athletes differently. She told ESPN on July 21 that she never hated anyone and wanted to “protect young girls in a locker room.” Pressed again at a Fever practice, she said protecting children was “kind of common sense.” “I think there is room for absolutely everyone here,” she said, adding that she also wanted to protect the rights of “biological women.”
TELL US, DO YOU SIDE WITH WEST WILSON OR SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM ON THIS ONE?