Kim Slusser, the mother of former San Jose State volleyball star Brooke Slusser, helped lead the 8th rally in support of Sophie Cunningham in Dallas on Wednesday.
Kim Slusser and the Texas-based Christian advocacy and policy organization Texas Values held the rally outside of American Airlines Center ahead of the Dallas Wings game against Cunningham and the Fever.
Kim Slusser gave a speech at Thursday's event, sharing her daughter's story of having to share a volleyball team and an apartment with a transgender teammate without knowing the athlete was a biological male. The entire Slusser family was thrust into the national spotlight in fall 2024 when Brooke decided to sign onto Riley Gaines' lawsuit against the NCAA, citing her experience at SJSU.
"Almost overnight Brooke was launched into a media frenzy, there were reporters, cameras, social media, and suddenly, people all over the world were celebrating, and in some cases, smearing our youngest daughter. It was overwhelming at times, and nothing our family was ever prepared for," Kim said at her speech.
"And that's why it means so much to our family to be here in our home state Texas, supporting Sophie Cunningham. Sophie chose to use her voice to stand up for women and girls in sports. And what she's standing for is really very simple. Girls deserve a fair chance to compete. They deserve the opportunities created for female athletes. They deserve privacy in their locker rooms and in their apartments."
Kim Slusser spoke to Fox News Digital after her speech about what Cunningham means to her family.
"My daughter Brooke went through a lot at San Jose State University... it's one of the hardest thing our family has ever been through. So to see a woman speak up, and now its' becoming a movement... People are starting to come around and have a little more common sense thanks to Sophie because she's one of the few professional athletes that has come out and spoken up."
Kim Slusser added she is rooting for Cunningham in the game against the Wings, but is open to supporting the Wings and WNBA as a whole if they follow Cunningham's lead.
"I would prefer they acknowledge what the W means in the WNBA. I know they had a meeting last week and couldn't quite figure out what the W stood for so they're going to have to reconvene," she said.
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"I think focus on sport and focus on the women and focus on the many, and not on the ideology that they're focusing on."
The Cunningham rallies have shaken the WNBA since the first one in Seattle in July. What started as isolated demonstrations has quickly snowballed into a season-defining narrative, forcing the WNBA to navigate a level of ideological polarization rarely seen in the league.
Since that first rally, a co-owner has been suspended for berating two young girls who supported Cunningham in Seattle, four coaches have come under fire for their answers to questions about their stance on protecting women's sports, former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White have declared for the WNBA Draft and the league has had to put out a statement after fans at Sunday's Fever vs. Dream game were told to cover their XX-XY Athletics shirts.
While the WNBA and its players' union have fiercely defended their inclusive policies, the persistence of the rallies — and the loud, visible support they have generated for Cunningham’s stance — has introduced a divisive undercurrent to the season. It has forced league executives into defensive public relations postures, dominated sports talk cycles, and sparked intense debates among fanbases, creating a fracture that front offices are struggling to manage.
Ultimately, these ongoing protests have transformed the season into a highly visible battleground for the broader national debate on women's sports.
As the regular season pushes toward the playoffs, the narrative remains heavily anchored to the noise outside the arenas. For the WNBA, navigating the rest of the year will require managing not just the fiercely competitive basketball on the court, but the inescapable, polarizing movement that has firmly attached itself to the league's doorstep.
