Sports
Young athletes on competing after coming out
Morant, Newman prep for college after winning Team DC scholarships
Last spring at the Team DC Night of Champions, six openly LGBT local high school student-athletes stepped forward to receive their Team DC college scholarships.
Several of the awardees took to the podium and shared their stories to a rapt audience of adult LGBT athletes. Their stories were filled with acceptance, support and a love of sports. Supporting them from the sidelines that night were the parents of the young athletes.
Freedom Morant grew up in Oxon Hill, Md., and began her athletic career at the age of three in basketball and eventually soccer. A near-drowning experience in Florida at age five led to her mother putting her in swim lessons.
This fall, Morant will leave for Frostburg State University where she has earned a swimming scholarship. The road to getting there included some obstacles, including overcoming a learning disability, but sports were a big part of the journey.
“Sports have helped me to get to where I want to be, and that’s in college,” says Morant. “Playing sports has also been a stress reliever. I like that competing gives me the opportunity to express myself.”
A recent graduate of Friendly High School, Morant was a multi-sport athlete. One year in tennis and basketball, three years in softball and four years in swimming. She was also a manager for the volleyball team.
In addition to high school sports, she was competing in club swimming, first at Elite Rays Swim Club and then at Manta Dive N Aquatics.
“I feel free when I am swimming, like nothing else in life matters,” Morant says. “It’s a comfortable home and I was meant to be in the water.”
Morant was out to her teammates in high school and says she wasn’t really challenged by anyone because there are a lot of out high schoolers in Prince Georges County. Her mom has been there all along, volunteering and cheering at competitions.
“When I came out to her, she said she already knew and was just waiting for me to tell her,” says Morant. “I couldn’t ask for a stronger support system.”
Her mom accompanied her to receive her Team DC scholarship and Morant was excited to meet other out athletes.
“While I had classmates who were out, there weren’t a lot of out athletes,” Morant says. “It was a really comfortable experience at the awards ceremony, and I was grateful to be there.”
This summer, Morant is lifeguarding, teaching swim lessons and training in the pool every day. She plans to study early childhood education at Frostburg, specifically K-3.
“I like working with kids and the idea of educating them in their formative years,” says Morant. “They need a good support system and I want them to be able to achieve their potential.”
At the end of August, Morant will leave for Frostburg where she will live in a dorm with other athletes. Team dynamics will play a factor, but she hopes to specialize in the 100 butterfly, 50 and 100 freestyles and the 200 individual medley.
“I am excited to be able to compete on the collegiate level,” Morant says. “I have looked at the school records and I want to see how far I can take my swimming.”
Jack Newman played on the girls’ soccer team at George C. Marshall High School through his junior year before deciding he wanted to focus on club soccer. A goalkeeper, he tried out for a boy’s travel soccer team and made the cut.
Growing up in Vienna, Va., Newman participated in soccer, basketball and wrestling. He found sports to be a great physical outlet for his energy levels.
Wanting a higher level of competition, Newman began attending summer sports camps at age 10 and was competing in basketball and soccer on girls’ club teams.
He was also on the high school wrestling team, which was separated by weight class rather than gender. He chose not to begin using hormones and instead relied on building muscle through weight training.
“I am cis passing and I didn’t want the acne side effects that can occur with hormones. I don’t feel like I was at a disadvantage in wrestling,” says Newman. “I have intentions of eventually going on testosterone, but I want to do it on my own time.”
He says that living in a progressive area has fostered a respectful transition. His only bad experiences came at the hands of opposing sports teams.
For the past two months, Newman has been playing in the Summer of Freedom League, which is hosted by the LGBT-based Federal Triangles Soccer Club.
“It is a much more comfortable experience to play sports with other like-minded people,” Newman says. “The sense of community is much stronger in LGBT sports.
Newman was also accompanied by his parents at the Team DC scholarship reception and says they have given him unconditional love and support.
“I liked hearing the stories of the other athletes that spoke at the awards reception and it was great having family there,” says Newman. “My dad is gay. In his own conversation where he came out to his brothers and my grandma, my grandma also came out. Home is a very welcoming environment.”
The same welcoming environment will be waiting for him when he begins attending Virginia Commonwealth University. At freshman orientation, in addition to being asked his name, he was also asked his pronoun and gender identity.
“The school is progressive, and it feels very inclusive there,” Newman says. “There was even an LGBTQ+ mixer during orientation.”
His experience at VCU will begin with a week-long Ram Camp leadership training where he will acclimate to the campus climate. Newman, who also won a SMYAL Youth Leadership scholarship, will be bringing his own experiences in from working as a SMYAL Peer Health Fellow this summer and serving as a youth ambassador to NOVA Pride.
His assigned housing for the fall semester is an apartment suite with other trans men and he expects to major in women and gender sexuality studies. He is also interested in producing circuit parties and will return to D.C. in October to stage crew people at the Miss Adams Morgan Pageant.
“I will be continuing my sports career at VCU by joining an intramural soccer team and checking out Stonewall Kickball Richmond,” says Newman. “I am looking forward to what the future holds.”
Sports
2 former NBA players launch cheap anti-trans stunt to exploit WNBA rules
Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White are attempting to extend their finished sports careers through vague gender eligibility policy in the WNBA.
As transgender sports policy continues to make headlines, two former NBA players are attempting to use vague WNBA wording on players’ gender identity to extend their finished professional sports careers.
Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, two male former professional basketball players who have aligned themselves with the ‘far-right’ political spectrum, have announced that they plan to self-identify as transgender in order to meet the requirements to declare themselves eligible for the WNBA draft.
Freedom last played for the NBA in 2022, while White played his last professional game in 2018.
Both players have explicitly stated that this choice is an attempt to exploit the policy currently in place in the WNBA — one that assumes those who say they identify as transgender women are women — unlike what these two have done.
The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but it does not include more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth, according to The Athletic, The New York Times’s sports publication.
Neither Freedom nor White has previously made any statements about being trans.
“If simply declaring who you are is all that’s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA,” Freedom wrote on X. “Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WNBA draft in April 2027.”
Hours later, White made a similar statement to Fox News, emphasizing that this was solely an attempt to exploit the policy — an attempt at inclusion — and use it as a loophole to stay relevant in the sport he left in 2018.
“I’m transgender. I’m a woman. I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purpose of basketball, professional basketball, so I’ll be declaring for the WNBA draft in 2027 as well,“ White told Fox News. “I think I’d be unstoppable. But I’m a team-first guy. I’m a pass-first kind of player. I do the little things. I led my team in all five major stat categories at Iowa State University, so I do a little bit of everything. I’ll do whatever the coach needs me to do. I’ll do whatever the girls need me to do.”
White also said that he would be open to suing the WNBA if he were not allowed to be a part of the draft, while making transphobic comments about genitalia in the same breath.
“I think the WNBA could come out and make a definitive statement about guys with a pair of balls playing in the Women’s Association,“ White said, saying he doesn’t “want to be discriminated against.”
“I want fair treatment,” White continued while also using the opportunity to promote his run for the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota. “I’m a young Black, hopefully United States Senator that would like a fair chance to participate as a sometimes-identifying-as-a-transgender-woman athlete.”
“We’re gonna have to have a huge legal battle about discrimination if I can’t play,” he added.
White has made multiple failed attempts to run for office as a Republican since leaving the NBA, with statements surrounding conspiracy theories and his support for Trump coming under fire.
He has faced court actions after falling behind on court-mandated child support payments and has faced family repercussions for his political activities.
White’s grandfather has distanced himself from White, stating: “There’s no way I can support my grandson supporting the GOP, and in essence, Trump.”
In response to Freedom’s X post and White’s announcement, the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association, the players’ union for the WNBA, released a statement doubling down on its commitment to inclusivity in the sport.
“We embrace justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Those are the values that unite this Union and allow it to protect women’s sports while creating transformational change,” the statement said in a post on Instagram.
“Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm. We will continue to have hard conversations,” the post continued. “But we will not be used as political pawns.”
The statement comes just days after WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent a memo to teams attempting to address ongoing discussions around transgender athletes in women’s basketball.
“I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women’s basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention,” Engelbert wrote in the memo, which was sent Friday afternoon and published in the Associated Press. “I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism.”
“We recognize that this is a complex and nuanced topic, and we will continue to have important conversations with all of you and the Players Association in the weeks and months ahead,” Engelbert said. “We also plan to convene additional discussions and offer listening sessions for any team leaders who would like to participate. Your perspectives and feedback are invaluable, and I appreciate those who have already reached out to share their thoughts.”
The memo, which does not clarify whether the league’s stance on gender eligibility will change or what the ongoing conversations have looked like, comes as political figures — particularly those on the right — continue to fuel debates over transgender participation in women’s sports across the country and across sports.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also commented on the ongoing eligibility meetings the WNBA is holding, using the issue to criticize transgender participation in women’s sports.
“WNBA meeting to decide whether 2+2=4 or 2+2=5,” Desantis wrote on X on Saturday.
Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports. Cunningham’s comments sparked small rallies and protests in Seattle and Portland when the Fever were on the road last week.
Despite the loudest voices — and those being covered by non-LGBTQ outlets — highlighting negative takes on transgender inclusion on female sports teams, multiple WNBA members have voiced their support for transgender women participating in sports.
Seattle Storm center Stefanie Dolson and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve have used their platforms to continue their vocal support for transgender women participating in sports.
“We need to protect trans kids,” Reeve said on Aug. 1. “To me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports.”
A source familiar with the league told the Blade that the WNBA is not taking Freedom and White’s announcements seriously and is not entertaining what the source characterized as bad-faith efforts to demonize the transgender community. The source emphasized that there are no serious or immediate eligibility issues involving the two men and said their attempts to enter women’s sports do not represent an effort to protect women’s sports.
“The WNBA will not allow bad-faith publicity stunts designed to mock or demean others to dictate serious conversations about league policy,” the source told the Blade on Tuesday. “There are no immediate eligibility issues affecting the WNBA.”
Iran and Egypt on Friday faced off during the World Cup’s “Pride Match” in Seattle.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt.
Friday’s match coincided with Pride weekend in Seattle. The Egyptian Football Association and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran both objected to playing in the “Pride Match.”
Egypt and Iran tied 1-1.
FIFA, for its part, allowed Pride flags inside the stadium during the match.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds,” a FIFA spokesperson told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events. General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed FIFA’s decision to allow Pride flags inside the stadium. Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, distributed Pride flags in Seattle on Friday, which was Pride Match Day.
“Visibility matters,” said Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin. “Pride is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries, including this weekend in Seattle. For many LGBTIQ people, seeing a Pride flag in public is a reminder that they are not alone, and that their rights and dignity are recognized.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year told Die Weltwoche, a Swiss magazine, that “there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the (FIFA) World Cup.”
“There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organized by external organizations will be taking place in the city,” said Infantino. “But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, was among those who traveled to Seattle for Friday’s match. Tatchell accused FIFA of not vetting World Cup teams — specifically Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Senegal, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Algeria — over whether they would allow gay players.
“FIFA is protecting LGBT+ visibility in the stands while failing to protect LGBT+ players on the pitch,” said Tatchell.
The Baltimore Orioles will take on the Washington Nationals on Friday, June 26 at 7 p.m. for Pride Night at Oriole Park.
The first 15,000 fans will receive an exclusive Pride Night Orioles jersey. The Washington Blade is a media sponsor of this event.
To purchase tickets, visit Orioles.com/Tickets.
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