Chicago Sky selected Reese 7th overall last week
Angel Reese, the former LSU national champion who was a top selection in the WNBA Draft last week, put out a simple post about women in sports on Monday.
The new Chicago Sky star urged followers and anyone who read her posts on X to “protect young women in sports!!!”
Reese did not explain further, but the post reached more than 1.4 million impressions by the afternoon.
The post from Reese came days after the Biden administration unveiled new rules aimed at safeguarding LGBTQ+ students and changing the ways in which sexual harassment and assault claims are adjudicated on campus. However, missing from the new rule was a policy forbidding schools from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes competing against biological females.
The White House was widely expected to bring in such a policy but has instead put the provision on hold. The delay is widely seen as a political maneuver during an election year in which Republicans have rallied around bans on transgender athletes in girls’ sports.
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley also admitted before the national championship that she would support a transgender athlete in women’s basketball.
Reese’s remarks also came after she lamented the increased scrutiny she has received since she helped LSU to a national championship in 2023. Since then, she has had lucrative NIL deals and appeared in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition.
“I’ve been through so much,” Reese told reporters after losing to Iowa in the tournament. “I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times, death threats. I’ve been sexualized. I’ve been threatened. I’ve been so many things, and I’ve stood strong every single time.
“I just try to stand strong for my teammates because I don’t want them to see me down and not be there for them. I’m still a human. All this has happened since I won the national championship. I haven’t had peace since then.”
