Something has broken in American culture when a grown adult deemed it acceptable to scream profanity at two teenage girls holding up a homemade thank-you sign. Not a vulgar sign. Not a political banner. A sign expressing gratitude to a female athlete for defending girls’ sports. That was the offense. And the adult in question wasn’t some random heckler in the cheap seats—she was part of the ownership group.
The WNBA has suspended Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton from attending the team’s next five home games and fined her after she allegedly cursed at two 16-year-old girls who attended Tuesday night’s game to support Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham and thank her for speaking out in defense of women’s sports.
The incident occurred during Tuesday night’s Fever matchup against the Storm at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, where the two teenagers wore XX-XY Athletics apparel and held a handmade sign reading, “Thank you, Sophie, for speaking up for girls!” The clothing brand has become closely associated with advocacy for preserving women’s sports for biological females.
Read that again if you need to. A co-owner of a professional women’s basketball team confronted two sixteen-year-old girls and called them “f—ing insane.” Their crime? Wearing shirts that advocate for female-only athletics and holding a poster thanking Sophie Cunningham for standing up for girls. Keaton also reportedly told the teenagers they were being “un-Christian”—weaponizing faith against minors to score ideological points.
One of the girls was reduced to tears. She put her sign away. Mission accomplished, apparently.
And here’s the part that should really make your blood boil: Journalist Brandi Kruse, who accompanied the girls, tried to get arena security involved. Their response? She should email the front office. Email. The. Front. Office. A team co-owner is verbally abusing children in the stands and security’s big move is to suggest a strongly worded Gmail.
The hostility didn’t stop with Keaton. Video footage showed other Storm fans piling on, with one screaming, “Security: Take the trash out”—aimed directly at two teenage girls with a thank-you poster.
None of this happened in a vacuum. The atmosphere was poisoned before the game even started. Storm center Stefanie Dolson strolled into the arena wearing a “Trans rights are human rights” shirt—a deliberate jab at Cunningham and her supporters. Meanwhile, another fan inside the arena was forced to remove a pro-Cunningham sign entirely.
So when Storm majority owner Ginny Gilder issued her boilerplate apology—“Everyone who attends a Storm game deserves to feel welcome, and we remain committed to creating an inclusive environment where every fan is treated with respect”—forgive the rest of us for not buying it. “Everyone” apparently comes with an asterisk.
While the WNBA brass scrambled to manage the fallout and the Indiana Fever rushed out a statement distancing themselves from fans who rallied in Cunningham’s support, Cunningham herself responded with something the rest of them couldn’t muster: actual decency. “Bravo to those girls for standing up for what they believe. You’ll be hearing from me soon,” she wrote on X, promising gifts to the teenagers. “Truly embarrassing of the co-owner. Unfortunately shows the type of leader she is.”
Then she added the line that should be pinned above every WNBA executive’s desk: “You can disagree and still be kind.”
Two sixteen-year-old girls grasped that concept. A team co-owner did not.
The WNBA’s punishment—a five-game home suspension and a fine—is reportedly one of the most significant disciplinary actions the league has ever taken against an owner. Five games. For verbally attacking minors. That’s not accountability. That’s damage control dressed up as discipline.
The deeper problem isn’t one unhinged co-owner. It’s an entire institutional culture that treats mainstream opinions about biological sex as dangerous extremism. A women’s league punishing women and girls for wanting to protect women’s sports. The absurdity writes itself.
Two girls walked into a basketball arena with a simple message: Thank you, Sophie, for speaking up for girls. They left in tears, heckled by fans, cursed at by an owner, and ignored by security. The WNBA thinks a five-game suspension squares the ledger. It doesn’t.
