Mother and daughter ordered to cover up 'offensive' T-shirts at WNBA game

Kasey and Annie Thomason.

A Georgia woman and her daughter attended a WNBA game in Atlanta on Sunday and were told by security guards to cover up the T-shirts they were wearing or be expelled from the arena. 

The mother, Kasey Thomason, and daughter, Annie, were wearing XX/XY Athletics T-shirts inside the Gateway Center Arena for the game between the Atlanta Dream and the Indiana Fever, and said they were approached by security guards during overtime. Kasey wore an XXY/XY shirt and Annie wore a Riley Gaines-branded shirt with the letters XX printed on the front and the phrase "For The Girls" printed on the back.

The security guards told them the T-shirts were "offensive" and had upset other fans. A security guard offered them "Wellness & Health Night" branded Dream T-shirts to cover up what they were wearing. "Biology and science is offensive?" Kasey told Fox News she replied.

Outside the arena, Casey explained the confrontation over the shirts. “We were made to cover up our XX-XY shirts at this game,” Casey said in an interview. “They gave us T-shirts during overtime and told us we had to leave or cover our shirts up. This just happened.” Casey and Annie were seen on camera showing the shirts they were given to cover up their own shirts.

Annie said the seats cost $1,000 dollars, and the mother-daughter duo said they paid a high price for the tickets to "support Sophie Cunningham" -- the star player on the Fever who has been vocal in supporting girls and women's rights in sports -- "and to support women in women's sports. They said a woman wearing a "Protect Trans Rights" T-shirt is the one who complained to security guards about what they were wearing. The Thomason's put on the shirts they were given so they could watch the conclusion of the hotly-contested game. 

The incident comes as the WNBA is grappling with what constitutes a woman who is eligible to play in the WNBA. After Cunningham's recent remarks, many coaches and players have advocated for "transgender rights." Meanwhile, to underscore the absurdity of it all, two former NBA players have declared their intent to enter the WNBA draft next year. The league held an emergency meeting to address and define what a woman is last week, but was unable to come away with any real position on the matter, concluding that "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA," without defining what a woman is.

Entrepreneur and podcaster Patrick Bet-David speculated that the league can't come up with a clear policy because several biological males have either played in or are currently playing in the WNBA.

 XX-XY Athletics is a sports apparel brand founded by Jennifer Sey, a former Levi's executive and an outspoken advocate for limiting women's and girls' sports to only biological women. Below, watch the Thomason's discussing the incident.