The New York Liberty are facing fresh accusations of censorship after a fan said the team attempted to alter a paid scoreboard message referencing women's sports and XX-XY Athletics during Saturday's highly anticipated matchup with the Indiana Fever.
Julie Potter, a lesbian hip-hop artist who attended the game at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, told OutKick that she purchased 25 tickets for a group supporting Fever guard Sophie Cunningham and separately paid $100 for a halftime scoreboard message. A receipt reviewed by OutKick showed the payment was processed Aug. 17 for the Aug. 22 game.
Potter said the original message she submitted was:
“Thank you Jennifer Sey! XX-XY Athletics will Save the Day!!”
According to Potter, the Liberty initially accepted the message and her payment. But she said the team's sales department contacted her the day before the game and informed her that the wording had been changed.
The modified version, according to an email Potter received, read: “Thank you Jennifer Sey, thank you for all you do for XX-XY Athletics.”
The Liberty subsequently refunded Potter's $100 payment, according to the receipt reported by OutKick.
Fan questions why team changed her message
Potter objected to the team's decision, arguing that she had paid to have her own words displayed and did not want the organization rewriting them.
“Why would I pay to let you speak for me?” she told OutKick.
Her complaint has become part of a broader controversy surrounding the WNBA's handling of political and cultural messages connected to the debate over transgender participation in women's sports.
Potter's message was not an explicit attack on transgender people. Instead, it thanked Jennifer Sey and promoted XX-XY Athletics, an apparel company founded by Sey that advocates for maintaining female sports categories based on biological sex.
That distinction is central to the controversy because the WNBA and individual arenas have recently faced criticism over how they handle supporters on both sides of the debate.
The Liberty have not explained the change
The New York Liberty had not responded to OutKick's request for clarification about why Potter's message was modified or why the payment was ultimately refunded at the time of the report's publication.
The team's publicly available scoreboard-message form says requests must be submitted at least 48 hours before tipoff. The proceeds are described as supporting the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty Foundation.
However, the form does not publicly list additional content restrictions, according to OutKick.
That lack of publicly stated restrictions could make the dispute more complicated.
If a paid message is rejected because it violates an established content policy, an organization can point to that policy as the basis for the decision. But when a message is accepted, paid for and later rewritten without an obvious publicly posted restriction, questions can arise about how the standards are being applied.
XX-XY Athletics has become a flashpoint
XX-XY Athletics has emerged as a prominent symbol in the WNBA's increasingly heated debate over women's sports.
Sey, the company's founder, is a former national champion gymnast and former Levi Strauss & Co. brand president. Her company argues that transgender athletes should not compete in women's sports categories.
Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has also become associated with that debate after publicly defending female-only sports categories.
That has attracted both support and criticism, and the controversy has increasingly followed Cunningham's team into WNBA arenas.
Fans wearing XX-XY Athletics clothing have reported confrontations with arena personnel at several games.
WNBA previously admitted security made a mistake
The latest Liberty controversy comes only days after the WNBA acknowledged that league security improperly confronted a mother and her teenage daughter over XX-XY Athletics shirts at an Indiana Fever-Atlanta Dream game.
The women said they were told to cover their shirts or leave the arena. The WNBA subsequently acknowledged that the incident should not have happened.
The Atlanta Dream also distanced itself from the decision, saying league security had taken actions that fell short of the organization's standards for an inclusive environment.
That admission has become an important backdrop to Potter's allegations.
Critics argue that the repeated incidents suggest supporters of women's sports are receiving different treatment from fans expressing opposing political views.
The WNBA, meanwhile, has emphasized inclusion and respectful treatment of fans.
Debate extends beyond the Liberty
The controversy has not been limited to New York and Atlanta.
Earlier this month, women's sports activist Riley Gaines said an arena staffer at a Minnesota Lynx game attempted to stop her from displaying a sign thanking Cunningham for defending women's sports.
Gaines said the sign complied with the arena's published size and content rules but was nevertheless challenged because it contained Cunningham's name.
Another controversy erupted in Seattle after witnesses alleged that fans wearing XX-XY Athletics shirts were mocked or confronted during an Indiana Fever game. The Seattle Storm later apologized for the conduct of co-owner Celeste Keaton, who was suspended and fined following the incident, according to OutKick's reporting.
The accumulation of incidents has transformed what might otherwise have been isolated arena disputes into a larger discussion about whether the WNBA is consistently enforcing its rules.
The timing is particularly significant
Potter's dispute occurred during one of the WNBA's most anticipated regular-season games.
The Fever and Liberty faced each other at Barclays Center on Aug. 22, with Indiana ultimately defeating New York 106-92. Caitlin Clark recorded 22 points and 10 assists, while Kelsey Mitchell scored 28 points.
The game attracted significant attention both because of the teams' competitive stakes and because of the political and cultural debate surrounding Cunningham and her supporters.
The presence of supporters on both sides of the transgender-sports debate made messaging inside the arena particularly sensitive.
A bigger free-speech question
At the heart of Potter's complaint is a relatively simple question: what rights should fans have when they pay an arena to display a message?
Professional sports organizations have broad authority to establish rules for signs, advertisements and other content displayed inside their venues. They can also reject messages that violate clearly established policies.
But disputes arise when fans believe those standards are being applied selectively.
Potter's case is unusual because she says the Liberty accepted both the message and her payment before changing the wording shortly before the game.
The team later refunded the money, meaning Potter did not ultimately pay for the altered message.
Still, she argues that the refund does not resolve the underlying issue.
WNBA faces growing pressure to clarify its rules
The controversy arrives as the WNBA itself faces questions about its policies concerning gender eligibility.
The league's new collective bargaining agreement states that only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA, but the league has faced questions about how it defines eligibility. OutKick previously reported that the WNBA has said it would spend additional time discussing the issue with stakeholders.
That uncertainty has helped keep the issue in the spotlight.
At the same time, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and league officials have emphasized respectful dialogue and inclusion.
The challenge for the WNBA is now not simply determining what its policies are, but demonstrating that those policies are applied consistently to fans, players and organizations regardless of their position on the controversy.
The dispute is unlikely to disappear soon
Potter's allegation adds another chapter to a growing series of disputes involving women's sports advocates and the WNBA.
The Liberty have not publicly explained why Potter's original message was changed, so it remains important to distinguish her account from independently established facts.
What is documented is that Potter paid $100 for a scoreboard message, received an email indicating that the wording had been modified, and was subsequently refunded.
The unresolved question is why.
As the WNBA continues to attract a rapidly expanding audience, controversies over gender, politics and free expression are increasingly becoming part of the league's public conversation.
For Potter and other supporters of XX-XY Athletics, the issue is about more than one scoreboard message. They see it as a question of whether fans should be able to express support for women's sports without being silenced or having their words rewritten.
For the WNBA and its teams, the challenge is to balance that expression with venue policies and the league's stated commitment to an inclusive environment.
Until the Liberty explains what prompted the change, the scoreboard dispute is likely to remain another flashpoint in the WNBA's increasingly contentious debate over speech, women's sports and fan treatment.
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