ESPN commentator Samantha Ponder has been accused of “bigotry” after posting a tweet opposing biological male participation in women’s athletics, Sports Illustrated reports.
Ponder, who has worked at ESPN for over a decade, quote tweeted former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, a vociferous opponent of biological male participation. Gaines had posted concerns from California student athletes and parents regarding fairness in track and field competitions, according to Sports Illustrated.
Ponder says that she has also heard from girls upset about the issue. “I barely said anything publicly abt this issue & I’ve had so many ppl msg me, stop me in the street to say thank you,” she tweeted. “[They] tell me stories abt girls who are afraid to speak up for fear of lost employment/being called hateful. It is not hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls,” Ponder tweeted. (RELATED: Another State To Consider Banning Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports)
I barely said anything publicly abt this issue & I’ve had so many ppl msg me, stop me in the street to say thank you+ tell me stories abt girls who are afraid to speak up for fear of lost employment/being called hateful. It is not hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls https://t.co/teNoMDWNW4
— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) May 25, 2023
On Sunday, USA Today columnist Nancy Armour took issue with Ponder’s tweet in an opinion article headlined “What ESPN’s Sam Ponder calls ‘fairness’ is plain old bigotry.”
“Don’t be fooled by the people who screech about ‘fairness’ to cloak their bigotry toward transgender girls and women,” she wrote. “This is, and always was, about hate, fear and ignorance.”
Armour claimed that if Ponder really cared about fairness she’d have spoken out about women’s sports not receiving the same funding as men’s.
“Did Ponder use her platform to express outrage at any of this? Urge her nearly half-million followers on Twitter to write or call their representatives and ask that women be given the funding and opportunities they rightfully deserve?” Armour wrote. “No, she did not.”
Armour also claimed that Ponder’s tweets put transgender people in danger “by further amplifying the bogeyman that cisgender women’s participation in sports is being threatened by transgender girls and young women.”
ESPN’s Sage Steele came to Ponder’s defense, denouncing what she described as Armour’s “[p]athetic attack on a WOMAN who is simply fighting for other WOMEN in sports.”
“Stay strong @samponder…this is a lonely fight, but it’s worth it!” Steele added.
A recent Washington Post-KFF poll showed that a majority of American adults are against biological male competition in women’s sports.