Stephen A. Smith Offers Up Common-Sense Take About Trans Athletes 'Prying' On Females
Rumors have begun circulating about Stephen A. Smith running for President in 2028, and while there doesn't seem to be any legitimacy to the whispers, the ESPN star has continually been asked about his political aspirations and opinions.
One of the issues he has not been shy to talk about is transgender athletes in women's sports. The discussion about biological males competing in women's sports shouldn't be political given it centers around basic biology and common sense, but as we all know, it has become incredibly political over the last handful of years.
While Smith sees himself as a "centrist" in terms of leaning left or right politically, he's made it clear that he believes women's sports should be about women, which is the same opinion the majority of Americans hold.
"I’m a centrist by nature. I don’t believe in operating on the fringes. I don’t like MAGA right and I don’t like the woke cancel culture on the left. I’m a centrist," Smith told Bloomberg ahead of the Super Bowl in an interview uploaded Feb. 15.
"LGBTQ rights and all that stuff, I’m in full support of that, but when transgender athletes, men are transitioning to women and they’re competing in female sports, that’s a different animal to me," Smith continued. "That’s not just about LGBTQ rights. That’s about prying on the rights of females out there everywhere who were born female, and they’re at a decided disadvantage."
It's fair to say that Stephen A. was in total support of President Donald Trump's recent executive order banning males from women's sports.
Stephen A. Smith does not believe biological men belong in women's sports. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
This is not the first time Smith has called out the ridiculousness surrounding males in women's sports.
In January, Smith criticized Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez following her rant about Trump's "authoritarian administration" rooted in "fascism." While taking his digs at AOC, Smith noted the "tired rhetoric" from herself and the Democratic Party while specifically citing transgender issues and the pronoun police.
"While we’re watching Trump, we already know what the left has done, which is why people are tired of hearing this kind of rhetoric from AOC," Smith said on ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show.’
"So the left hasn’t engaged in bullying tactics? ‘Woke’ culture didn’t exist? Where people had to make sure they echoed the right pronoun to keep their job security? Where one challenge to transgender issues meant being labeled transphobic?" he continued.
"Transgender issues don’t make up one percent of the population. Black people make up nearly 40 percent of this population, and for years, it seemed like those issues took precedence over issues impacting black communities. That is the truth."
Smith's note about 40% of the population may have been overdone given that only about 12% of the U.S. population identified as black in the 2020 U.S. Census, but his point remains.
It's been remarkable, and refreshing, to see ESPN go from honoring transgender swimmer Lia Thomas as part of its Women's History Month coverage in March 2023 to now having their biggest personality completely go against the four-letter network's woke messaging and state that biological men have no right to participate in women's sports.