The WNBA is celebrating its milestone 30th season with a new All-Star initiative that the league says is designed to help keep girls involved in sports.
But one of the Chicago-area organizations selected to benefit from the league’s $100,000 All-Star prize pool says on its own website that it is “moving beyond the binary of ‘girl’” and welcomes “gender-expansive participants regardless of gender identity or expression.”
The organization is Girls in the Game, the charity affiliated with “Team Spoon” in the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game.
WNBA All-Star Game charity Girls in the Game says it is ‘moving beyond the binary of girl’ and welcomes ‘gender-expansive participants’ regardless of gender identity. (Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)
According to the league’s July 15 release, the WNBA All-Star teams will compete for a $100,000 prize pool benefiting two Chicago-area organizations “dedicated to keeping girls involved in sports.” The winning team’s organization receives $70,000, while the runner-up’s organization gets $30,000. Team Coop is playing for Angels Athletics, while Team Spoon is supporting Girls in the Game.
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The WNBA described Girls in the Game as an organization that “partners with schools, parks, and community centers in Chicago to offer sports, health, and leadership programs.”
That sounds straightforward enough until you dig deeper into the Girls in the Game website.
OutKick/Fox News Digital reviewed the organization’s website and found language that raises obvious questions about how Girls in the Game defines “girl.”
Under the heading “We stand for inclusivity,” Girls in the Game says: “Moving beyond the binary of ‘girl’, we welcome LGBTQ+ youth and gender-expansive participants regardless of gender identity or expression.”
Wait, what?
A screenshot from the Girls in the Game website shows the organization saying it is “moving beyond the binary of ‘girl.’” Screenshot captured July 20, 2026. (Girls in the Game website / Screenshot)
Girls in the Game is not a generic youth charity that happens to work with girls. The organization repeatedly frames its mission around girls, girls’ sports and girls-only spaces. So when it says it is “moving beyond the binary of ‘girl,’” people deserve to know what that actually means.
OutKick/Fox News Digital has not been able to confirm whether any biological males have participated in Girls in the Game’s girl-centered sports programming.
According to its 2025 annual report, Girls in the Game served 3,059 participants in FY25. The report says its Chicago After School program alone served 921 participants and girls “play sports, learn about healthy lifestyle choices, and improve their leadership skills in an all-girl setting.” The report also says the program provides a “safe, non-competitive environment for girls to learn and be physically active.”
The organization’s public-facing program materials do not clearly state whether participation is based on biological sex, gender identity or another eligibility standard.
But Girls in the Game’s own LGBTQ resource pages also point users toward gender-identity-related services. One page lists Howard Brown as a resource that includes “gender-affirming health care” and “trans and non-binary care,” along with a support group intended for “BIPOC, trans, non-conforming, questioning individuals” and the Trans Lifeline hotline.
Another Girls in the Game LGBTQ resource page lists “Gender Affirming clothing, makeup, community resources,” along with God’s Closet, which it describes as offering “clothes and tailoring for gender-nonconforming/trans people.” That page also lists a support group for “BIPOC trans, non-conforming, questioning individuals” and Trans Lifeline.
If the WNBA is promoting this as an initiative to keep girls involved in sports, and if one of the beneficiaries says it is moving beyond the binary definition of “girl,” then the league and the organization need to explain who is eligible for those programs.
WNBA All-Star beneficiary Girls in the Game says it is “moving beyond the binary of ‘girl'” while the league frames the $100,000 prize pool as keeping girls in sports. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
OutKick/Fox News Digital reached out to Girls in the Game and asked whether biological males who “identify” as girls, transgender girls, “nonbinary” or “gender-expansive” are eligible to participate in its girl-centered sports programming.
OutKick/Fox News Digital also asked whether any Girls in the Game programs operate as girls-only spaces, whether those programs are limited based on biological sex or gender identity, whether parents are told before enrollment that the organization is “moving beyond the binary of ‘girl,’” and whether the WNBA All-Star money would be unrestricted or directed toward a specific program.
Girls in the Game did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
OutKick/Fox News Digital also contacted Angels Athletics, the organization affiliated with Team Coop, to ask whether its girls basketball and girls sports programs are limited to biological girls or open based on gender identity. Angels Athletics also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Then there’s the WNBA.
OutKick/Fox News Digital asked the league whether it was aware of Girls in the Game’s “moving beyond the binary of ‘girl’” language before selecting the organization for the All-Star initiative.
OutKick/Fox News Digital also asked whether the league believes an organization that says it is moving beyond the binary definition of “girl” fits an initiative described as keeping girls involved in sports, whether the WNBA asked Girls in the Game about eligibility for biological males who identify as girls or “gender-expansive” participants, and whether the WNBA supports biological males participating in girls’ youth sports programming if they “identify” as girls.
The WNBA did not respond to OutKick/Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
An official WNBA All-Star Game Wilson basketball sits on the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. (Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images)
Maybe there’s a simple explanation.
Girls in the Game might argue that its programming is non-competitive or centered on youth development rather than formal leagues. But that wouldn’t answer the important question. The WNBA did not announce a prize-pool initiative to help keep “gender-expansive” youth involved in sports. It said the money would benefit organizations dedicated to keeping girls involved in sports.
Girls in the Game, meanwhile, describes some of its own programming as taking place in an “all-girl setting,” while also saying it is “moving beyond the binary of ‘girl’” and welcomes participants regardless of gender identity or expression.
Whether the sports are competitive or non-competitive is not the only issue. The issue is that an organization built around girls’ sports spaces is openly advertising that those spaces are not necessarily just for girls.
As for the WNBA, maybe the league will say it selected the organization for its broader youth-development work and never asked about eligibility because the money is not tied to competitive girls’ sports.
These are not difficult questions. This whole mess could be cleaned up with a simple email response. Instead, Girls in the Game, Angels Athletics and the WNBA have not provided one.
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The WNBA is using its All-Star Game, one of its biggest events of the season, to promote an initiative framed around “keeping girls involved in sports.”
The league wants credit for helping keep girls in sports, a noble endeavor to be sure.
But before the commissioner’s office pats itself on the back too hard, it should probably explain what it means by “girls.”
Dan Zaksheske is a reporter at OutKick.
