West Wilson is speaking out after his podcast cohost Sophie Cunningham doubled down on her stance against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
The Summer House alum, who cohosts the Show Me Something podcast with the Indiana Fever star, shared a different point of view in a TikTok video posted on Saturday, July 25.
“Transgender athletes in American sports is such a borderline non-existent issue,” West said.
West, 31, and Sophie, 29, are longtime friends from high school and now host their podcast together. However, the two appear to have different opinions when it comes to the ongoing debate surrounding transgender athletes in women’s sports.
West said he believes the issue has been exaggerated, especially by political figures and media outlets.
“Right-wingers have convinced a massive portion of people in our country that these people are, like, a threat to sports in America, when mathematically it’s not the case at all,” West said.
He continued, “And by continuing to platform this — politicians, athletes, journalists, news outlets — you’re only isolating transgender people even more by making them seem like this giant group of people is a threat to society, a threat to sports, when that’s just not proportionately the truth in any capacity.”
West also argued that the conversation has taken attention away from larger issues in the country.
“There’s like 10 transgender athletes in all the NCAA,” he said. “I think there are unique questions that can be handled on [an] individual basis, but to allow this to take attention away from housing, healthcare, and wars and all the other actual harmful s— in our country is dumb.”
According to NCAA president Charlie Baker, there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes among more than 500,000 NCAA student-athletes, a statement he made during a 2024 congressional hearing.
West’s comments come just days after Sophie addressed the topic in an ESPN story published on July 21.
Sophie said she received backlash from people who believed her stance was anti-trans, but she pushed back on that interpretation.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” Sophie said.
She added that she believes her stance comes from a place of love and honesty.
“I think that I am here to extend love,” Sophie explained. “But I also think, with that, love is truth, being honest.”
Sophie then said her concern is protecting young girls in sports.
“And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” she said.
Neither West nor Sophie has publicly said whether the disagreement will be addressed on their podcast, but his TikTok has already sparked conversation among fans who follow both Summer House and the WNBA star.