NCAA softball player Kendall Kotzmacher said a counterprotester at a Minneapolis rally told her she «should've been aborted» as demonstrators supporting WNBA player Sophie Cunningham faced a hostile reception outside Target Center. Kotzmacher, who is set to play for Colorado Christian this upcoming year, said it was the first time she had experienced that level of hostility in person after months of online abuse.
Kotzmacher returned to her home state Sunday to join Riley Gaines, Michele Tafoya and Jennifer Sey at the third rally for Cunningham in the span of one week, part of the «Save Women's Sports» campaign that has become a flashpoint in the debate over transgender athletes' participation in women's sports. Counterprotesters had appeared at the two previous rallies as well, but Sunday brought a sharper degree of agitation, according to Kotzmacher.
The incident unfolded when a pro-transgender protester approached the group with a megaphone and unleashed insults at the activists. One remark was aimed directly at Kotzmacher while her mother and sister stood beside her. «He had a megaphone and was just yelling everything about how awful people we are,» Kotzmacher said. «At one point, I got told that I should've been aborted when I was younger.»
Kotzmacher's presence at the rally was personal. Just over a year ago, her final high school softball game in Minnesota ended in a championship defeat to a transgender pitcher, who also hit a double to help win the game. She later spoke publicly about competing against a transgender athlete and said she has since received hostile messages, including death threats. «I've gotten so many hate texts, death threats, people commenting on my posts, all of that stuff,» she said. «So at this point, I'm kind of used to it, but it was definitely weird for them to be able to hear it and know that someone would say something like that out loud to a person.»
Kotzmacher suggested the protesters had no interest in debate. «They have no rebuttal to what we're standing for,» she said. «They have nothing to go against what we're trying to say, and so they just go back to calling us names.»
The confrontation escalated around the time Gaines arrived shortly before the game. Kotzmacher said Gaines had initially planned to attend the entire rally but delayed her appearance because of safety concerns. Kotzmacher alleged that police officers nearby did not intervene as tensions grew and that a male bystander eventually stepped in to push the protester away. «A man, just a bystander, had to push him out of the way while the cops watched all this happen,» she said. The Minneapolis Police Department has been contacted for comment.
Kotzmacher said her family took precautions before traveling to the rally, including parking near the arena and making sure no one walked alone. Once she joined the larger crowd, she felt safer. «I remember talking to my mom about making sure we were being smart, parking near where we were walking and making sure we were never alone,» she said. «Once we got there and I was in a big enough group, I felt okay.»
Another women's sports activist at the rally, Amy Sousa, said she also encountered the counterprotesters and described a civil conversation with one of them. «The opposition in Minneapolis showed up as they always do, trying to drown out women's voices with megaphones and sound machines,» Sousa said. She said she asked a woman with a megaphone to explain what she thought Sousa believed, then clarified her own position as a Democrat who supports women's and girls' sports on the basis of sex. According to Sousa, the woman admitted her assumption was «a little bit different» and ended up agreeing with her.
Tensions continued inside Target Center, where Cunningham was booed when she touched the ball and fans wearing shirts supporting transgender athletes appeared throughout the arena. Kotzmacher, who sat in the upper level, alleged the arena's video board repeatedly featured fans with pro-transgender messages while avoiding Cunningham supporters and their shirts. «Every time that the jumbotron was on, it was showing people with pro-trans signs or shirts, or anything like that, of them cheering,» she said. «Even when Sophie was getting booed, they would put the jumbotron on people booing her.» The Minnesota Lynx has been contacted for comment.
Kotzmacher argued that the presentation did not reflect the full reaction inside the building. She said she heard many cheers for Cunningham and that rally supporters received positive feedback from other fans, with strangers complimenting their shirts and asking to take pictures with Gaines. «There were so many people that cheered for her, but the media only paid attention to the negative parts,» she said. «If you were there, it wasn't that way at all.»
