{"id":15792,"date":"2026-08-22T21:17:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=15792"},"modified":"2026-08-22T21:17:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:17:40","slug":"wnba-team-unveils-queer-turtle-mascot-to-mock-fever-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wnba-team-unveils-queer-turtle-mascot-to-mock-fever-star\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA team unveils queer turtle mascot to mock Fever star"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Shane Galvin<\/strong> writing in New York Post<\/em>, the Tempo unveiled Dez<\/strong>, described as a butch, non-binary Borealis Blue Snapping Turtle using she\/they pronouns with a fondness for soft shell tacos, in a Tuesday announcement. The mascot is reportedly a Taurus and is accompanied by an anthropomorphic arctic hare named Dot<\/strong> who uses she\/her pronouns.<\/p>\n

Dez becomes only the second non-binary mascot in the WNBA, joining the Seattle Storm’s Doppler. The timing of the mascot’s debut was notable, coinciding with the Tempo’s matchup against Cunningham’s Indiana Fever.<\/p>\n

The Fever won the contest 101-95, with Cunningham contributing 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting, including a perfect 3-for-3 performance from beyond the arc, along with two rebounds and two assists.<\/p>\n

Cunningham’s Common Sense Stance Sparks Controversy<\/h2>\n

The 30-year-old Missouri native has been at the center of ongoing controversy following comments she made during an interview earlier this month defending biological women’s sports.<\/p>\n

I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,<\/em> Cunningham told ESPN on August 5, later characterizing her remarks as common sense.<\/p>\n

She added that there is room to love everyone while maintaining that open conversations reveal common ground between people with differing views.<\/p>\n

Despite her comments reflecting the overwhelming majority of popular opinion in America, they were not welcomed by WNBA players. On August 8, the league’s players’ union issued a statement emphasizing their commitment to “justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.”<\/p>\n

Physical Retaliation and Accusations of Privilege<\/h2>\n

Cunningham has faced on-court retaliation for her stance. Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington<\/strong> was ejected from a game after delivering a flagrant foul that clotheslined the Fever star. Carrington subsequently took to social media from the locker room to denounce what she called “white privilege.”<\/p>\n

Rallies both supporting and opposing Cunningham have emerged at several Fever road games since her original comments, highlighting the divisive response to her defense of biological women’s sports.<\/p>\n

With information from New York Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Tempo introduced a non-binary mascot named Dez during their game against Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who recently defended women’s sports from biological males.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":15791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[1842,4946,12148,9782,2447,12147,4945,4365],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-15792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-canada","tag-indiana-fever","tag-non-binary-mascot","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-toronto-tempo","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15796,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15792\/revisions\/15796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15792"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=15792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}