NBA nominally loses one of its 8 full-time women refs to 'trans' identification

Earlier this month, the NBA promoted California native Cheryl Flores to full-time staff official. In its Oct. 13 statement, the league noted her promotion brought "the total of female full-time officials to eight for the 2022-2023 season."

Using female pronouns corresponding with the lesbian referee's biological sex, the NBA noted that Flores had previously officiated nine seasons in the NBA G League and 10 seasons in the WNBA, refereed 12 regular-season NBA games as a non-staff official last year, and previously officiated college ball for 13 years.

According to the liberal media and a report shared by the official NBA website, this week there are only seven full-time women officials, as the eighth has rejected her biological sex.

A GQ profile published Monday announced that Flores had become the "first out trans and nonbinary ref in American pro sports."

Referring to the referee as an ungendered plurality, GQ detailed how Flores told around 70 colleagues in September that she was done with womanhood, would henceforth be referring to herself as "trans and non-binary, and would be going by 'Che' at work."

Flores told GQ the league's announcement last year that it had promoted two new women to its referee corps was "alienating" because the lesbian official had supposedly identified as "trans" for years.

"One piece I was missing for myself was that no one knew how I identified," Flores told GQ. "Being misgendered as she/her always just felt like a little jab in the gut."

Flores intimated that her presence on the court would serve a propaganda function — to further normalize gender dysphoria.

"I just think of having younger queer kids look at somebody who's on a high-profile stage and not using it," she said. "And I'm not using the league to an advantage in any way. This is just to let young kids know that we can exist, we can be successful in all different ways. For me, that is most important — to just be a face that somebody can be like, Oh, okay, that person exists. I think I can do that."

GQ suggested she was "not seeking the spotlight," yet Flores emphasized, "I have a community of people [and] I want them to know that someone like them exists," adding that she took delight when her de-feminized name was displayed at a game in Denver.

According to Flores, around the time of her midyear evaluation in February, she spoke to Monty McCutchen, the NBA's head of referee training and development, to discuss her public rejection of womanhood.

"He immediately just called me Che, with no problem, which just makes you feel more comfortable, and easier to let him know everything that was related to my gender," she said.

McCutchen reportedly wanted the league to seize upon the moment, "celebrate Flores's identity, and, with their permission, soon sent their preferred they/them pronouns to ref operations."

The league might end up having to make some accommodations for Flores' "trans" status. For starters, the referee said she will not use the women's locker room because that would not do "the people that are behind me any service. The league is working on those things, but yes, I do have a responsibility."

The league frequently leans into opportunities to signal its woke bona fides. For instance, the league pulled the 2017 All-Star game out of Charlotte, North Carolina, over the city's requirement that people use bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex. It also approved "Black Lives Matter," "I Can't Breathe," "Say Their Names" and other slogans linked to leftist movements on players' jerseys in 2020, going so far as to write some on the hardwood.

It's unclear whether the NBA's nominal loss of a female referee will impact its score on the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports racial and gender report card.

This year, the league, where 70.4% of players are black and another 12.1% were nonwhite, scored an A-plus for race-based hiring. It received a B-plus for gender hiring practices, having 43.3% of its professional staff roles occupied by women. Factored into the score was the number of female referees. Prior to Flores' announcement, the league had 40 women referees.

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