Fact Check: Rumors spread about WNBA 'sex testing,' Brittney Griner and Karoline Leavitt. Here's the truth

Yahoo

2 days ago

Claim:
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed "the truth" about WNBA player Brittney Griner's gender, and the WNBA announced mandatory "sex testing."
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online in August 2025 claimed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed "the truth" about the gender of WNBA player Brittney Griner, who plays for the Atlanta Dream. Users sharing the matter also said the WNBA announced mandatory "sex testing" for the league's next basketball season.
For example, on Aug. 1, a user managing the Today in America Facebook page shared the rumor in a post receiving more than 69,000 reactions, 18,000 comments and 3,600 shares. The post featured an article on a blog linked in the comments, as did other posts sharing the same rumor on Facebook and Threads (archived).
(Today in America/Facebook)
That post read:
THIS JUST HAPPENED: Karoline Leavitt calls Brittney Griner a 's**' after discovering the truth about her gender. In a surprising and controversial move, the Women's National Basketball Αssociation (WNBΑ) has announced that it will implement mandatory S3X testing for all players starting next season. This decision comes amid discussions surrounding gender identity and inclusivity in women's…
However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting anything about Leavitt revealing a discovery about Griner's gender or sex, or about the WNBA announcing "mandatory sex testing." Prominent outlets would have widely reported on the alleged controversy, if true.
Rather, whoever authored the story fabricated the entire tale as one of at least hundreds of stories about hot-button issues in the world of U.S. politics. Those people — including at least some users residing in Vietnam, according to Facebook's "page transparency" tab — aimed to earn advertising revenue on the articles hosted on websites linked from the aforementioned posts. Further, some posts, including a video, displayed inauthentic media that users generated with artificial-intelligence tools.
The White House told Snopes by email, "This is obviously fake." We also emailed the WNBA to ask if it wished to share a statement regarding this matter, as well as contacting via Messenger the users managing Today in America page, and we will update this story if we receive further information.
The searches of the aforementioned search-engine websites found users promoting the untrue claim since at least June 2025.
Griner's appearance and arrest in Russia
Regarding Griner, in a 2015 interview with ESPN.com, she talked about growing up with people wrongly believing, due to her appearance, that she was a boy. "When I was younger, I definitely got picked on for my size and my voice, which has always been deep." Griner, now standing 6 feet, 9 inches tall, also said people have mistaken her for a man in women's restrooms.
In February 2022, Russian officials arrested Griner for taking vape cartridges of cannabis into the country. A Russian court sentenced her to nine years in a labor camp. After 10 months, Russia agreed to release her in exchange for the U.S. releasing Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
For further reading, Snopes previously reported on another untrue rumor about Griner, claiming she received $62,000 in student-loan forgiveness despite having a net worth of $140 million.
"Brittney Griner Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft Status and More." WNBA, https://www.wnba.com/player/brittney-griner.
Fagan, Kate, and Morty Ain. "Griner: 'I Don't Know What People Think I'm Hiding.'" ESPN.com, 6 Jul. 2015, https://www.espn.com/espnw/article/13176422/phoenix-mercury-center-brittney-griner-opens-bares-all-espn-magazine-body-issue.
Quinn, T. J. "Brittney Griner's Account of Russian Detainment: I Wanted to Tell It on My Terms." ESPN.com, 7 May 2024, https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/40071460/brittney-griner-wnba-phoenix-mercury-russia-detained-released-memoir.
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