French Trans Basketball Star Julie Tétart Says She’d Consider A WNBA Opportunity – But U.S. Politics Complicates It

Julie Tétart, a transgender basketball player who led France’s second-tier women’s league in scoring and rebounding this past season, says she’d be open to a WNBA opportunity if one materialized, even as she points to the current U.S. political climate as an obstacle to that happening.

The 34-year-old center, who plays for a club team in Monaco and came out as transgender in 2021, averaged 21 points and 20 rebounds per game in France’s Ligue 2 during the 2025-26 season, leading the league in both categories.

In one March contest, she recorded 21 points and 30 rebounds, breaking her own league rebounding record. Despite those numbers, Tétart didn’t win the league’s overall MVP award, though she was named Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Domestic Player of the Year. The MVP snub drew criticism from French trans advocacy groups, including TRANSpire, which argued in a social media statement that Tétart and fellow transgender player Aurore Pautou were denied recognition despite performances that merited it.

Asked directly by OutKick, whether she’d consider trying out for the WNBA, Tétart responded that playing in the league has “obviously” been a childhood dream for her, as it is for many female basketball players, but that she doesn’t see it as realistic under current circumstances. Pressed on why, she pointed not to the league itself but to broader U.S. politics, saying “the league, yes, the country, no” in an apparent reference to the current political environment surrounding transgender participation in women’s sports. She added that if the WNBA did reach out, “I won’t say no.”

The exchange arrives amid an active, unresolved debate over transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports at the professional level, an issue that has become increasingly politically charged in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Some current and former athletes, including WNBA player Sophie Cunningham and retired French basketball player Audrey Sauret, have argued that transgender women retain physical advantages from male puberty that make competition against cisgender women unfair, with Sauret specifically citing Ligue 2’s inclusion of transgender athletes as an example of a “testing ground” she believes risks discouraging younger, aspiring female players.

Transgender rights advocates and organizations like TRANSpire counter that transgender women are being unfairly denied recognition and opportunities despite meeting eligibility requirements set by their sport’s governing bodies, and argue that inclusion policies are being applied fairly under existing rules. The WNBA has not publicly commented on Tétart or on any scouting interest in her, and no reporting has confirmed direct contact between the league and the player.