The Maryland Freedom Caucus, a group of GOP delegates in the Maryland state legislature, made a post on social media showing a sign that appeared to have been hung by Democrat colleagues, dismissing concerns over trans athletes in women’s sports. 

The post claimed the sign was hung Wednesday, which was National Girls & Women in Sports Day. 

The sign, which has a signature from the Maryland Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus, was hung on the offices of Democrat state delegates Eric Ebersole and Nick Allen.

Ebersole and Allen provided a joint statement to Fox News Digital addressing the sign. 

“As proud allies, we support the LGBTQ+ Caucus and its work to fight discrimination and counter the rampant misinformation targeting the transgender community. Our office is next door to that of our friend, colleague, and Chair of the LGBTQ+ Caucus, and it will always be a safe space. At a time when adults, especially those in positions of power, feel compelled to publicly bully trans kids, we choose to stand with the LGBTQ+ community today and always,” the statement read. 

The sign makes the claim that “trans women have no competitive advantage” in women’s sports. 

In 2021, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published a study that said transgender women maintain an advantage over biological women even after a year of hormone therapy treatment.

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The sign also went on to state, “anti-dignity policies put transgender youth at risk,” “banning transgender youth is illegal” and “invasive enforcement creates fear.” 

This all happened a day before the Maryland state legislature is scheduled to vote on the Fairness in Girls’ Sports Act.

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The bill would require “certain interscholastic and intramural junior varsity and varsity athletic teams or sports sponsored by certain schools and certain locker rooms to be expressly designated based on biological sex; prohibiting certain entities from taking certain adverse actions against a school for maintaining separate interscholastic and intramural junior varsity and varsity athletic teams or sports or locker rooms for students of the female sex.” 

So far, 27 states in the U.S. have similar laws in effect that enforce bans on trans athletes in girls sports. 

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Headlined by first and third quarter dominance, No. 2 UCLA women’s basketball picked up a 86-46 win over Rutgers (9-14, 1-11) at Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday night.

Kiki Rice led the Bruins (22-1, 12-0 Big Ten) with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Gabriela Jaquez got things started, scoring 10 of her 14 points in the first quarter.

Rutgers, playing without its two leading scorers in Nene Ndiaye and Imani Lester, committed 18 turnovers that the Bruins converted into 25 points.

Coach Cori Close said Jaquez and Rice, alongside Charlisse Leger-Walker — who was second on the team behind Jaquez with 25 minutes played — established the energy she wanted from her team.

“She does a great job of that. Her one-on-one defense and defense in general is really great,” Jaquez said of Leger-Walker. “She’s just a really great defender. She really sets a tone on getting those [loose balls].”

During the Bruins’ first possession of the game, Rice stepped back from the three-point line, shooting an air ball. But she followed that miss with the Bruins’ next three scores from the field, all three coming off the break.

And while the Scarlet Knights got on the scoreboard first with a three-pointer, they missed five layups and committed five turnovers, with the Bruins taking advantage for 11 points in the quarter. The Scarlet Knights’ six first-quarter points were the fewest scored by a Bruins opponent in the first period this season.

UCLA jumped to a 26-6 lead over the Scarlet Knights by the end of the first quarter, but it couldn’t extend that lead in the second, scoring just 14 points to Rutgers’ 13.

“The next piece of discipline that we need to grab is learning how to be more consistent,” Close said. “We haven’t proven against teams that are not in our caliber, from a talent perspective, that we can put 40 minutes of disciplined basketball together and play to our standards on a consistent basis.”

The Bruins also struggled to hold onto the ball in the second quarter, committing seven turnovers — although the Scarlet Knights scored just three points off the miscues. And while UCLA went three for eight on three pointers in the first period, it couldn’t bury one in the second off five attempts.

UCLA again struggled to separate itself from Rutgers during the fourth quarter, getting outscored 19-18.

Close rotated players throughout the night, with eight Bruins playing more than 19 minutes apiece. The Bruins’ coach said she was working around players with different loads and trying to balance minutes out.

“We mixed up the rotations a little bit,” Rice said. “It’s a long year, so we want to protect our bodies and everything. But I do think it’s always a great opportunity to play with different people, to work on actions together and how we play with each other. We need to be able to play with different lineups. There are going to be times where that’s going to happen throughout the year.”

With nine points, Sienna Betts had half of the Bruins points in the fourth quarter, bringing her game total to 11— marking the first time she’s matched her sister, Lauren, in scoring at UCLA. Rice said Sienna has looked more comfortable during the past few games.

Meanwhile Lauren played just 13:38 minutes, her briefest appearance this season and fewest minutes in a game since 2023.

UCLA has six conference games remaining before the Big Ten tournament, with their next game at No. 8 Michigan at noon PST Sunday.

Canadian-born pop singer Tate McRae appeared in an NBC ad for the Milan Cortina Olympics, in which she expressed support for Team USA. McRae was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 2003, and attended high school in the country. However, she has made her music career in the U.S.

In the ad, McRae is seen speaking to an owl, asking how to get to Milan. She expresses excitement over watching American athletes, including Lindsey Vonn, and closed it out by hyping up America’s Game – the Super Bowl. 

“I’m trying to get to Milan for an amazing opening ceremony, and meet Team USA. Gonna spend the week with some of America’s best, skating for gold, and Lindsey Vonn’s epic comeback. And back to the states for the big game, Super Bowl LX,” she said in the commercial.

McRae’s support for the U.S. in the ad prompted criticisms from Canadians across social media. 

One user referenced President Donald Trump’s previous suggestion that Canada become America’s 51st state. 

“Every year I feel more valid in my dislike of her. Girl why are you advertising for the USA team after that country threatened to annex your actual home country of Canada? Traitor s—,” the user wrote. 

One user wrote, “Not the Canadian born and raised girl, promoting Team USA and wearing all red, given the state of the USA and everything Trump has said about Canada… I guess a paycheque is a paycheque? This is so embarrassing.” 

Another user wrote, “Tate McRae, who is from Calgary Alberta, is doing Olympic promos for Team USA… more like ‘Trait McRator’ AMIRITE!”

Some Americans and Canadians have stood up for the ascendant pop star in the face of the backlash, 

“Quote tweets are full of woke Canadians attacking her as a traitor for promoting Team USA. Tate McRae is the model immigrant. This is what assimilation looks like. She’s part of our melting pot. Take your anti-American xenophobia elsewhere,” one user wrote on a collage of the criticisms against McRae. 

Another user wrote, “Selling out for usa is the most albertan thing she could do to be fair.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Canada are historically higher than at the previous Winter Olympics amid Trump’s proposition to annex the country and the imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods coming into the U.S. last year. 

This year’s Winter Games could see fans of the two countries booing each other’s national anthems, as well as potential fights in hockey matches, as was seen during the NHL’s 4 Nations Face Off last January. 

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Multiple athletes competing for the upcoming U.S. women’s ice hockey Olympic team have said they are willing to engage in physical combat with Canadian players if it comes to it. 

U.S. women’s hockey star Caroline Harvey said she is prepared to fight and even hear Canadians boo “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Games. 

“It’s expected, especially playing Canada,” Harvey told Fox News Digital of potential anthem booing at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee media summit in October. “They don’t like us very much. So, it’s more motivating than anything and, personally, it fuels the fire and makes us want to, you know, beat them more than ever.

“I don’t like them either. They’re a respectable competitor. They’re so good and always give us such a hard game. It’s so back-and-forth. But when we get in the heat of the moment, we just always fight and don’t like them. … It does get personal at times.”

Veteran teammate Kendall Coyne Schofield, the mother of a toddler and self-described “lover, not a fighter,” told Fox News Digital in October she would fight if the situation demands it. 

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“If I have to, I have to,” she said. “And I wouldn’t say I’m not a fighter in the sense that I’ve fought for many things in life. But I would just say in general. Fighting is not a strength of my game. But if I’m out there, and I have to, you know, help my teammates out, I will. But you won’t find me starting the fight, I can tell you that.”

Meanwhile, in the skeleton competition, many Americans are outraged over the absence of five-time Olympian Katie Uhlaender in Milan Cortina, after Team Canada was found to have manipulated an Olympic qualifier last month that prevented Uhlaender from being able to earn enough points to make this year’s Winter Games. 

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