The Phoenix Mercury shocked sensible Americans when they invited a seven-year-old billed as “genderless” to perform during a halftime show, complete with heavy makeup and a dress — a move that immediately blew up on social media and sparked furious debate over what is acceptable for children in public settings. Fans across the country reacted with outrage online after video and posts of the halftime appearance circulated, questioning why a professional sports franchise would showcase a child in such a way during a family event.
This wasn’t some harmless moment of artistic expression — the child known as Ren reportedly has a public Instagram account with thousands of followers, routinely photographed in adult-style makeup, eyelashes, and staged outfits, which only deepens concerns that parents and promoters are grooming kids for attention-grabbing performance rather than protecting childhood innocence. Many viewers were rightly disturbed and asked whether children should be paraded into the spotlight wearing cosmetics and provocative styling at age seven.
The WNBA and its teams have increasingly traded the scoreboard for social messaging, and the Mercury’s halftime choice looks less like entertainment and more like activism marketed to families. American sports used to be a refuge from political theater; now halftime shows are being used to normalize fringe cultural experiments on minors while ignoring the core product — the game itself.
Parents and onlookers didn’t just voice discomfort — some demanded answers, even calling for child-welfare checks and questioning whether such displays cross the line into exploitation. When a business or a team uses its platform to amplify a child’s highly sexualized presentation, citizens have every right to push back and ask who thought this was appropriate for a family audience.
This incident is part of a broader trend where celebrities and media outlets celebrate “genderless” parenting and push fluid identity concepts onto the youngest children, from viral family profiles to high-profile celebrities publicly experimenting with nonbinary approaches to raising kids. That same cultural pressure is filtering into our sporting events and public institutions, eroding the shared values that used to protect childhood from adult agendas.
Americans who believe in common-sense decency should make their voices heard: contact the team, refuse to let corporate sponsors normalize this behavior, and support family-centered entertainment options that respect childhood. Conservative parents and voters must be organized, vocal, and unafraid to call out organizations that prioritize woke spectacle over protecting kids and honoring fans.
At the end of the day, this isn’t about hate or exclusion — it’s about defending childhood and common sense against a culture that wants to experiment on our children in full view of the public. If we don’t stand up now to reclaim family values and shield kids from adult agendas, the next generation won’t have the simple right to grow up without being turned into a political prop.
