EXCLUSIVE: The New York Liberty refunded a lesbian hip-hop artist after the team attempted to change her paid scoreboard message thanking Jennifer Sey and XX-XY Athletics.

Julie Potter claims she purchased 25 tickets for a group attending the Liberty vs Fever game at Barclays Center to support Sophie Cunningham, saying the tickets cost more than $2,000.

Potter also paid $100 to display a message on the arena scoreboard during halftime. A receipt shows the payment was processed Aug. 17 for the Liberty’s Aug. 22 game against Indiana.

Potter says she submitted the message: “Thank you Jennifer Sey! XX-XY Athletics will Save the Day!!”

Potter added that the Liberty initially approved the message and accepted her payment. But the team’s sales department contacted her Friday, one day before the game, and said it had changed the wording.

WNBA ADMITS SECURITY IN ATLANTA WAS WRONG TO MAKE FANS COVER SHIRTS AT DREAM-FEVER GAME

“Your scoreboard message for 8/[22] has been modified to: ‘Thank you Jennifer Sey, thank you for all you do for XX-XY Athletics,’” an email to Potter from the Liberty’s sales team said. “This will run during halftime.”

Potter’s receipt identifies the game of her purchased “scoreboard message” as “August 22 vs. Indiana.” The receipt shows the Liberty charged Potter $100 on Aug. 17 and refunded the payment on Aug. 21. But the Liberty email to Potter referred to Aug. 29.

The Liberty have not responded to a request for clarification on the date of Potter’s scoreboard message, but Potter said she believes it was a typo by the Liberty employee.

Potter also explained why she objected to the changing of her message and asked the Liberty either to display her original message or return her money, in email exchanges reviewed by Fox News Digital. The team refunded her, and then gave a brief explanation for the attempted change of her message.

“Our scoreboard messages are limited to positive, celebratory content, and submissions that may intentionally or unintentionally violate that spirit are not eligible for display,” the Liberty sales team wrote in one email.

Potter accused the team of “censorship.”

“Unfortunately, this is censorship. My message was approved and payment was accepted. You then changed it without giving me any opportunity to revise or respond, and you did so inside your own 48-hour window,” Potter wrote.

“Why would I pay to let you speak for me?”

The Liberty’s publicly available scoreboard-message form says requests must be submitted at least 48 hours before tipoff. It also says proceeds support the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty Foundation. The form does not publicly list additional content restrictions.

Potter acknowledged that her original wording carried a broader message about protecting female sports. She said she intentionally avoided explicitly referencing Cunningham or the “Save Women’s Sports” movement.

“I wanna say I purposely didn’t put Sophie’s name in it, ’cause I thought that would trigger, trigger them,” Potter told Fox News Digital.

XX-XY Athletics is an apparel company founded by Sey, a former national champion gymnast and former Levi Strauss & Co. brand president. The company advocates for keeping transgender athletes out of female sports categories.

WNBA WON’T NAME PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR SECURITY INCIDENT OVER FANS’ SHIRTS, AS DREAM BLAME LEAGUE

XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey with women’s activist athletes Riley Gaines, Paula Scanlan, Brooke Slusser and Kaitlynn Wheeler (Courtesy of XX-XY Athletics)

Potter said the Liberty never identified which words in her message violated the team’s standards.

“I don’t know what that means. What did I do wrong? I want a code. I want a violation. I read everything. I read their website. I made sure to follow the rules,” Potter said.

“I said nothing derogatory. I didn’t even say, ‘Save women’s sports.’ I just said, ‘Shout out to the CEO of a dope company who’s changing the world from my perspective.’ That’s obviously not their perspective, but is this America? Can we have different perspectives?”

Potter and her guests plan to attend a rally supporting Cunningham before Saturday’s game. Similar rallies have followed the Fever during recent road games after Cunningham publicly opposed transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

The controversy has also produced counterprotests and confrontations involving fans wearing XX-XY Athletics clothing. The WNBA recently acknowledged that security personnel should not have asked a mother and daughter to cover their XX-XY shirts during a Fever game in Atlanta.

Potter said she still planned to attend Saturday’s game but would no longer purchase tickets from the Liberty. She said she would instead consider attending future Fever games.

The Liberty have not provided a response to Potter’s statements.

Potter’s connection to the WNBA dates back to its beginning. She said she attended the first two league games played in Los Angeles as an 18-year-old California native.

The first was the inaugural WNBA game on June 21, 1997. The New York Liberty defeated the Los Angeles Sparks 67-57 before 14,284 fans at the Great Western Forum. Penny Toler scored the first basket in league history, while Lisa Leslie recorded 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Sparks.

Four days later, Potter watched the Sparks earn the first victory in franchise history. Los Angeles defeated the Charlotte Sting 74-54 at the Forum. Leslie led the Sparks with 19 points.

“I saw Lisa Leslie. I am a Californian, and I grew up on the Sparks,” Potter told Fox News Digital.

Before the scoreboard controversy, she had considered purchasing more tickets if Indiana returned to New York for the playoffs.

She said she no longer plans to buy Liberty tickets, but emphasized that she does not dislike the team or its players.

“I love the Liberty, though. I got no hate. I think they’re an incredible team. You know, shout out Stewie,” Potter said.

Potter also remains willing to spend money on the WNBA. However, she said she will direct that support toward the Fever and organizations that welcome her position on women’s sports.

“I’d love to go to a Fever game. They gonna make the playoffs, you know? Yeah, I’m already planning on it. I know they’ve got some great games in September, so yeah, my money shall be directed to where it is welcomed. And if they have a scoreboard, and I can put it up, and Jen gets to roll, I will,” Potter said.

Potter said her support follows Cunningham rather than any particular franchise. She credited the Fever guard with giving women like her a reason to attend games and publicly support the league.

Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever signs autographs before a WNBA game against the Toronto Tempo at Scotiabank Arena on Aug. 18, 2026, in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images)

“I’m a woman loyalist, okay? So I’m there for Sophie. Where Sophie’s going, I’m going where the Fever’s going,” Potter said.

Despite her frustration with the Liberty, Potter said the attention surrounding Cunningham and the accompanying rallies can benefit the WNBA by bringing new customers into arenas.

“Of course it’s good for the league. We’re women supporting women playing a woman’s sport. How is this not good? Every Fever game is selling out,” Potter said.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Potter said she would consider giving the Liberty another opportunity if the team respected her original message. For now, however, she plans to support Cunningham, the Fever and other women’s sports organizations that she believes share her principles.

Potter’s experience adds to growing censorship concerns surrounding the WNBA and fans who support Cunningham’s position on women’s sports.

Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to WNBA leadership Friday addressing recent incidents involving Cunningham supporters in Seattle and Atlanta.

“The WNBA claims to stand for female athletes, but we’ve seen recent current events undermine that claim. We have seen just in the past few weeks that there have been two separate incidents where fans have been silenced or berated when they tried to peacefully express their viewpoint,” ADF legal counsel Suzanne Beecher told Fox News Digital.

The letter cited the teenage girls who were confronted by Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton while holding signs supporting Cunningham, along with the mother and daughter who were instructed to cover their XX-XY Athletics shirts in Atlanta. The WNBA suspended Keaton from five Storm home games and later said the Atlanta incident “should not have happened.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also recently told Fox News Digital that he admired Cunningham for speaking publicly despite the criticism she faced. Paxton said the WNBA should protect the ability of fans to peacefully express differing opinions.

Paxton expressed a willingness to engage with the league and continue supporting its games. However, he said he would not retreat from his principles regarding women’s sports or the treatment of Cunningham’s supporters. Potter’s rejected scoreboard message now gives critics another incident to cite as they question whether the league treats opposing viewpoints equally.