English actor, comedian, and musician Hugh Laurie extended his support for Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, saying men don’t belong in women’s sports while discussing trans athletes.It all began when Hugh Laurie, 67, found himself embroiled in a social media debate with British writer, producer, comedian, and anti-trans activist Graham Linehan, with the latter demanding that House star clearly speak about his views on trans athletes in women’s sports.Without addressing the matter directly, Hugh Laurie wrote:“Strange this whole broigus should happen in professional basketball, where 99.9% of the world are, effectively, ‘women’. Per Pablo Torre of Sports Illustrated, if you’re an American man between 20 and 40 years of age and 7 feet tall or more, there’s a 17% chance you’re already in the NBA.”Linehan didn’t like Laurie’s approach and asked him to be straightforward and elaborate on his actual views, adding it was “cowardly” to “distance yourself” from the question. This is when Hugh Laurie responded:“Firstly, f**k off; secondly, no, I don’t believe men should compete against women; I thought I’d made that pretty clear. If you’d looked. But obviously you must get onto your next…”Hugh Laurie @hughlaurieLINKFirstly, f**k off; secondly no, I don’t believe men should compete against women. I thought I’d made that pretty clear. If you’d looked. But obviously you must get onto your next…In the wake of his remarks, Hugh Laurie is now facing criticism. Threads user @vipperofvip wrote in the comment section of Pink News:“Hugh Laurie does have fans. I loved him all the way back from Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder. So, this is horrible. Idk, I'm not going to pretend he's nobody. He matters in British society and culture, even if less so here in the States. F**king a**hole. Glad he's been irrelevant for a long time.”Hugh Laurie getting slammed by a netizen. (Image via Threads)Many joined the conversation on X:“Dr House. You f**k off. Talk about tiptoeing around the subject. So why the f**k are you actors so scared of the left? Everyone, including democrats, knows this trans in women’s sports is stupid as hell,” a person wrote.“Hugh, there is a lot of concern that you’re on the wrong side of this issue, mainly because you’re very well liked and admired, and you seem to have intervened in a clumsy manner. Telling Graham Linehan to ‘f**k off’ (like so many of his former colleagues did) is likewise uncool,” another person commented.“I think you should say out loud and confidently what you believe about trans women because I saw the deleted tweet and I want to know when and where you support @glinner, the UK's biggest transphobe exactly,” a netizen added.Others continued to weigh in, calling out Hugh Laurie's approach.“You said men who aren't top percentile in height are functionally women for purposes of basketball. It's insane that you think anyone ELSE is wrong for assuming you believe men can be functionally women in the context of women's sports. That is exactly what you said,” another user stated.“I think Hugh was on the sauce when writing these posts. Needs to let his agent run his X account,” one netizen wrote.“Great to see you telling a bigot to f**k off, but sad to see you follow it with transphobia,” a fan responded.Meanwhile, Graham Linehan asked why Hugh Laurie was asking him to “f**k off” and deflecting from the topic and disclosing up front whether he supported Sophie Cunningham, to which the former replied:“You started it. ‘Cowardly’ to ‘f**k off’ is the going rate of exchange around here. And yes, I support Sophie Cunningham. And you, some of the time.”Hugh Laurie @hughlaurieLINKYou started it. ‘Cowardly’ to ‘f**k off’ is the going rate of exchange around here. And yes, I support Sophie Cunningham. And you, some of the time.Here’s what Sophie Cunningham said about trans participation in women’s sports amid Hugh Laurie dramaLast month, Sophie Cunningham, 29, spoke with ESPN’s Hallie Grossman about the “negative feedback” she’d been getting for allegedly “hating trans.” She defended herself by saying:“I'm like, ‘I never once said that.’ I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men.”Cunningham claimed she wasn’t picking sides and is “very much in the middle.”“I agree with things on both sides, disagree with things on both sides. And that's all I've ever said about my political beliefs. But people love to assume,” she explained.In a follow-up pre-game interview, Sophie doubled down on her sentiments:“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense. And I think I’ll always believe in that. I think it’s really important to protect children, and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category. I stand on what I said.”Sophie Cunningham claimed she is “not a very political person” and that there’s always “room to love everyone.”“But I’m also there to love biological women, and I think that there are rights that need to be protected. And, like I said, I’m gonna stand true to that. I’ll never falter in my beliefs in that. But I have never once stated that I hated the trans community,” the WNBA star noted.Cunningham then spoke about Title X and the “greats in women’s sports”, and if they weren’t protected, then female athletes wouldn’t exist. Sophie added that she’ll continue raising her voice and “protect” fellow women in sports despite the “bad” criticism:“Everyone always is coming at it as a negative. Well, me coming out with that… many people who are coming out with the positive, saying, ‘You know what? Finally, someone has said something.’ And I don’t really look at either side of those because I know whatever I say, I’m going to get hate and I’m going to get love, and if I’m going to live by the love, I’m gonna die by the hate, and that’s just not who I am. I beat to my own drum,” she concluded.It is noteworthy that Sophie Cunningham’s views have been labelled as conservative and earned her the nickname "MAGA BARBIE." Meanwhile, Hugh Laurie is known for her centre-left and progressive views and often sides with the British Labour Party and makes satirical comments about the conservative opposition.In February, Hugh Laurie faced backlash after paying tribute to his friend and Israeli producer Dana Eden, who died in an Athens hotel room while filming the third season of the series Tehran. At the time, he was called a “Zionist,” which he soon dismissed and added that remembering his friend after her death had nothing to do with being “pro or anti Zionism.”