Transgender comedian faces backlash for mocking Payton McNabb's brain injury caused by male volleyball player

Comedy

Transgender comedian faces backlash for mocking Payton McNabb's brain injury caused by male volleyball player

Payton McNabb suffered a concussion and permanent whiplash after being struck by a spike from a biological male in 2022 volleyball match

Jackson Thompson Fox News

Published

December 5, 2025 6:56pm EST

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Transgender comedian Stacy Cay incited backlash on social media Friday after making a joke about former high school volleyball player Payton McNabb's brain injury.

Cay's joke made light of the fact McNabb suffered a concussion, brain bleed and permanent whiplash after being spiked in the head by a biological male trans athlete during a North Carolina high school match in 2022. Cay called footage of the incident "pretty funny."

"They don't ever want to show the clip of what happened because it's pretty funny actually," Cay said.

"She gets hit right in the head and then falls over like a toddler. And I'm like ‘Oh, she was really like this before.’ I don't know if there's a nice way to say this, but she should have been waring a helmet. She shouldn't have been out there with the normal people."

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Payton McNabb, left, claps as second lady Usha Vance watches during President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

McNabb provided a statement to Fox News Digital in response to Cay's comments.

"A grown man mocking a teenage girl’s traumatic brain injury isn’t comedy — it’s cruelty. My story isn’t a punchline. It’s a warning about what happens when adults ignore reality and girls pay the price. I suffer from something that changed my life forever. Your jokes won’t silence me; they only prove why this fight matters," McNabb said.

Cay's joke incited backlash from other Save Women's Sports activists, including Riley Gaines and XX-XY Athletics co-founder Jennifer Sey.

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McNabb's story has become one of the flashpoint moments in the cultural movement to protect women's sports from trans athletes and has been cited by government officials, including President Donald Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

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Stephanie Turner and Payton McNabb open up on the chaos of the DOGE trans athlete hearing

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McNabb testified before Congress at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee's "Unfair Play: Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports" hearing in May.

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Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson's reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.

Transgender comedian faces backlash for mocking Payton McNabb's brain injury caused by male volleyball player