WNBA teams are doing it for the gays.
Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve started the trend this past weekend after a Pride Night loss to a young Washington Mystics team.
The first-place Lynx let a six-point lead slip in the final minutes.
Asked about the atmosphere after the game, Reeve said, “The crowd was amazing. We should’ve done it for the gays, but we didn’t get it done. That support that we’ve gotten, obviously a special day like today being our Pride Game, we’re motivated by our crowds.”
The Lynx got another chance Wednesday, beating the Mystics on Washington’s Pride Night.
“We got our lick back for the gays,” Reeve said.
Naturally, the line traveled.
After the Sky crushed the Fire on Pride Night at Wintrust Arena — their first win in weeks and second home win of the season — point guard Natasha Cloud picked it up.
“We did it for the gays,” Cloud said. “Tell Cheryl.”
Cloud, who came out in 2021 and is now dating former Sky forward Isabelle Harrison, spoke after the game about what Pride Night means in the WNBA.
“From the time that I came into the W, this has always been a safe space for everybody, not just my community,” Cloud said. “Our league is inclusive to everybody, no matter where you come from, what walk of life you come from, your religious background, your sexual preference or orientation.”
Inclusivity and activism on behalf of marginalized groups are longstanding values of WNBA players. Not surprising considering how much queer excellence the league has witnessed.
Many of the league’s legends — Diana Taurasi, Sheryl Swoopes, Sue Bird, Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Seimone Augustus among them — are gay. In 2019, the entire All-WNBA First Team was made up of players in the LGBTQ community. In Chicago, Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley became the WNBA’s first married teammates.
The joke, at this point, is that there are almost too many examples to list.
On the “Post Moves” podcast, Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston asked queer WNBA veteran Sydney Colson who she would draft for a hypothetical Gays vs. Straights All-Star Game. Colson turned the question back on Boston.
“We’ve got most of the league,” Colson joked. “I don’t know who y’all are choosing.”
The WNBA was the first professional sports league to establish a dedicated Pride campaign in 2014. But getting to a place where queer identity could be celebrated openly has been a complicated, winding process.
As former players such as Bird have pointed out, early WNBA marketing often pushed a more feminine image. Players were supposed to dress and carry themselves in ways that could be more easily sold to a broader audience. Queer players also had their own reservations about how they would be received.
Those considerations never disappear. But there are plenty of signs now that openness is embraced and even valued commercially.
Cloud is a perfect example, a fan favorite everywhere she goes. Former Lynx teammates Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman turned their StudBudz stream into a viral sensation. Wings stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd have brought massive attention to Dallas.
The league’s new generation of queer stars can be more visible, more direct and more themselves.
For Cloud, who helped make that possible, a Sky win on Pride Night made the celebration feel more complete.
“For a night like tonight, where people can be celebrated to feel safe in a society that often is either hard or violent, it’s a beautiful thing,” Cloud said. “And for us to come out with the win and be able to celebrate, just that much better. But the ultimate goal is love is love, mind your business, mind your bed, and again: we did it for the gays tonight.”
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