Pride Month has special meaning in the year 2023. State after state of these United States of America from Florida to Tennessee to Iowa have enacted laws in their states that make it more difficult for the LGBTQIA+ community to live as the normal human beings that they are.
From decrying the presence of this thriving and vibrant community as “woke” to attempting to limit opportunities for transgender children to play sports, a number of states have waged a disgusting war against this community.
More than ever, we are recognizing that the LGBTQIA+ community is one that deserves protections and the ability to feel safe as anyone does in society. Anyone wishing to deny equal rights to anyone who identifies with any of the letters that it stands for is not only a homophobe and/or a transphobe, but that person better hope that there are no skeletons in his or her closet.
Sports and the aforementioned LGBTQIA+ community have intersected on numerous occasions over the last few years. From Michael Sam and John Amaechi coming out as gay Black men to the numerous members of the LGBTQIA+ community that make up the WNBA.
Unfortunately, homophobes and transphobes have also used the faux platform of “protecting women’s sports” to further deny transgender children opportunities at playing sports. Those who bellow about protecting women’s sports probably could not name 15 WNBA players not named Brittney Griner without googling.
Even the WNBA has had a checkered history with the LGBTQIA+ community. In the W’s early days, it attempted to distance itself from this community. This was mentioned on plenty of occasions in the “Unfinished Business” documentary which tells the story of the WNBA through the lens of the New York Liberty.
Where this league was in its early days among LGBTQIA+ individuals and where it is now is a matter of night and day. The WNBA has undoubtedly become more progressive in terms of its standing within the LGBTQIA+ and Black communities. Unfortunately, there are other leagues with bigger budgets than the W that are still struggling with the calendars being on the year 2023.
One league that does not seem to get it is the NHL. Several teams were slated to host Pride Nights this past regular season only to face pushback from several players.
A cop-out many of these ice scrapers have used to not wear Pride jerseys is their Christian faith. It must be mentioned that a sizable number of NHL players happen to be from Russia. And as Griner’s saga from last year told us, the Kremlin is anything but kind to anyone who identifies as LGBTQIA+. One of the NHL’s biggest stars in Alexander Ovechkin is not only a Russian but is a sympathizer of the nation’s dictator of a “president.”
One of the taglines the NHL loves to throw in the faces of anyone who chooses to listen is “Hockey Is For Everyone.” Caving into the whims of certain players who clearly have a homophobia and/or transphobia problem is not exactly giving the idea of hockey being for “everyone.” Plus, the NHL already has a massive issue in terms of Black and Brown representation.
Then there is Major League Baseball – a league that has a robust Hispanic populace but not so much in terms of the Black community. Twenty-nine of baseball’s 30 teams have scheduled Pride Nights for Pride Month. Unsurprisingly, the lone team not doing a Pride Night is the Texas Rangers – the very team that once had George W. Bush as an owner.
The Los Angeles Dodgers – a team that plays in a city with one of the more noteworthy LGBTQIA+ populaces in the country – has its Pride Night slated for June 16. It originally invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – a satirical drag troupe – before rescinding its invite only to reinvite the sisters.
Since then, several players – including Trevor Williams of the Washington Nationals and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers themselves have ripped the group for being anti-Christian.
Kershaw’s politics should not be a shock on this issue. Plus between Williams and the woman-beating Trevor Bauer, baseball’s not doing very well with Trevors lately.
Baseball, like hockey, need to align themselves with the likes of the Trevor Project as opposed to the likes of Trevor Williams. And that is where the WNBA comes in.
As the Unfinished Business documentary displayed, the WNBA once upon a time shamefully wanted nothing to do with the LGBTQIA+ community. Today’s WNBA is marching at Pride events in New York City and is fully aware of the representation within its ranks. From BG to Elena Delle Donne to Breanna Stewart to Layshia Clarendon to Jonquel Jones to Cheryl Reeve.
Compare and contrast the NHL and MLB – two sports apparently stuck in the Reagan 1980s – to the WNBA and NWSL. Why is the NWSL getting its flowers? Because the Washington Spirit recently hosted a large drag queen/drag king show at halftime of its recent match against Racing Louisville FC at Audi Field.
The WNBA needs to be doing all it can to welcome any LGBTQIA+ fans that feel ostracized by the wishy-washy behaviors of the NHL and MLB. And since today’s W is a W that has actually learned to walk the walk over the years in terms of LGBTQIA+ representation, any increased outreach would not be merely for show.
Once the W became a league that fully embraced its identity within the LGBTQIA+ community, said community responded in kind with robust support.
Over the past few months, we have seen both hockey and baseball attempt to cover up their homophobia and transphobia problems with taglines that those sports are “for everyone.” Yet players within those ranks issue statements that reek of homophobia and transphobia and expose those “for everyone” slogans as nothing more than paltry public relations outreach by two leagues with massive identity crises in a society that has grown more progressive with time.
The WNBA actually has credibility when celebrating Pride Nights and Pride Month as its more recent history has displayed that it is indeed an entity that actually is “for everyone.”
