June is widely known as LGBTQ+ Delight Month, a interval of celebration for the developments of the group, but additionally an necessary time for protest and activism. However as with every part in society, the commercialization of Delight has seeped into sports activities tradition, with groups and types becoming a member of in on the “rainbow-ification” of their branding. “Delight Nights” in sports activities, often a chosen recreation the place the house crew does activations in celebration of the LGBTQ+ group, have grow to be the norm.
But, earlier than these nights turned a guidelines merchandise to keep away from public backlash, the WNBA was the chief in mixing the LGBTQ+ and sports activities communities.
That historical past is why it’s been extremely irritating to see among the latest reactions to the bulletins of WNBA Delight activations. Significantly, lots of the feedback underneath the Indiana Fever’s Delight Evening commercial appeared to suggest these nights have been one thing the WNBA was introducing to seem “woke,” when in actuality, they pioneered the follow in skilled sports activities within the first place.
Whereas different leagues — notably males’s sports activities leagues — have inserted after which eliminated themselves from celebrating Delight through the years each time it was handy for them, the WNBA has been a continuing supporter of those celebrations, irrespective of the reactions.
As a result of despite the fact that some followers might have been outraged that their crew is celebrating Delight, such reactions are simply the newest occasion of those new “followers” storming right into a group that has been a secure house for LGBTQ+ athletes, employees and followers for many years.
The WNBA as Pioneers for Delight in Sports activities
To rewind a bit, the WNBA has not all the time been as open and accepting of its pure place in LGBTQ+ tradition. Again within the 2000s, the feminization of athletes and the strain for them to attraction to the male gaze was apparent. Gamers like Sue Chook and Diana Taurasi have talked about how they felt they wanted to fastidiously conceal that a part of their lives to appease their groups and the league, particularly when it got here to advertising.
This was a broadly accepted stance on the time, with Invoice Simmons writing on ESPN in a now-infamous 2006 article that “the overwhelming majority of WNBA gamers lack crossover intercourse attraction. That’s simply the way in which it’s,” persevering with to say that he would slightly watch Sue Chook on the ESPYs in a cocktail costume than working a choose and roll with Lauren Jackson as reasoning for why the WNBA isn’t marketable. He’s since appeared to have modified his standpoint, as famous in a 2025 article on SB Nation concerning the notion of WNBA stars, however the truth that he was in a position to write as a lot on the time on the most important sports activities community on the planet reveals how overtly girls’s skilled basketball gamers have been anticipated to evolve to heteronormative requirements.
In a 2022 ESPN article by Mechelle Voepel, Chook was quoted as saying, “Earlier, I feel we fell right into a lure with this concept that solely a sure form of femininity and sexual orientation sells. We’ve realized that it’s authenticity that pulls individuals in.” Voepel’s article particulars how the WNBA tried to keep away from embracing its LGBTQ+ affiliations as a result of the concept on the time was that they might have hassle advertising the league to a large viewers in the event that they did.
“No one ever stated it to me immediately, however I understood,” Chook stated in the identical article. “Should you needed endorsements, you needed to look and current your self a sure method.”
Regardless of such prevailing opinions, the WNBA was the primary skilled sports activities league to acknowledge Delight at video games, beginning with the primary Delight night time in skilled sports activities historical past in 2001 at a Los Angeles Sparks recreation. Even so, it took a very long time for the league and gamers to be totally open of their celebrations of Delight.
Sue Wicks was the primary WNBA participant to publicly come out in 2002, and one of many league’s superstars, Sheryl Swoopes, did so in 2005. But, many components saved gamers from following of their teammates’ footsteps, together with the truth that most of them spent their offseasons taking part in in locations like Russia and Turkey. When WNBA star Brittney Griner was wrongfully detained in Russia whereas taking part in abroad in 2022, she was additional attacked being homosexual in a homophobic society.
Griner was one other distinguished participant to open doorways for the LGBTQ+ group when she entered the league in 2013, totally embracing her identification whereas additionally being a star of the league. In 2014, the WNBA formally took on LGBTQ+ Delight as a league-wide initiative. They have been the primary skilled sports activities league to create a marketing campaign particularly for the LGBTQ+ group. Quick ahead over a decade, and it appears like society has gone by means of a whole lifecycle of pushback, help, after which a regression again into scrutiny over the WNBA’s acknowledgement of Delight.
The Protest Facet of Delight Aligns with the WNBA’s Values
What has grown right into a celebration of rainbows, parades, and different occasions began as a protest. Within the Sixties, LGBTQ+ bars and areas in New York have been being raided by police, and till 1966, it was unlawful within the state to promote alcohol to a homosexual particular person. In 1969, police have been nonetheless discovering causes to raid these bars, which led to the raid on the Stonewall Inn on June 28. By the following day, protesters gathered on the website, and the rioting and preventing between them and the police lasted for days.
A 12 months later, the group rallied collectively to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, creating what was the primary Delight March. The motion and custom shortly unfold worldwide, morphing into what we all know it as at this time. At its core, Delight stays a protest, particularly in present occasions when the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly Trans individuals, are being ripped away. The present administration in the USA has labored to cross anti-Trans payments that might limit medical care and accessibility for Trans individuals, in addition to issues like guidelines for trans individuals in sports activities. There are presently over 730 payments energetic within the US authorities involving Trans individuals.
That side of protest and activism aligns tremendously with the values of WNBA gamers, who’re outspoken about human rights in lots of capacities. In 2020, after George Floyd was murdered by police, the WNBA devoted their whole season (shortened and solely situated in Florida as a result of COVID pandemic) to advocating for social justice. Their efforts have been impactful, even resulting in the election of Raphael Warnock as a U.S. Senator, beating out co-owner (on the time) of the Atlanta Dream, Kelly Loeffler, who was the Republican candidate for the seat.
Many WNBA gamers nonetheless attempt to be changemakers. On high of advocating for the LGBTQ+ group, gamers equivalent to Natasha Cloud of the New York Liberty have been outspoken about their help for the victims of the warfare in Gaza. The league as a complete additionally helps communities by means of the Commissioner’s Cup, as groups every choose an group of their market to help by means of the match. Gamers even have their causes which might be private to them, equivalent to Griner supporting wrongfully detained worldwide prisoners after her personal experiences in Russia.
In an period the place being outspoken will get you extra on-line scrutiny than ever, the WNBA remains to be a frontrunner in standing up for human rights.
Backlash to Delight Nights in Sports activities
The backlash the Indiana Fever obtained after asserting their Delight Evening isn’t shocking given the present political local weather in North America. For the reason that WNBA led the cost in celebrating Delight at sports activities occasions, many different leagues have additionally tried to undertake the identical celebrations.
Many groups within the NBA commonly maintain Delight Nights, and in recent times, the NHL tiptoed into the waters of LGBTQ+ activations at video games, a foray that displayed why Delight nights are nonetheless obligatory when backlash to it got here immediately from skilled hockey locker rooms. Gamers refused to take part in team-wide help efforts equivalent to Delight warm-up gear and taping their sticks with rainbow tape, citing non secular causes. This escalated with social media, and led to the NHL banning coloured tape on gamers’ sticks — a standard method gamers publicly confirmed help for varied causes on the ice. They later reversed that ban after backlash from followers, groups and the league’s gamers’ union.
The WNBA is unlikely to even try and implement any form of protesting ban on its gamers. The league has been largely supportive — or not less than impartial in the direction of — participant activism previously, and even when that stance modified, the WNBPA, their gamers’ union, can be fast to battle again in opposition to that. Particularly as they’re presently present process negotiations for a brand new Collective Bargaining Settlement, anticipated to be a groundbreaking contract for ladies’s sports activities.
Change of Tradition within the WNBA
The WNBA has skilled a growth in fan engagement, viewership, and recognition over the previous few years. The rise of stars like Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and extra has led to new followers discovering the league, and with that has come a subsection of recent followers who’ve contributed to the rise of toxicity in on-line WNBA discourse. Whereas the conversations round girls’s sports activities — and to a point, all sports activities — on-line have all the time been sprinkled with negativity, it has reached new heights over the previous few years.
By some means, issues like Delight Nights are out of the blue scrutinized by individuals on-line who know nothing concerning the league’s deep historical past in social justice and activism. The WNBA isn’t attempting to be “woke,” they’ve been this manner earlier than it was normalized in society. Delight Nights within the WNBA are extra than simply performative variety checkmarks for these groups which might be run like corporations; they’re an precise reflection of each the followers in addition to the gamers on the courtroom. They’re a celebration of the inclusivity the WNBA has labored almost three a long time to foster.
It took some time for the WNBA to be an open and accepting place for any participant no matter their identification. Possibly society has regressed sufficient that gamers don’t really feel as snug being themselves to the general public, however on a purely crew/group stage, the WNBA has come a good distance by way of acceptance and celebration of all identities. Individuals don’t gravitate in the direction of girls’s sports activities as a result of they determine as LGBTQ+, however as an alternative will be extra open about their identification as a result of they know that irrespective of who they’re, they are going to be welcomed in girls’s sports activities.
These girls’s sports activities leagues are a mirrored image of how life will be when persons are accepting, as an alternative of the tradition of males’s leagues, the place many gamers nonetheless really feel the should be secretive about their sexuality for concern of their teammates and followers’ reactions.
So, earlier than you criticize a crew’s celebration of Delight this month, take a second to replicate on the historical past of the WNBA’s participation. Whereas these outraged really feel just like the WNBA is intruding on their peace by overtly celebrating Delight, it’s really their toxicity that’s intruding on the WNBA’s established repute of being a welcoming group.
On the finish of the day, Delight continues to be a protest. The extra backlash the WNBA will get about celebrating it, the extra necessary it’s for them to proceed to take action.
