{"id":836692,"date":"2026-07-30T20:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/836692\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T20:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:56:13","slug":"inside-the-wnba-all-star-weekends-queer-dating-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/836692\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside The WNBA All-Star Weekend’s Queer Dating Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I wake up on Thursday for the first day of All-Star Weekend<\/a>, I am desperate to get my chin waxed.<\/p>\n

This weekend could be big for me. I am a 36-year-old long-time Chicagoan who didn\u2019t figure out how to start queer dating until my early 30s, and as I tearfully admitted to my therapist recently, women\u2019s basketball<\/a> is my primary love language.<\/p>\n

My early 30s also coincided with a career shift from working in audio documentaries to becoming a full-time WNBA writer, a league I\u2019ve loved since I started palming a basketball in fourth grade, and coming into my own queerness has been entirely intertwined with becoming a women\u2019s basketball writer. The more I observe WNBA players claiming their queerness, the more I\u2019m driven to do so myself, and to write about it<\/a>. Last weekend, though, I avoided the press room entirely, craving new connections out in the wild. I had a three-day itinerary including parties, fan activations, and a standup comedy show, with finding romance at the 2026 WNBA All-Star Weekend<\/a> top of mind.<\/p>\n

At my local salon, an ethereal song plays on loop, and under the aesthetician\u2019s gentle touch, I let myself imagine it: an unexpected meeting, a new spark, the sudden warmth of flirting all night. Then she rips the hard wax, burning across my chin.<\/p>\n

Lesbians and women\u2019s basketball have been synonymous since the sport\u2019s 19th century inception,<\/a> but it\u2019s currently seen as very cool. Gabby Williams<\/a> and Marine Johannes embody a kind of sapphic heated rivalry, and arenas are thought of as a form of \u201cLesbian Disneyland.\u201d<\/a> During All-Star Weekend in Chicago, events span from parties by a group called The Lesbian Social Club to a cafe where players take fans\u2019 coffee orders.<\/p>\n

With my chin now hairless, I head to a low-key \u201cfireside chat\u201d with analyst Andraya Carter<\/a> (beloved lesbian of ESPN) and basketball writer\/podcast host Jordan Robinson<\/a> in the beautiful back patio of Babe\u2019s<\/a>, my favorite women\u2019s sports bar in Chicago. It feels more like a picnic: Everyone is wearing sunglasses and sipping cocktails in the sun while Andraya and Jordan chat about storytelling and the WNBA. As I listen, I daydream about questions I could whisper to a girlfriend as we fall asleep, such as: Which narratives of queerness in early WNBA history do you think still need to be told?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t catch flirty vibes from anyone at the event, but I do run into an acquaintance I met almost 10 years ago. They joke that this weekend, they should chronicle their experience as a single lesbian.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I should wingwoman you,\u201d I offer, wondering if a partner seeking romantic shenanigans might be exactly what I need. \u201cI\u2019m doing that too.\u201d<\/p>\n

They look at me flatly. \u201cAre you gay?\u201d they ask, skeptical.<\/p>\n

I feel myself prickling. \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure?\u201d they say.<\/p>\n

I feel like I\u2019ve been dropped into a bathtub of cold water and have no snarky response, just the feeling that I mistook my insides for something else entirely.<\/p>\n

L – R: Maya Goldberg-Safir, former basketball player Ethel \u201cPoco\u201d White.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere throughout the weekend, I spend a lot of time standing in long lines under the overbearing Chicago heat, draped around city blocks. After I make it into a fan clubhouse<\/a> from the Togxther<\/a> brand I run into someone named Ro, who recognizes me from another event. Ro has that swaggy masc style of short hair parted down the middle, brushed backwards with the confidence of a hairstylist, which apparently she is (swoon). We complain about the lines and the free products she\u2019s grabbed (Aveeno face mist, a popsicle) before she starts telling me about a party she threw recently at a women\u2019s sports bar\u2026 for her engagement. How lovely. For them.<\/p>\n

On another afternoon, I find myself on the dance floor at Babe\u2019s, where I\u2019m helping to host an event called \u201cParty Like It\u2019s 1996,<\/a>\u201d with former players from the WBL<\/a> and ABL<\/a> (pro leagues in the U.S. that preceded the WNBA), now in their 50s and 60s. Watching them do the Electric Slide with the vigor of a starting lineup, I realize that I couldn\u2019t care less about spending my time finding a fling this weekend. In fact, I\u2019m happier dancing, soaking in the former players\u2019 aura, not caring about what other people think, whooping it up at a 3 p.m. dance party to \u201cFunkytown.\u201d<\/p>\n

L – R: Cathy Boswell (1984 Olympic Team and ABL), Alex U. Inn (queer activist), Ethel \u201cPoco\u201d White (WBL), Anna Johnson (WBL), Adrienne Goodson (ABL and WNBA). <\/p>\n

One night, I\u2019m biking through golden hour in Chicago, a little buzzed off a single gin and soda, to meet my friend (technically, my ex) at WNBA player-turned-comedians Sydney Colson<\/a> and Theresa Plaisance<\/a>, widely known as Syd and TP, do standup. From a corner of the balcony, we howl together at their jokes, slapping the pews beneath us. Later that night, thanks to someone I know from college who works with celesbians (lesbian celebrities), we\u2019re waved through nondescript doors of a hotel basement in the West Loop for Syd and TP\u2019s afterparty.<\/p>\n

With walls of bookshelves, the room looks like an ornate library, although I\u2019m pretty sure the books have never been touched. Legendary player Tina Charles is boogying to the DJ in sunglasses and a slick pantsuit. I\u2019m pretty sure Sue Bird\u2019s full smile materializes in my peripheral vision. Is this heaven?<\/p>\n

L – R: TP and Syd Colson at a 2026 WNBA All-Star party.Jeff Schear\/Getty Images Entertainment\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Thanks to someone I know from college who works with celesbians (lesbian celebrities), we\u2019re waved through nondescript doors of a hotel basement in the West Loop for Syd and TP\u2019s afterparty. With walls of bookshelves, the room looks like an ornate library \u2014 though I\u2019m pretty sure the books have never been touched. Legendary player Tina Charles is boogying to the DJ in sunglasses and a slick pantsuit. I\u2019m pretty sure Sue Bird\u2019s full smile materializes in my peripheral vision. Is this heaven?<\/p>\n

I am by the bar with an Aperol Spritz when I sense Syd and TP nearby, somehow in-between things. Even though on the way, my friend and I reassured each other that we didn\u2019t need to make players chat with us, I start telling myself: this is your moment. She\u2019s right there! So I turn to TP and say, \u201cYou did amazing. I don\u2019t even care about the WNBA anymore. I\u2019m just here to support your comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

I am by the bar with an Aperol spritz when I sense Syd and TP nearby, somehow in between things. Even though on the way, my friend and I reassured each other that we didn\u2019t need to make players chat with us, I start telling myself: This is your moment. She\u2019s right there! So I turn to TP and say, \u201cYou did amazing. I don\u2019t even care about the WNBA anymore. I\u2019m just here to support your comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

TP faces me with a big, relaxed smile and a bulky, dark denim jacket. Then she says: \u201cWhat\u2019s your name?\u201d The low bass of her voice reverberates through me like an organ.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Maya,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Theresa,\u201d she says. \u201cBut everyone calls me TP.\u201d<\/p>\n

I nod, as though I didn\u2019t already know. Cool, I want to say, I am putty actually.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that you\u2019re honoring women\u2019s basketball history,\u201d I stammer, pointing to the video clips of games dating back to the 1970s playing behind her. This, of course, is my niche.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, I need to learn more about that stuff,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there\u2019s this really sexist logo from a pro women\u2019s team in the \u201870s,\u201d I say. \u201cWant to see?\u201d<\/p>\n

She does. I fumble with my phone to show her: an illustration of a flirty femme deer, mascot of the Milwaukee Does, complete with curled eyelashes and a shapely figure.<\/p>\n

A former Milwaukee Does logo.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, that\u2019s cute,\u201d she says earnestly. \u201cI\u2019d wear it on a T-shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The image of TP wearing this out-of-touch logo is hilarious, and also somehow a reclamation.<\/p>\n

I laugh. \u201cOh, I\u2019ll definitely get you a T-shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure if she meant it literally or hypothetically, but my mind races: How quickly can I mock something up, get it printed? How would I deliver it? I want to ask for her number but don\u2019t want to be too forward. Before I manage to say anything, someone else taps her on the shoulder. She turns, embracing them like a long-lost family member.<\/p>\n

Alas. On the dance floor, Syd appears to be grinding against a tall speaker, fully in her own world. A few people are twerking barefoot. And that\u2019s when I realize All-Star Weekend is best experienced with no expectations: less questing for a fling, more letting loose. Women\u2019s basketball offers a community where queer people can be the main characters and where platonic love can run just as deep as romance.<\/p>\n

I spend the rest of the evening dancing and twirling my fanny pack in the air. I\u2019m sweating profusely and don\u2019t care how I look.<\/p>\n

That said, on the chance TP is reading this, I have a message: If you\u2019d like your Milwaukee Does shirt delivered in person, I\u2019ll be happy to do so. And while I\u2019m there, I\u2019m happy to share my Google Slides presentation on historical gay couples in pre-WNBA pro women\u2019s basketball, too.<\/p>\n

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