{"id":72308,"date":"2025-08-10T12:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T12:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72308\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T12:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T12:25:12","slug":"valkyries-games-have-become-a-queer-lovefest-how-the-team-embraced-the-lez-assaince","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72308\/","title":{"rendered":"Valkyries games have become a queer lovefest. How the team embraced the \u2018lez-assaince\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homemade lesbian flags wave alongside rainbow T-shirts. Everyone\u2019s got their caps on backward, showing off their undercuts. Faces are painted and doused in glitter. Flirtatious glances bounce around like a game of Pong as women, enbys (nonbinary), and trans folk scan the crowd, check dating apps, and dance to DJ LadyRyan.<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s not Pride or a gay club. It\u2019s a Monday night at Ballhalla, aka a Golden State Valkyries home game at Chase Center, where queer fans have shown up loudly and where the WNBA\u2019s newest team has shouted back with love. (Sometimes literally: \u201cPut your V\u2019s up!<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the in-game chant \u2014 has been re-interpreted by some fans as a sanitized version<\/a> of a randy hand gesture.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the inaugural season started in May, Valks games have become the most boisterous date spot for queer women in San Francisco. Call it the lez-aissance.<\/p>\n

\"ASource: Erin Ng for The Standard<\/p>\n

\u201cSparks are definitely happening,\u201d says Dominique Bocanegra, the team\u2019s community manager, who proposed to her now-wife on the court before an early-season game \u2014 Ballhalla\u2019s first (but definitely not last<\/a>) queer proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a buzz on the concourse \u2014 people are saying, \u2018There are a lot of attractive people here.\u2019 They\u2019re asking, \u2018Where\u2019s the after-party? Is there a Castro bar everyone\u2019s heading to?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Take Cristal Alejandrez, who in June posted on the LGBTQ+ dating and community app Lex looking for a date to a Valks game. \u201cNo pressure for romance,\u201d she wrote. \u201cBut ball\u2019s in your court.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That blind date didn\u2019t go anywhere \u2014 but her love for the team did. She\u2019s now a regular at games and watch parties. \u201cI\u2019m new to women\u2019s sports,\u201d Alejandrez says. \u201cBut it\u2019s a women\u2019s moment right now. The energy is amazing. These players are strong, they\u2019re badass, they\u2019re hot \u2014 and some of them are gay! Why wouldn\u2019t we support that, especially in San Francisco?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoSource: Morgan Ellis\/The StandardQueer roots, queerer future<\/p>\n

The WNBA is arguably the queerest league in professional sports, with nearly 30% of players publicly out<\/a> as LGBTQ+.<\/p>\n

Out stars like Brittney Griner, Courtney Vandersloot, Chelsea Gray, and Breanna Stewart are celebrated, not sidelined. Pride nights aren\u2019t niche promotions; they\u2019re a core part of the calendar \u2014 and have been for more than a decade. Nobody\u2019s pretending to be someone they\u2019re not in the W, and that authenticity has fostered a fiercely devoted fanbase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Valkyries are the latest, and most local, expression of that culture \u2014 a team that reflects the Bay Area\u2019s queer, passionate, all-in energy. Dating apps light up during home games. Groups of queer fans buy up blocks of tickets to make it easy to mingle. Everybody\u2019s got their V\u2019s up.<\/p>\n

One of the most vibrant communities for connection is the ValQueeries, cofounded by season-ticket holder and third-gen San Franciscan Megan Doherty-Baker, whose fan group started with a simple idea: What if we had community and basketball?<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Valks games, I kept wishing there was a neon sign saying, \u2018Queers \u2014 go this way!\u2019\u201d she laughs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So she became that neon sign.<\/p>\n

Now more than 300 members strong, the ValQueeries<\/a> host \u201cJust say hi\u201d pregame meetups in Thrive City, send out newsletters, and throw watch parties for away games at queer bars like Mother in the Mission and White Horse Bar in Oakland.<\/p>\n

\"AGolden State Valkyries fans dance in Thrive City following the team\u2019s opening-night game. | Source: Morgan Ellis\/The StandardEmbracing the rainbow<\/p>\n

The Valkyries are actively courting queer fans in ways that would have been unthinkable for women’s sports teams just a few years ago. The lavender color scheme, long associated with sapphic pride and resistance<\/a>, is a hat-tip to queer culture. Wearing Valks\u2019 gear has become an informal method of flagging \u2014 a way to subtly signal queerness or availability \u2014 with fans encouraging their single friends to approach other potential singles wearing lavender swag.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s first promotional video<\/a> was voiced by lesbian singer and Oakland native Kehlani. The local broadcast team hired Layshia Clarendon<\/a>, the first openly nonbinary player in WNBA history, as a studio analyst. The Valks celebrated Pride in June not just for one night but all month long<\/a>, with rainbow jerseys, halftime drag shows, artist spotlights, and a panel at Thrive City\u2019s new Splash sports bar celebrating influential Black LGBTQ+ music figures, including rapper Kamaiyah and the team\u2019s official DJs, LadyRyan and Shellheart.<\/p>\n

But the sweetest, queerest move yet may have been team employee Bocanegra\u2019s on-court proposal. \u201cI was so nervous I couldn\u2019t open the ring box \u2014 and when I finally did, it was facing the wrong way,\u201d she laughs. \u201cBut it was so special to share that moment with our community and fans. I still get messages from people saying, \u2018My daughter experienced a proposal for the first time thanks to you.\u2019 In today\u2019s world, that means everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal brought Bocanegra\u2019s love story full circle. It was her partner who introduced her to the WNBA, taking her to a New York Liberty game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that moment,\u201d she says, \u201cI knew I loved this woman. I loved the WNBA. And I was going to work in this industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ASource: Morgan Ellis\/The StandardBeyond the court<\/p>\n

When the Valkyries are on the road, fans flock to Rikki\u2019s, a women\u2019s sports bar in the Castro named for queer trailblazer and sports fan Rikki Streicher. On game nights, the line to get in starts well before tipoff and wraps around the block like the wait before a Chappell Roan concert. Inside, the crowd is electric but intimate: Fans high-five strangers after big plays, youngsters offer up seats to gay elders, and bartenders greet regulars with hugs like beloved exes \u2014 which perhaps they are.<\/p>\n

During a recent away game against the Las Vegas Aces, I met Sierra Hutto and Jen Houseman, a married couple in subtle matching rainbow bracelets who were nervously watching in the standing-room-only crowd as the game entered its final minutes. Eyes fixed to the screen, they told me a story that perfectly captures Valkyries fandom.<\/p>\n

While walking around their Noe Valley neighborhood, the couple spotted a Valkyries flag flying from a home\u2019s balcony and left a bottle of wine and their number on the doorstep. Turns out the home belonged to another queer couple. Now the four are friends and attend games together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels different to be in queer-designated spaces by us, for us,\u201d says Doherty-Baker. \u201cThere\u2019s still a lively sports energy, but also something else \u2014 being able to be fully and authentically ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for many fans, Valkyries games truly are something else. A chance to belong. A place to fall in love. A lavender beacon in the stands that says, simply: You\u2019re welcome here.<\/p>\n

\"TwoSource: Erin Ng for The StandardCopy link to this article<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>