on queerness as a politic

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Before we get into this week’s good, bad, and ugly, I want to take a moment to talk about queerness as a politic that guides the direction of this newsletter.

I am sometimes asked why a gay sports newsletter also writes about things like how combat sports helped Trump win the White House, or why so few women’s athletes have come out in support of Palestine. Why am I writing anti-capitalist sports content or calling out problematic league sponsorships? Why am I writing about racist media coverage or why the Olympics probably shouldn’t exist? Why isn’t this newsletter only about gay athletes and queer fans?

To those people I say, clearly your queerness and my queerness are not the same. To me, queerness is a politic that encompasses so much more than just who someone dates or goes to bed with. Queerness is about dismantling oppressive structures and systems, in whatever form they exist. Queerness is a way of viewing the world that imagines a future in which everyone is free. Queerness is about power dynamics, about afflicting the comfortable and centering marginalized voices.

There is no queer-lens without a larger anti-oppression lens. This isn’t about homonormativity or rainbow capitalism, in which queer people conform their lives to the dominant structures in every way except for who they marry. My queerness is anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, anti-Zionist, anti-racist, pro-trans, feminist, and inclusive.

This newsletter will always be about queerness through that larger worldview, and which understands that none of us is free until all of us is free. My journalism and my analysis are always about taking a critical lens to the systems of oppression that harm us all.

If that’s not your cup of tea that’s okay, there are plenty of places to go to get uncritical content about gay people. Those places are fun and necessary, but it’s not what I’m doing here. If that is the kind of content you are looking for, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to allow me to keep writing the things mainstream publications aren’t particularly interested in running.

And with that, here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly from this week in queer women’s sports. At the end of the newsletter, I’m asking OOYL readers to vote on whether something is good, bad, or ugly, because I just can’t decide how I feel about it.

One of my favorite WNBA creators, Nicolette Mason, had a “Bark Mitzvah” for Frankie, her 13-year-old pug. I’m obsessed with this idea, the commitment to the party by both the hosts and the guests is a reason why I believe queers are unmatched. The best part of this story, however, is when Natisha Hiedeman weighed in to wish Frankie a happy Bark Mitzvah.

Why is T’s hair red instead of pink? Well, if you guessed “to represent period blood,” you’d be correct! It’s part of this StudBudz partnership with Kotex, the period products brand. And I kind of love it, ngl. In addition to taking the shame out of talking about periods, there’s something incredibly radical about masculine women discussing mestruation. This is the sort of vaginal care product that athletes should be promoting, rather than things like the New York Liberty’s Vagisil partnership.

The PWHL will now have fan jerseys available to purchase for every player across the league. Home jerseys for all signed, rostered players on the inaugural six teams are now available through the league’s official online shop, with jerseys for PWHL Seattle and Vancouver to follow this fall after their uniform unveilings. The WNBA should take note.

CJ Jackson showed up like this to the Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of their short film, Pink Light, in which they star as a pre-transition trans man:

You’re welcome.

Wake Up Barstool opened to terrible viewership on FS1, which is great. However, its success will depend on whether it can break through online. My hope is that it will go the way of ESPN’s “Barstool Van Talk,” which was canceled after one episode.

I’ve been enjoying the memes of these college football players looking like they’re super in love with each other after a big win. Sportsmanship! (Also, Chase Leon, one of the men in the photo, has taken the whole thing in stride and even been (slightly) critical of Antonio Brown’s use of a homophobic slur in response to the picture).

Meanwhile, NaLyssa Smith celebrated her birthday with a gift from her girlfriend, DiJonai Carrington:

You love to see it.

And speaking of NaiLyssa, the Las Vegas Aces players posted a video in which the players all dressed up as “their type.” Some fans were surprised to see Kiah Stokes dress as a bad bitch (though she has spent years engaging in “stud talk” on X with Chelsea Gray, Kierstan Bell, and Syd Colson so I always assumed), but pretty much everyone was surprised to see Jackie Young dressed as one. The responses to JYo’s (potential? she posted this as an explanation) coming out have been great. Two of my favorites were the “gay off” between UConn and Notre Dame:

And Saniya Rivers being apparently shocked that the public didn’t know that Jackie was (maybe?) queer:

It does put this post from KB during NBA All-Star in a new light…

The Golden State Valkyries have become the first expansion team in WNBA history to make the playoffs in their first season—that’s good! But their first home playoff game will not be played at Ballhalla. Instead, it will be at the SAP Center in San Jose, due to the Laver Cup already being scheduled at the Chase Center. Despite the fact that the front office knew this would be an issue if the team secured a postseason spot, season ticket holders were informed via email just minutes after the Valks clinched. “I have had multiple conversations with STHs the last few games who had no idea this was even a possibility,” a Valkyries season ticket holder said in the OOYL Discord. “Super shitty they didn’t address it.”

The saga of the Connecticut Sun’s botched sale continues. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has sent a letter to the WNBA regarding “their reported interference in the Mohegan Tribe’s negotiations with competing bidders for ownership of the Connecticut Sun women’s basketball team.”

The Canadian province of Alberta has passed a new Fairness and Safety in Sport Act, which requires girls and the parents of those under 18 to confirm they were “born female” in order to play girls competitive sports, according to reporting from CTV News. Natalie Elzinga, a 14-year-old cis girl who plays volleyball, is publicly calling out the policy as “purely transphobic,” saying, “I’m not trans, I’m not queer in any way shape or form. But I know that this is terrifying for people who are.” The policy is bad, but Natalie’s allyship is anything but.

Malcolm Gladwell, essayist and author of The Tipping Point, says he was previously “cowed” into supporting trans women in women’s sports, adding that trans women “have no place” competing against their cisgender peers. Are book sales that bad, Malcolm, that you need to punch down and take such an anti-intellectual stance?

The NYT profiled Sophie Cunningham for their business section last week, deciding that the best move was to be spilling ink to platform a player who is out with a season-ending injury when the playoffs are weeks away, rather than profiling players who are, idk, MVP candidates or something? Or maybe profiling someone like WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike, as she leads the players while they bargain their new contract and potentially face a lock out? Or even someone like Angel Reese, who really has built her own business in a way no other WNBA player has? But no, tell us more about how a mediocre, career-bench player is raking in the sponsorships due to the dirty, racist play she’s been known for her entire career.

And then there’s the headline of it all:

Spare me.

Israel's national team's basketball coach, Ariel Beit-Halahmy, jokingly said that “you’d need an M-16” to stop Greek basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo after being asked how he planned to contain him ahead of their Round of 16 matchup at EuroBasket. Apparently the team's staff tried to prevent the remark from being published shortly after it was made.

This also reminds me of the question that journalists including , Jules Boykoff, and Dave Zirin continue to ask: why is Israel still welcome in global sports, even as it continues to commit genocide?

Speaking of fascists, Donald Trump attended the US Open this week. has caused a spectacle. Over at , Zidan writes that “Trump’s sports appearances are a contest of power, loyalty, and spectacle.” At The Handbasket, Maris Kabas described “his presence at the US Open feeling something akin to Adolph Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.”

And then there’s the fact that, as Kabas at The Handbasket reports, September 16th will be US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) night at Nationals Park and Kevin Malone, Trump’s Senior Advisor on Human Trafficking in the Administration for Children and Families, will be throwing out the first pitch. Malone is a former Dodgers GM who said the game was “controlled by Satan,” so that’s cool.

I’m not sure what to think of this campaign by the sex toy company Dame in response to Dildo-gate from earlier in the season. I think the posters are cheeky and fun, and I’m glad the campaign would give back to women’s sports, but it’s been a while since the green dildos were thrown and it seems like it’s a little late to try to capitalize on the moment?

“The Green Dildo Coin” campaign proposes the idea of a bright green finger vibrator in the shape of a WNBA championship ring. If 500 people preorder it, Dame will put the vibe into production. All proceeds will be donated to the Angel C. Reese Foundation. The campaign reads: