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I have been watching in quasi-horror as the anti-trans hysteria around the WNBA has continued, and the media coverage of said hysteria accepts the anti-trans argument on its face. I have been saying for years that sports media is completely unequipped to handle coverage of trans issues, and that they needed to become equipped fast because the issue was only going to grow.

Of course that never happened, sports newsrooms have been slashed even more than they already were, and people with no concept on how to cover the issue are stuck trying to. The result has been a level of both sides-ism that sometimes floors me. I’ve mostly stayed out of writing about the topic because, well, I’m tired, but after the Liberty/Fever game on Saturday I did finally feel like I had something important to add to the conversation.

For Xtra, I spoke to the organizers of two different pro-trans actions at Barclays Center during the Fever game—the trans joy rally outside the arena and the “trans people belong in sports” sign distribution inside the arena. I wanted to focus less on the hate groups showing up to the games and more on the resistance to those hate groups, re-centering the story on the directly impacted community and their allied fans who were rejecting the transphobia that was coming for the league.

My background in community organizing and movement comms also probably shows up in this story, as you can see that I wanted to document the thoughtfulness, care, and process that these organizers put into their actions. A rally or direct action doesn’t just spring up out of nowhere; someone has taken the time to think through the logistics and put in the work to make it happen.

The other takeaway that stuck with me from this story came from Leah, one of the Liberty season ticket holders who helped plan the sign distribution inside Barclays. She had never organized any kind of action before but told me, she felt “someone should do something” only to realize that she had to be “that someone.” The group made their materials, including their sign template, public so that anyone could download it and fans in other cities can take it and adapt it for their own teams. In addition to that, the signs included a QR code with a fundraiser for the Brooklyn Community Pride Center, which has so far raised over $3,600.

I also want to say how much I appreciate Xtra for assigning this story. The angle of this pitch was: “I have spoken with the organizers of both the trans joy rally outside the event and the sign distribution inside the game itself, and gotten perspectives that center the fans and the impacted community. I've not seen anyone reporting this perspective.” I pitched it to another one of my editors first, who said that they had already assigned a story about the event but that they agreed they hadn’t seen my angle anywhere, and maybe if there was another opportunity in a few weeks, we could try again.

My editor at Xtra, the fabulous Tara-Michelle Ziniuk, responded that they had already run two WNBA pieces this month, which was a lot for them, but that she agreed that this was a missing angle and so she commissioned it. That is the beauty of a queer publication—they understand why our stories and perspectives matter.

Below, some content from the cutting room floor that didn’t make it into the piece, focused more on players and their attempts at allyship: