If you’re a queer person who loves sports, there’s a new way to connect: a project from Out of Your League & Rough Notes called Shoot Your Shot. We are two queer women’s sports writers (Frankie & Maya) who want you to get a shot at connecting with other queer women’s sports fans in our community. Whether you’re looking for love, friendship, solidarity or partnership — we’re hoping this collab can help you find it. Call us your queer sports yentas.
Our Inspiration
For us, queerness and women’s sports are intertwined - not just in a conceptual way, but in a really personal way, too (in life-changing, inspiring, even heartbreaking ways.) We love the idea of building a constellation of relationships: from friendships to mentors to creative partners to lovers. We designed the Shoot Your Shot submission form to contain multitudes, making room for whatever you’re seeking. Do you love flirting over extremely specific WNBA stats? Are you searching for a friend willing to watch the StudBudz twitch stream live while texting? Or is there a basketball pick-up run you’re starting, and want to invite other local folks to join? There’s room for everyone here.
The inspiration for this project came about organically. Frankie was seeking sources for a story about couples who met due to a shared love of the WNBA and more than one person responded asking how they could find their own WNBA-loving partner. We’ve been looking for a way for OOYL and Rough Notes to collab and join forces for a while now and this seemed like the perfect project for Frankie and Maya—who has a chronic history of matchmaking among both friends and strangers—to tackle together.
For the next two weeks, we’re accepting submissions from readers in the style of an old-school classified ad: whether you’re seeking a romantic partner, a new best friend, or a long distance penpal willing to gossip. Then we’ll share out a bunch of entries, open up responses, and leave it to you to find sparks with each other.
How to Play
1. Fill out the form:
Share a little bit about who you are and put yourself out there.
2. Be weird, be sweet, be you:
Come as you are, write as you are! Keep it flirty, nerdy, sporty, serious — or mix it all together.
3. Share the love:
Tell your queer sports pals. Tell your group chats. Tell your ex who plays Ultimate frisbee and still invites you to scrimmages.
4. Keep an eye out:
Before the month is over, we’ll be sharing classifieds -- and allowing you to respond to any that catch your eye -- through our newsletters and on social media.