Be Gay, Do Sports: Welcome To Autostraddle Print Issue #03

Lesbians and queer women have always been central to sports history: as spectators and superfans of woefully undervalued women’s leagues, as out athletes paving the way for more inclusion and visibility, as diligent, gregarious builders of community through recreational and intramural team sports, and as leaders in the fights for equal pay.

The new issue of the Autostraddle Print Magazine is about all of that, and the future, too — full of stories that will resonate with diehard fans and athletes as well as the staunchly ambivalent. The narratives in these pages speak to the moments when sport is about so much more than the game being played. Because sports connect us, bring together communities and encourage self-discovery. In a gay way, obviously.

Mainstream sports culture doesn’t always make space for queerness. In fact, from the early traumas of schoolyard pick-up games to the rowdy fraternity of pro sports fandom, the culture can be implicitly or openly hostile to queer people, and to trans people especially. Queer fans and players experience sexism, homophobia, and erasure. At the same time — and, in a distinctly bittersweet way amid the current political moment — sports have served the same central cultural function to our community as they have for the normies, just… differently. Anyone who’s been to — or even just watched — a WNBA, NWSL, or PWHL game, or entertained the prospect of joining a lesbian softball team, can tell you that queer sports culture, these days, just keeps getting bigger, more interesting, and increasingly worthy of exploring through narrative, journalism, and art.

Our cover story gets right to the heart of all of that — The Texas Elite Spartans are at the top of their game as fierce competitors at American Football, and are part of the sport’s long queer legacy. This team of mostly Black, mostly gay football players love the game and each other with full hearts, but they’ve gotta work day jobs and make sacrifices to get to the field. After producing the “most viral women’s football video of all time,” they’re finally getting some attention, but the possibility of earning the recognition and paychecks they deserve still feels like a faraway dream. Frankie de la Cretaz, the co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League, travels to Texas to see not just their gameplay, but their bonds of chosen family and friendship, in action.

Friendship is indeed a powerful force in sports, and the charming and relatable platonic intimacy between gay players on the field can be magnetic for fans: Sports reporter Maya Goldberg-Safir explores this in her piece about the easy chemistry between the WNBA’s Saniya Rivers and Brittney Griner, and de la Cretaz in their profile of Ashton Lansdell and Denae Benites, two stars of the newly established Women’s Professional Baseball League.

New women’s sports leagues and their passionate fandoms are part of what’s fueled the growth of women’s sports bars, which have boomed in the past few years — and our guide to these establishments reveals that these bars have also become, across the board, vibrant and deliberately queer third spaces. That intersection is all over this issue, with fan-focused content about WNBA gossip, courtside style, F1 and mental health and a day in the life of fan favorite Coach Jackie.

It wouldn’t be a queer sports issue without rec and amateur sports.  In these pages we propose she/they kickball as the solution to lesbian loneliness, running as a way to connect with your neighbors and nature, roller derby as a trans-inclusive ideal and bouldering to scale your body feelings. Queer and trans people come into sports for so many different reasons, and as recreational and professional sports have become battlegrounds for trans rights, these stories prove over and over again just how cruel it is to exclude anyone from sports. As one of the headlines in this issue so succinctly declares: Everyone deserves sports.

Even if sports aren’t your thing — or the sport you love most isn’t directly addressed in this issue — these stories really are all about so much more: bodies, identity, friendship, connection, determination, community. We’ve got some non-sports stories for you, too, including city guides for Chicago and the Twin Cities, advice, games, and the types of heartfelt personal essays you know and love and have been reading on Autostraddle for nearly two decades.

This magazine, like the games we dig into in this issue, is a (very small) team effort. With your support, maybe the team might get a little bigger. If you’re not already subscribed, now’s the time!