"A Whole Stadium Full": Lesbian Community at Women's National Basketball Association Games‪.‬

Establishing a community with other lesbians has historically been a vital yet challenging goal for lesbians (Bonfitto, 1997; Correll, 1995; Eder, Staggenborg, & Studderth, 1995; Elwood, 2000; Franzen, 1993; Gilmartin, 1996; Kennedy & Davis, 1993; Lockard, 1986: Oswald, 2000). Gay bars (Gilmartin, 1996; Kennedy & Davis. 1993) and music festivals (Eder et al., 1995; Lockard, 1986) have traditionally been sites for lesbian community building. A more recent site explored ethnographically by Correll (1995) is the "electronic bar," a computer bulletin board system that allows lesbians to socialize via the Internet. Not surprisingly, the stereotypical association between women's sports and lesbianism has served to attract lesbians to women's sports. (1) Ironically, while the lesbian stereotype has mostly been considered negative for women's sports, there is historical evidence that women's sports in the U.S. have enabled the formation of lesbian communities (Cahn, 1994; Griffin, 1998). While researchers have typically paid more attention to lesbian athletes, there is some evidence that lesbian fans attend games to form communities with other lesbians (Cahn, 1994; Griffin, 1998). Writing about the U.S. in the early- to mid-20th century, Cahn explains, "In a day when there were few gay bars or other social institutions, sports opened up a space in which lesbians could gather and begin to forge a collective culture" (p. 189). Lockard (1986), Franzen (1993), and Gilmartin (1996) describe how (particularly working-class) lesbians in the mid-20th century formed communities through their involvement with softball teams. In this research, I use qualitative interviews with lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual female Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) fans to argue that the (perceived) large lesbian attendance at WNBA games enables the construction of a lesbian community by lesbian and bisexual fans in a site qualitatively different from traditional locations of lesbian community. Because the WNBA is not an explicitly lesbian or queer space, it is not identical to more traditional sites for community building. In fact, two important developments in lesbian and gay studies and queer theory have reshaped the concepts of lesbian community: critiques of community organized around identity and Stein's (1992) discussion of the "decentering" of lesbian feminism. Alexander (1999) and others (e.g., Jagose, 1996) critique "the older notion of 'community,' centered around maintaining a particular kind of identity" (Alexander, 1999, p. 310). Alexander criticizes traditional identity politics and argues for replacing them with a more queer-oriented, Foucauldian "politics of value," meaning "a culture built around the exchange of new values" (p. 308). He argues that organization around values such as flexibility, fluidity, openness, and compassion is more fruitful than organization around identities. Kidd (1990) and Pronger (1990) discuss community in the context of sports in terms of shared meanings among participants. Pronger (1990) argues that gay culture is not limited to formally gay institutions or locations but instead is "the world in which gay people meet--socially, intellectually, artistically, emotionally, politically, sexually, spiritually, and athletically. Gay culture can be expressed where there are gay people" (p. 147). Indeed, while WNBA games are not a formal gay institution, they are a place where lesbian and bisexual women meet and at least perceive the presence of other gay people. Queen (1998) uses the concept of communities of practice to acknowledge that community among queer people is often built around shared knowledge and "'the assumption of shared queerness."