By HARVEY ARATON
On the Web site of a
group called Girl Bar, the logo of a professional basketball team was
prominently displayed yesterday along with a most intriguing offer: "Girl
Bar, in conjunction with the Los Angeles Sparks, is promoting Sparks games on
the following dates."
One of those dates, June 14, is being
heralded as a "Gay Pride Kick-off." Come one, come all, and come as
you are.
In the attempt to expand an
acknowledged fan base by partnering with a lesbian social club, the Jerry
Buss-owned team has ignited a spark of hope in the long struggle against
homophobia. A subject that has traditionally been dealt with by the Women's
National Basketball Association and other women's sports organizations as
taboo but true has been set out on the table to slice, dice and discuss.
Which is the only way for
the ignorant among us to ultimately be quieted, if not converted, and for the
so-called controversy to be rendered passé.
"I think what the
Sparks have done is say, `OK, no more head in the sand,' " said Sandy
Sachs, the co-founder of Girl Bar, an 11-year- old group with 12,000 members
that stages Friday night parties. "Someone had to be the first to do
it."
As they move into the
Staples Center, the Sparks' motivation is purely financial, according to their
general manager, Penny Toler. Nothing wrong with that, for no matter how much
we may want to romanticize social advancement, the desire to earn has usually
been a root cause.
This arrangement occurred to
Sandy Sachs five years ago, when the W.N.B.A. was about to begin. "You
just knew that the lesbian market was going to support this, and I thought
there might be an opportunity to do some co-promotion," she said from Los
Angeles. "A friend of mine who had connections to it said: `Forget it.
Never happen. They don't want to acknowledge that this market will be part of
it.' "
Sachs went to a few games,
hardly surprised to the extent that it was such a big part. As they quickly
became in other large, diverse markets, lesbian fans in L.A. were the
unmarketable and unmentionable masses, amid all the happy talk of little girls
in Lisa Leslie jerseys. At least until Toler called Sachs to ask if Girl Bar
was willing to play ball.
By last Friday night, the
Sparks were aboard their team bus, heading to West Hollywood for a Girl Bar
party and pep rally, attended by all but Leslie, who, reportedly, had a
previous engagement.
"I wish the Liberty
would do something like that here," said Lauren Cresap, a 42-year- old
New York City engineer, after learning yesterday of what the Sparks were up to
out West. She has been a Liberty courtside season-ticket holder from the
beginning, a basketball fan for as long as she can remember. She takes her 13-
year-old niece to games, follows the Liberty on the road. She dispenses team
information for hundreds of fans in cyberspace.
Cresap hasn't had to count
the number of women in Liberty jerseys heading downtown to lesbian strongholds
after games at Madison Square Garden to know there are many. Yet she bristled
when a handful of lesbian fans plotted last year to protest their lack of a
company blessing. "I had a real issue with it," she said. "It
would've been childish, not the place. We are there for basketball. That would
have been the wrong way."
She applauds the Sparks' way
but admits to concern about this genie being out of the bottle. "I wish
we lived in a better world, but we don't," she said. "I know why
players don't come out, and I've waited too long for a league like this one. I
would hate to see it suffer or end because of homophobia."
A call yesterday to Carol
Blazejowski, the Liberty general manager, was not returned. Her team has a
larger fan base than L.A. and arguably more to risk. Regardless of anyone's
plain opinion or sexual orientation, there is a natural fear of the corporate
misstep. Already in Los Angeles, the talk show lines have heated up, and the
conservatives are fired up, wondering how parents can take their children to a
place where lesbians are engaged in promiscuity during timeouts.
Over the phone, you could almost hear
Sandy Sachs's eyes rolling. "I've never seen anyone making out at a
Sparks game, and most lesbian women I know tend to be more self-conscious than
not," she said. "That's the homophobic belief that for gays, life is
about sex and nothing else."
Thanks to the Sparks, it is also
about basketball, and it's on the record and it's about time someone said the
women's sports movement should be for all women.
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