In the heart of Manhattan’s West Village, a haven for queer New York Liberty fans comes alive. Inside The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, lovingly known as The Center, a vibrant floor hums with the rhythm of basketball, history, and queer fandom.

A poster with a bold declaration — “EVERYONE WATCHES DYKE SPORTS” — hangs proudly against a cream brick wall on the fourth floor of the library and archive space. Nearby, there are snapshots of lesbian couples and fans beaming from the stands of New York Liberty games, draped in the team’s signature seafoam green, posed with players or holding handmade signs. Interspersed among them are childhood photos of fans alongside the early Liberty team, capturing the roots of a lifelong connection. These photos lend a personal touch to the wall that makes you feel as if you’ve stepped into a family reunion for women’s sports fans. Together, they tell a story of visibility, belonging, and celebration both on and off the court.

Playful, vibrant fan-made signs that read “LESBIAN FANS ARE LEGION” and “LIBERTY: LESBIAN FANS ARE FILLING YOUR STANDS!” call to the viewer, encouraging them to bask in its joy and resistance.

Everyone Watches Dyke Sports: Queer Histories of New York Liberty Basketball examines how deeply intertwined queer identity, fandom, and community are within the culture of women’s sports. What began as a collaboration with the New York Liberty — featured initially at the team’s annual Pride game — has since expanded into an exhibition now on display at The Center. Curated by a group of Liberty fans at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the exhibition foregrounds the voices, memories, and artifacts that made Liberty games a hub for lesbian life in the city.

“Lesbian fans have filled the stands of Liberty games since the earliest years of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in the late 1990s,” says The Center’s exhibition description. “As always, lesbian fans have helped propel the league’s surging popularity. This exhibit tells the story of lesbian fan cultures and their role in the leagues history.”

This thriving fan culture didn’t just develop by chance. It speaks to a larger history of queer community-building and visibility in spaces where LGBTQ+ presence has often been overlooked or excluded. For many lesbian fans, attending Liberty games wasn’t just about basketball, but claiming space, forming connections, and experiencing a sense of collective belonging that was a powerful alternative to the heteronormativity that defined much of mainstream sports culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The spirit of community and resistance is at the heart of this exhibit. From personal photographs and handmade signs to vintage Liberty merchandise, each piece offers a glimpse into the ways lesbian fans have claimed visibility and belonging within (and beyond) the stands. Together, these objects form a visual narrative of creativity, resilience, and joy that has long thrived in spaces where it wasn’t always recognized.

To understand the emotional weight and cultural significance of this fandom, you only need to look at the artifacts themselves.

An original 2002 Liberty ticket stub, from the team’s early days playing at Madison Square Garden, hangs on the wall. Its weathered edges and faded ink are a testament to a different era of women’s basketball. That season, the team was led by Teresa Weatherspoon, Becky Hammon, Vickie Johnson, and more — a powerhouse roster of trailblazing athletes whose talent, charisma, and resilience helped define the early WNBA and laid the groundwork for the visibility and popularity of women’s sports today.

Just beneath the ticket stub, handmade paper glasses and paper fans sit carefully preserved behind glass with a vintage Liberty t-shirt and headband. The glasses, decorated with doodles of stars, hearts, and basketballs, proclaim “Lesbian Fans Fill the Stands!” The handmade memorabilia echoes the same cheeky slogan, but nods to the spirit of Lesbians For Liberty, a group of Liberty fans who protested the team’s management in the early 2000s for their failure to recognize and celebrate its deeply lesbian fanbase.

At the time, despite the visible and vocal presence of queer fans in the stands, the Liberty’s marketing and outreach remained largely silent on LGBTQ+ representation. In response, fans organized under Lesbians For Liberty to make their presence impossible to ignore. They brought protest signs — many of which are featured in the exhibit — wrote open letters, and applied pressure to the organization to acknowledge and celebrate the community that had long supported the team. Among the materials preserved in the exhibit is a flyer with detailed instructions for a “Lesbian Time-Out Kiss-In for Liberty,” inviting “all lesbians, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people” to stand and share a kiss during every time-out in a game as a peaceful act of protest and visibility.

Lesbians for Liberty not only challenged the league to recognize its queer fanbase; it helped open the door for greater visibility of queer players themselves. Over time, the Liberty began to more openly embrace LGBTQ+ inclusion both in its public messaging and in its celebration of out athletes. A pivotal moment came when former Liberty player Sue Wicks came out in 2002 to Time Out, making her one of the first gay athletes to come out in the WNBA. In the exhibition, an archived page from Time Out featuring the interview with Wicks is on display.

The exhibit uses archival materials to highlight how fan activism helped transform professional women’s basketball into a more inclusive space. This not only honors those who demanded visibility, but also invites reflection on building a sports culture that strives for all identities to be seen, valued, and celebrated.

“It’s been fun to watch people’s eyes light up when they see it,” said Lou McCarthy, The Center’s Director of Archives. “The direct action legacy it depicts, rooted in the work of the Lesbian Avengers and ACT UP, is proof that we can change institutions and the world around us on so many levels.”

Everyone Watches Dyke Sports: Queer Histories of New York Liberty Basketball is on view at The Center until September 28.

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After many eons of speculation and countless fan edits, U-Conn basketball star Azzi Fudd has gone ahead and made it clear that she is indeed in a relationship with Dallas Wings rookie and #1 draft pick Paige Bueckers. On Fudd’s Instagram stories today she posted a mirror selfie while getting her hair done. Her phone case reads: “Paige Bueckers’ Girlfriend.” Fudd has also consistently sported a rainbow emoji in her insta bio.

honestly, huge for @haylesloganhair

“I’m so happy!” said Coach Jackie on TikTok. “They were best friends and then obviously started dating and I think because they were friends they did all the things that two girlfriends would do and every single time they did those things, everyone would be like awww BFFs! Like they literally could kiss on the mouth, and everyone would be like, that is so nice that they do that for each other as friends.”

Way back in May, many fans noticed what appeared to be a Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd soft launch. Shyanne Sellers and her fiancee, Faith Masonius, participated in the dinner bill meme, and then on May 23rd, Azzi posted her and Paige doing the same meme. Azzi asks Paige, “how much was it?” Paige says “$200,” Azzi says, “that’s not that bad,” and then Paige gives her a look because of course she is the one paying, not Azzi. Azzi captioned the video, “princess treatment every time I’m with her.” In the comments, Paige favorited fans who shared sentiments such as “at least Paige is winning off the court” and “sooo thoughtful azzi’s former teammate paid for their bill she’s so kind.”

Elsewhere on #wagtok, Dallas Wings player Tyasha Harris’s girlfriend, Autumn Patrice, jumped on the meme as well.

On Tiktok, women’s sports creator Shenae posted about her deep investment in Paige and Azzi’s relationship and how it made her wish she was a lesbian, and a commenter wrote, “I hope this blows up so Azzi sees it and sneaky favorited it LOL” and indeed, it did blow up, and Azzi did, in fact, sneaky favorite it.

Across the web, self-identified “Pazziators” celebrated what they saw as a hard launch of their favorite and most beloved partnership. “They’re always together, they’re always making content together, they were always giving ‘we’re a couple’ without saying ‘we’re a couple,” explained TikToker @thebaddiegalore.

To sportscasters, Azzi is simply Paige’s “former teammate.” To straight people, Azzi and Paige are “best friends.” But many wondered, what constitutes a hard launch or even a soft launch? Is it a girl taking another to the WNBA draft as, seemingly, her date? Is it that same date wearing a golden necklace, featuring a heart and the player’s number, around your neck? Is it participating in a couples-oriented meme on TikTok? Well, it definitely is a phone case that literally says “Paige Bueckers’ girlfriend.”

The two exceptional basketball players have been best friends for years, having met in high school at a USA basketball camp and played together on youth national teams. Bueckers, who hails from Minnesota, headed to the University of Connecticut for college, where Azzi, who grew up in the D.C. area, joined her a year later. “We’re similar, but at the same time very different,” Fudd told the CT Insider in 2021. “I’m quieter, she’s louder, but we have a lot of the same qualities: our work ethic, our goals.”

The longevity and depth of this friendship, their ages, and the amount of time they’ve spent together as young basketball phenoms, traveling across the country and being teammates on a championship team — this is a friends-and-lovers story for the ages. We look forward to seeing them go on double dates with Buecker’s teammates D’Jonai Carrington and Nalyssa Smith, wouldn’t that be cute?

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She’s Jewish. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3332 articles for us.