ASU fellow partners with the New York Liberty

Earlier this year, the New York Liberty, part of the Women’s National Basketball Association, expressed interest in hosting a pop-up exhibit in collaboration with the Lesbian Herstory Archives to celebrate the team’s annual PRIDE game. ASU faculty member and Humanities Institute fellow Rachel Corbman, who is a long-time coordinator of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, helped curate the exhibit, which was realized on July 25 at the Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and co-sponsored by the institute.

The exhibit focused on three major themes: the role of sports in lesbian culture, the story of the Lesbians for Liberty, and the history of queer players in the league like Sue Wicks, a Liberty forward who came out as a lesbian in 2002. As demonstrated in digitized fliers and the history of Lesbians for Liberty’s campy, ad-hoc activism, lesbians have been filling the stands of the New York Liberty since the earliest years of the WNBA in the 1990s — however, they haven’t always been celebrated or even recognized, despite helping to propel the league’s surging popularity.

A fan of the New York Liberty since she was a teenager, Corbman was one of the many lesbian fans filling the stands, having attended games with her dad and younger sister in the early 2000s. “I remember the history that the exhibit documents,” Corbman says. “I used to see the Lesbians for Liberty handing out palm cards before games. It was the first time I had ever seen a group organizing as lesbians — and they made a big impression on me as a 16, 17-year-old lesbian teen…

“The Lesbians for Liberty was founded at a time when the league was attempting to brand itself as ‘family friendly,’ which was assumed to be antithetical to queer people (something my own history, of course, contests). One of Lesbians for Liberty's demands was, quite simply, for the Liberty to have a pride game. I've been talking to a lot of the former Lesbians for Liberty in putting together this exhibit and there is something so surreal about being invited to document the struggle for a Liberty pride game at a Liberty pride game. This project so wildy exceeds their sense — and mine — of what was possible back then.”

Paula Krebs, Executive Director of the Modern Language Association and partner of the Humanities Institute as well as half-season ticket holder, reflects on the league’s success, expressing how exciting it is to see 15,000 people or more at games. “I never dreamed that in my lifetime there would be arenas full of screaming fans for women’s sports and I’d see men walking around wearing jerseys with women’s names on the back of them,” she says, having started playing women’s sports in the 1970s. “It’s amazing how much more popular I’ve become around my pals in New York since I got those tickets! I go to the games with a different person every time!”

During the PRIDE game at Concourse 23, the Lesbian Herstory Archives distributed recreated versions of Lesbians for Liberty ephemera, including hologram stickers, buttons, a foldable fan and mini-prints based on press coverage of a kiss-in protest. Guests explored a combination of archival material and photographs submitted by fans.

It is thanks to the work of scholars like Rachel Corbman and others that we can see the evolution of lesbians and queer players and fans. Now, the exhibit enjoys a temporary installation at the LGBT Community Center National Archive through September, officially titled “Everyone Watches Dyke Sports.” Drop by The Center Archive at 208 W 13th St, New York, NY to cheer on the lesbian histories of the defending champs.