Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're also proudly wearing a Mystic's jersey court side, even when the sticks are playing against our girlfriend. Check the video in the show notes if you missed that fun little page
and asy moment. It's Tuesday, June twenty fourth, and on today's show, Big Citrus is celebrate and pride with the PowerPoint Party, well the audio version of a PowerPoint party anyway, plus a graduation to remember the night when hockey dreams come true, and a story that reminds us once again that sports are political.
It's all coming up right after this. Welcome back, y'all. Here's what you need to know today. Let's start with golf.
Australia's Minji Lee won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship on Sunday in Frisco, Texas, competing through windy and hot conditions. It marks Lee's third career major title, following her Evan Championship win in twenty twenty one and US Women's Open win in twenty twenty two. Lee entered Sunday's final round with a four stroke lead and managed to stay on top of the leaderboard all day.
With the win.
She takes some one point eight million dollars, part of a record twelve million dollars total perse to hockey. The PWHL Draft is tonight, beginning at seven pm Eastern at the hard Rock Hotel in Ottawa. Now, if you're confused about all the drafts they are having, the last one was the expansion Draft.
This is the draft Draft.
It's going to consist of six rounds, with all eight teams, including expansion sides Vancouver and Seattle, making one pick per round. The New York Sirens pick first based on the PWHL's Gold Plan, which allows teams to earn points after being eliminated from playoff contention.
You remember that that's the.
PWHL's clever way of preventing teams from tanking. Their draft dods actually improve with more wins after they're bounced, not more losses. One hundred and ninety nine players from fifteen countries declared for this draft. Top prospects include Patty Cosmier, winner Casey O'Brien out of Wisconsin, and Clarkson defender Hailey Win. Fans in the US can catch it on the PWHL YouTube channel, and Canadians can tune in on tsn more. PWHL Boston Fleet coach Courtney Kessel is departing the team.
She's been hired as the new head coach of the Princeton women's hockey team. It marks a return to Princeton for Kessel. Prior to being hired as Boston's first coach ahead of the inaugural p WHL season in twenty twenty four, she spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Tigers under then head coach Kara Gardner Moury. The Princeton job opened up last month after Gardner Morey was hired
as GM of the PWHL's Vancouver expansion team. During her two years leading the Fleet, Kessel compiled a twenty seven, nineteen and eight record, which included a Walter Cup Finals appearance in twenty twenty.
Four to the WNBA.
There are four games tonight, including three the tip off at eight pm Eastern. This late includes the number one Minnesota Links, who are traveling to the number nine Washington
Mystics for their first meeting of the season. While the Mystics are just four and six on the year, they are fresh off a thrilling ot win against the Dallas Wings on Sunday, buoyed by rookie Sonya Citron, who had twenty seven points in the win, including the game winning three porter with just twelve point two seconds remaining in overtime. Another notable moment in that game, rookie Page Beckers became the fastest player in WNBA history to record two hundred
or more points and fifty or more assists. It took the Wings rookie just eleven games. The previous record was shared by three players, Houston Comets legend Cynthia Cooper Dyke, former Charlotte stinguard Andreastnson, and Caitlin Clark, each of whom reached the mark in twelve games. Speaking to Clark at ten PM Eastern tonight, her Indiana Fever tip off against the Seattle Storm Fever, looking to end a three game
losing streak. Clark has been uncharacteristically cold from beyond the arc of late, shooting one of ten from three point range in the Fever's lost to the Aces on Sunday, and she's one of seventeen from deep over her last two games. The Storm, meanwhile, are coming off a win against the number two New York Liberty on Sunday, with neck Ogumaka recording twenty six points in that win. Ogumkese teammate Scaler Diggins sang her praises in the postgame presser,
it was some real heartfelt shit. We'll link to that video in our show notes, and we'll link to the full WNBA schedule as well. Finally, a shout out to our show side, the Minnesota Aurora, who clinched a fourth straight USLW League playoff berth and secured their fourth straight Heartland Division title on Sunday thanks to a one to one draw against River Light FC. The Aurora still have
two regular season matches left ahead of the playoffs. They'll look to keep their unbeaten streak intact, a streak that dates back to the club's inception in twenty twenty two. All Right slices one last piece of news that's pretty recent.
So.
Senegal's Prime Minister has announced that several players and team officials from their women's basketball team had their visas denied ahead of coming to the US, which caused them to scrap plans to train here for the upcoming Afro Basket tournament. Senegal has finished either first or second in four of the last five Afro Basket Championships. The tournament, which will take place in the Ivory Coast beginning July twenty six, determines Africa's champion and entry into the Feeble World Cup
next year in Germany. Senegal is one of thirty six countries, most of them in Africa, to whom the Trump administration delivered a deadline last week demanding that they commit to improve their vetting of travelers and address the status of their nationals who are in the US illegally, or face a ban on their citizens traveling to the US. If action isn't taken, the country will join the twelve nations
already on Trump's travel ban list. Now, the Trump Administration's attack on immigrants has already affected foreign athletes here in America.
You might remember back in.
April there were four Zambian players in the NWSL that didn't travel with their Zambia national team due to fears around new travel measures taken by the Trump administration and in light of several countries issuing travel advisories that warren travelers looking to come to the US. The story of the Senegalese visas being denied, combined with existing and threatened
travel bans. The NWSL story, plus deportations and ice raids across the country have many questioning the US's future responsibilities as of the Men's World Cup and the Summer Olympics.
Trump's travel band policy makes exceptions for quote any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the Secretary of State end quote, but doesn't mention any exceptions for fans, extended family, or friends intending to
travel to the US for the events. Will of course continue to follow this story and how it affects female athletes and sporting events in the future.
Both big and small. We got to take a quick break.
When we come back, I assigned some homework and Big Citrus delivered.
Welcome back slices.
I'm now joined by the rest of Big Citrus, producer Mes, producer Alex.
Hey, you do what's up?
Hello?
So, I don't know if y'all were aware of this during COVID lockdowns, but it is a much more recent thing to me. I'm told that the young folks started throwing PowerPoint presentation nights over zoom, and the trend has continued to the point where oldheads like me have learned about it. But I didn't know that it started back in the COVID days. I just know that of late, I've been seeing all these clips where people have parties and their friends are assigned the job of teaching each
other via PowerPoint a variety of things. It could be like silly interests, childhood talents, secret passions. I've seen presentations from the attractiveness of animated characters being ranked to someone describing a summer spent working at a sausage factory, a deep dive into romance novels, a presentation on which friends would die in what order during a zombie apocalypse and how specifically they would die. The possibilities are truly endless.
But since I'm never wanted to turn down a theme party and I have not yet thrown one of these parties, we're doing it here and it is an audio medium, so we will have to just picture the slides in
our minds as this is happening. But I have assigned each member of Big Citrus Toring a brief presentation on the intersection of pride and women's sports in honor of Pride Month and PowerPoint parties and Alex, I'm opening up the floor for you to start with your presentation, tell us what it's about, and teach us something new.
I'm so pleased to be here with you today for this important presentation that I would like to title not kissing your sister Colon when your teammate becomes your dreammate.
I love it. Ten out of ten yep, already in bought in, Thank you so much.
Please know that if this was a visual medium, it would be a pink background with lots of little.
Hearts like Cli style hearts.
Yep. Cool.
So for this story, we have to go back to the year twenty fifteen. A young alex Azzi was embarking on her first Olympic research trips and as a new researcher, I was getting sent to the weirdest possible sporting events Canoe World Championships, Triathlon World Championships, and the euro Hockey Championships. We're the best European f field hockey teams gathered together, and I want you to imagine me looking down these rosters and trying to figure out which athletes do I
need to interview? Are there any names on this roster that I've already heard of? And while looking through England's field hockey roster, I came across an interesting name and then I saw it again, Kate and Helen Richardson Walsh. And in the year twenty fifteen, I thought to myself, huh, look at these sisters that made England's field hockey team together.
Wow, what an athletic family.
Great geens. Parents must be so proud.
Well, dear slices. They were not sisters, they were wives.
What they were wives and they were the lives and teammates. Can you do that?
Is that allowed?
Well in the year twenty fifteen, It really hadn't been done before. And it was this moment where I just remember staring at it and I think I shot off a couple of emails.
To be like like, oh my god, they're married.
I play the safeteen together. It felt like my world had just opened up. And so Kate and Helen. They went on to become the first same sex married couple to ever win an Olympic gold medal at the twenty sixteen Rio Olympics. And I loved just being able to see them enjoy their journey together as both teammates and wives.
I think just to think back to twenty fifteen, though for a minute the Supreme Court had just ruled on gay marriage, Like I struggle sometimes to realize, like, it was not that long ago that in many states across the US, people still did not have the right to
get married. This was before the days of Sue Bird and Meghan Rapino and Christy Lewis and Sam Kirk, Wanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas and Tobyheath and Christen Press and I love, love, love seeing all of these couples that are now out, but back in those days it was still a brand new thing.
Yeah, I love that.
I love that you can remember that moment, because I do think as it becomes more commonplace and we see queer women athletes in all sorts of spaces, and we see a lot of these great relationships that come out of these teams and competitions, we sometimes just take it for granted and forget how recent it was, that it was a novelty, or that you would be excited by the prospect that they felt comfortable enough and safe enough to come out with it, particularly on the same team.
I remember the early responses to Ali Quigley and Courtney van der Slut and like just the idea of, like, well, how could they be teammates?
Though? That's got to be a mess, you know, because hetero.
People think everybody has to act like them in relationships and can't handle things like you know, mature, responsible women. But also how exciting it was for those early moments of Courtney feeding Ali for three pointers or them having a great play together.
It just felt like really special. Wow.
Ugh, the gays gotta love it.
God love it.
Well, thank you for your presentation. Al the hearts look great. I wish everyone could see it. I mean, it's really multiple slides photos of all these couples together, some that I've never seen before. I'm sure people would love to see some of these personal Well there's vacation photos you got there, while wedding photos oh those were never made public either. I can't imagine how many of the footy and gay shit people out there would really love to be looking at these slides.
So really good reporting.
Sticks engay shit, yeah, sticks enga shit.
I'm trying to think of, like having played field hockey, the most field hockey term like you know, obstruction e gay shit.
Or third party engashit.
That's a whole different conversation.
I don't know if we're quite ready for the first throuple, but it's happening.
Well, neither is.
That's why there's a third party rule.
I think we might be ready.
I'm I'm sure it's happening, and I look forward to the first throuble to come out. But yeah, the third party rule, you know, probably playing with the wrong side of the stick.
That's also a rule in field hockey.
Okay, there's a lot of material in field hockey, all right, all right, a raised ball more in the men's space.
But you know, is that a thing? Yeah, stick and I don't stick. Interference.
Yeah, it feels like, uh, you know, that could be a nice way to describe someone cheating on you.
All right, mesh, your turn. Let's see this presentation.
All right?
Well, uh, I don't know what my slides look like, because I don't know if I can compete with everything Alex has got on hers already imaginary.
I don't know that.
Come on, there are all those grape photos.
Gosh, so my presentation we're gonna call this and sorry, it's not as fun as yours. Candice Parker's coming out arc. It's significance in parallels to lead growth A presentation by Misha Jones.
Do you write a thesis? I did?
It sounds that way.
It certainly sounds that way. Yeah.
Do you have cliff not cliffs notes? You have footnotes?
I might.
I'm gonna have to cite some things, and you got perfect. Let's let's all get in the time travel machine here and time travel back to the year two thousand and six. Okay, I was nine. All right, Let's let that sink in for a second.
Insert baby crying noises.
He sounded like a baby goat for some reason, instead of it, I mean, I was Were you a baby goat?
Yeah?
Period.
But I'd already been, you know, a basketball fan at this point. But this was around the time that I really started to become kind of a student of the game. This was the same year that Maryland won the national championship.
I was all over that.
My dad was a duchie. He went to Duke, and I just I relished in that.
I really did.
But this was the time I started to get serious about it. And I was watching college who was specifically very intently, and there was a player by the name of Candace Parker. He was absolutely ripping shit at Tennessee under the legendary Pat Summit, as we all know, rest in peace. But because she was so good, it was at the point where both me and my older boy cousin, So I'm talking like if I'm nine, he's twelve thirteen, and that's like the age where boys start to.
Get really just gross.
But we were both obsessed, like mutually obsessed with Candace Parker, albeit for different reasons. I loved her game and he just kind of loved her. He was in love, wanted to marry her.
House she's secuting, Yeah.
But he also really appreciated the hoop, and that's something I still look back really fondly on. So shout out to him. I love you, Jazz. But from her college days ripping shit. She got drafted in O eight and then she had a whole husband, y'all. She was married to him in two thousand and eight. Some of y'all might not even know that, but was married him in two thousand and eight while being a baby hair player in the court.
Fellow basketball player.
Yeah, I went to Duke.
We won't you know, name drop him just you can google if you want to. But she was also at the same time being the baby haired assassin the on the court. We know that she was the first player to ever don't ever forget it. I'm gonna say it every time I get an opportunity, the first player to ever win Rookie of the Year in MVP and only
and only thank you, Sarah Spain. But in all of this, she was becoming to me the face of the league, not just to mee to a lot of people, and was presented in this super like high fem way off the court, and the w as a whole was still in this era where it catered to the male gaze
a lot. And let me be clear when I when I'm making this distinction, I'm not saying this to say that being queer equals immediately being traditionally masculine presenting, or that Candice still doesn't give the girls a fem look, because you know, it still feels like she does, and her flavor, though, is just more hers to me than
it once was. But at any rate, a lot of players were in that boat, were being made to where these straight girl get ups Sue Byrd as we know, has has talked at length about this, but other glaring examples for me at that time were like Orlena Larkins if you don't know who Orlna Larkins is, look her up, she's a Cooper.
But it's also not giving them.
And then Tamor Young, like for folks who don't know TAM's game, I'm talking love and hip hop Tamra Young, right, and so it's it's again not giving them. Diana Maki, Yeah, like, matter of fact, we should link to to all the draft photos from the year to two thousand and nine here, because it's just so glaring and honestly, to me, as gay as the W is in present day, that early era of like straight passing. This is the real reason the W holds the title of the gayest league ever.
To me, that that's really truly why, because so many players started out in that closet or in the wrong closet per se fashion wise, and then slowly stepped out of it, which is you know, that's that's the story of a lot of people, myself.
Included, very relatable, painfully relatable.
I could pull out so many pictures for y'all and put them in this slide.
I'm not gonna do it way. I'm not gonna play myself like that.
Can you give us one?
If we're gonna put all these players on blast? Can you give us one meche in a pink Easter dress at age?
Y'all? I can, I can give you one.
I gotta I gotta scour.
I gotta scour the phone because I've tried to get rid of his ones that haven't been burned.
Oh I forgot.
You're old enough that none of your photos were actually photos sprinted out.
All of your photos are digital.
They're all on Instagram.
They're on Instagram and Facebook.
Man.
Yeah, did you have any of the family members that would like for Christmas be like here you got me?
It was like a frilly dressed.
They were like, yeah, absolutely, Yeah. It was an actual problem. But you know, the straight passing of it all very relatable, not just to me, but to a lot of queer people. And back to Canadace.
She was the example of this, right she, like I said, she was the face of the league, and at that time she also had a baby named Leila, so it was further cementing kind of that picture perfect. I have a husband I have a daughter, and I'm I've got it all kind of thing, which is still a thing. And I'm very proud of you if you're straight and that's your vibe. But for Candace, you know, time went
on and she didn't have a man no more. They went through divorce, finalized that in twenty eighteen, and turns out that she had met somebody named Anna Petrokhova.
They played together.
It was the gayest trope. I feel like we're starting to understand how gay this trope actually is.
Teammates still lovers, yep.
They were together on ummc Ekaterinberg back in twenty twelve and just got closer and became close enough to marry.
Someone told her to put a body on her and she sure.
That blocks out and she did.
And it feels like we just talked about this trope right with Azy and Page, and I hope we continue to talk about it. But yeah, I can't speak to what made her feel comfortable going public with her marriage. But as Alex said, at that time, tides were starting to change. Like twenty fifteen, like you said, we got gay marriage legalized in the WNBA.
There were also players who had kind of been and still.
Work queer, but their number became more steady and more visible, and I think that was really important. But at one point Candace actually put a post on Instagram to let the entire world know that she was in this relationship.
It was two years before she did that.
They were, you know, doing their own thing privately for a while, and it got to a point where Candace just said, I want to tell the world about it.
And I remember the day I saw the post about Petra.
It unearthed a.
Whole lot of emotions for me that I just didn't even realize I was holding on to. I was out at this point, but it still felt kind of like a personal validation and a big step not just for her, but for a generation of people who had been locked
in with Candace in her journey. And you know, this version of the w y'all where queer players and people are openly celebrated, like it feels way more aligned with the real culture and real spirit of women's basketball and a person generally speaking, And then to put the bow on it twenty twenty three, If you haven't seen the documentary Candice Parker Unapologetic, this is the thing that wrapped it all up in a bow. For me, hearing about
her journey from her was just so cathartic. So if you haven't seen it yet, go give it a watch on Hulu for all you premium subscribers. But from being the straight passing face of the league to being exactly who she was and still a legend, one of the legends of the game, it's such a such a wonderful arc to be able to take a step back and observe. And you know, she retired in twenty twenty four.
We all know.
I'm still sad about it.
But in conclusion, her journey is a prime example of the one that this entire league and its players have been on. And yeah, her going public with her wifey, it really healed something to me. So I'm glad we're all here and can celebrate it.
It. I distinctly remember that day that she posted that instagram of her wife. Yeah, And while I always want people to feel comfortable to come out as soon as possible, as soon as makes sense for them, it also represents the level of trust behind the scenes that she was able to keep that to herself. Yeah two years because I know I was in a lot of group chats that day being like, did you know this about candis?
Did you know this about Candace?
Yeah? And I didn't know that about Candace. And I think that speaks to the people in her circle that understood, hey, this is important for her to be able to do on her own time, in her own space. Yeah.
And the other really important distinction I want to make here, because my presentation was kind of all about the coming out, it's still Pride Month, and I want to be very specific in saying, if you're listening to this, you.
Also don't have to do that.
You also don't have to feel like you have to tell everybody because you can also just be yourself. And I feel like we've entered into a space, into a time in twenty twenty five. Well, that's also an option I think with Asy and Page. You know, I'm glad that they gave people something that you on in terms of soft hard launching their relationship, but I also.
Know that if they didn't, we all would have been just fine, you know.
What I mean. I see both sides of it for sure, And anybody who doesn't want to come out, it's not your responsibility to give that to others. And also the more people who are openly, joyfully, boldly themselves at a time when folks are trying to push back on that.
The more it frees up others to be that for themselves, like you, seeing Candace do that, it really did something for you.
So I love hearing that really quick story before my presentation that you just reminded me of.
When I was just at the espnW sum at.
Canada, the great Sam Rappaport, one of my favorite people who has completely changed the face of the NFL with her Women in Football forum, getting women coaches hired and is now working with USA Football and tennis and much for other places, talked about how for the first eight or so years I think her working at the NFL, she wasn't out and she literally kept post it notes in her desk reminding herself of the lies that she told one person about how she spent her vacation or
her holiday or her weekend, so that she could remember and tell the same lie to someone else if they asked how things had been in her time off and she made a joke, she was like, yeah, I mean I used to dress like Sarah And I.
Was like okay, okay, I'm like yeah, it's giving straight.
I get it, but you know, it is funny the idea of you saying like they were in the wrong closet, Like she was in the wrong closet, you know, and she got to be herself and come out. And she actually told a really moving story about the first person she sort of came out to, not intentionally, just it happened to be was Roger Goodell. He looked across at a space and she had decided to finally bring her
girlfriend and not hide it. She grabbed her girlfriend's hand, looked up at him, and he walked over with this giant smile and hugged her. And I guess he has a gay brother and had always been inclusive and she wasn't really worried about it, but it was still like the very top of the food chain was saying, this is great, this is wonderful, and it really helped her feel more comfortable everywhere else. So love to hear those stories, especially when they sort of maybe defy your expectations.
What I take away from that is we need coach Jackie to make a new video series.
Is she gay?
Or does she just host a women's sports podcast feature you and see how it turns out.
Oh, all they're gonna say I'm gay. Plenty of people have.
My friend Ali actually was just in town this past weekend for Pride here in Chicago, and we were just talking about the show and all this stuff, and she's like, oh, I figured out what you are.
You're a dikon And I'm like, I don't know what that is.
And she's like, a dicon is like an icon for gay women who's straight that like this the gays are trying to turn and or at least are appreciative that they're like an ally and in the gay space.
And I was like, I'll take it. I love it.
Not the ratish kind, the other kind. Yes, I could also be a ratish That's fine, so delicious.
Okay.
My presentation is called when it comes to Allies, we need more awls than Alley's. This presentation is picture it uh plain white page. It's a it's a nod to my age, and it features Clippy the paper clip, which used to be this animated paper clip that assisted you
if you were using Microsoft Office. And next to Clippy is Chippy, Clippy's boyfriend, So the two of them are actually walking us through this presentation and the reason I'm centering gay men here is because as I was thinking about the ally portion of pride and women's sports intersecting, I realized that the role of women allies is, and for a long time has been, far less necessary on the women's side than the role of male allies on the men's side. And actually, my friend Patrick Burke, who
helped co found You Can Play. He's now actually vice president of player Safety at the National Hockey League, but wrote on his site for you Can Play back at twenty thirteen quote. A few months ago, a reporter called me and said he wanted to talk about the LGBT sports movement for a PC he was doing. We establish a convenient time, exchange numbers and hopped on a call. It turns out the piece was on Britney Griner, an
elite female basketball player who's a lesbian. We talked for a half hour, so he was a really good guy and had a lot of good question When we got to the end of the call, he asked if there
was anything we hadn't talked about that I wanted to mention. Well, I responded, we should probably talk about the fact that two straight guys just spent thirty minutes talking about the issues lesbian athlete space, and he goes on to write about how the male allies in the LGBTQ plus space needed to take a step back and stop centering themselves in the conversation and allowing more athletes to speak up
for themselves. He understood the power of the male ally, but he also understood that it was the same voices coming up over and over again.
Back in twenty thirteen.
It was Chris Kluey, Brandon McCarthy, Brennan I and Badejo. It was these great voices that were so necessary, but he was hoping that more of the actual folks living the experiences would come out and speak on it. And I'm looking back at that article in twenty thirteen, and the problem is the same. We still have these great male allies, Steve Nash, Michael Strahan, John Sally. Now we've got Kaylen Saunders. He's a defensive tackle for the New
Orleans Saints. He's hosting an LGBTQ plus youth friendly football camp, and he's partnered with a former NFL player who came out as bisexual after he was done playing.
R K Russell.
You might know of Caylen Saunders because his brother Cameron is one of Taylor Swift's backup dancers and is in the LGBTQ community. But I'm thinking about this and we're getting still all these years later after that article about let's center more of the actual athletes, mostly male allies, because the men who come out are usually coming out after retirement, and even then it's usually not the stars.
So still the boldest and loudest and most influential voices on the men's side are usually the allies that have the highest profile and are trying to convince other folks to be more welcoming. On the women's sports side, players have been out in far greater numbers and for much longer, and it's allowed us to center more of the actual
women in the conversations, which has been great. So going way back, it used to be mostly rumors, you know, like we all know baby Diedrichson, like there was always like.
Her friend that she lived with and spent a lot of time with, but people knew.
But Billy Jean King, not surprisingly was one of the very first out professional women athletes, and it was not a voluntary decision. She was actually publicly outed by her former secretary, and when given the choice, she decided she wasn't gonna lie. She was going to be honest about it and face the repercussions with sponsors and everything else.
Same year, Martina Nevertulova, Brianna Scurry, LPGA player Muffin Spencer Devlin in nineteen ninety six came out, Sue Wicks in two thousand and two the first out WNBA player Brittany grin Or Simone Augustus, sueberg Men and Rapino Babi Wanback. They're all, you know, starting to come out in waves as we get closer and closer to the current time, and I realized that the allies in women's sports that are now truly necessary are the ones who are advocating
for transfolks. The new battle in women's sports for allyship and for public support is not for acceptance of gay teammates, but standing up for transfolks. And that's not to say
it's simple for queer women athletes these days. They are still facing pushback from everything from the Trump administration to laws to everything else, but it is so much more accepted in the women's space that it feels like now even marginalized folks like queer women are having to step out and advocate for even more marginalized folks like trans
athletes in the battle. So I think it's very clear why allyship is about safety and community for those who will not naturally be afforded it, and men's sports doesn't offer that, and that's sad. The male sports space is not a space that says you can be you here, but the women's sports space, in part because of stereotypes around sport and toughness and masculinity and everything else, allows that first step of saying it makes sense that you're here and will allow it.
But then once you're in it, it's really.
About the community that's created, the inclusion, and all of these things that are so much more natural in a space full of women than they are in a space full of men. And I just am sad for the men's space that I can read an article from back in twenty thirteen and we can be almost nowhere when it comes to more really high big name professional men being out, and we can see the numbers for women going up and up, and the conversations evolving and becoming more sophisticated.
I just wish that that were the case for men as well.
Well.
I want to shout out American volleyball player Eric Shoji, the US men's team captain, who just last week came out. Yeah, and so I was super excited to see that, and his comments on Instagram are just flooded with support from teammates.
And other folks in volleyball world. So shout out to him.
There's a minor league player who was in the White Sox system. I think he is not anymore though a year or two ago. That came out, and I think baseball is a real tough one. There's a lot of good old boys in that sport, and I was really impressed and proud of his decision to come out and make it known. And you know, his name's Anderson Comas.
I would be very interested in following his career in the hopes that his talent is enough to get him to the next level and that he won't be held back by that admission.
Yeah, and since we're doing shout outs, I got to give a shout out to Kevin Maxon, who I had the chance to meet at the Athlete Ally Athlete Activism Summit last weekend.
Was the Jaguars.
One of the Jaguars strength coaches in the NFL and actually was the first out male coach in major men's pro sports. So he was just he was such a wonderful spirit, and he spoke so openly about the different ways like he had been challenged. But also you know about how in some of these locker rooms or with some of these players, in his experience in the NFL, it was actually a very welcoming space, and so they might.
Be fewer and further between, but you know, folks are folks are working on it.
Progress is being made, for sure.
I just think as I sat to think about a presentation that was going to be on allies in the women's space, I realized that we are able to shine a spotlight on the very people that we want to center as opposed to needing to hold up allies to support them, and that it's not the case in the men's space. Yeah, excellent presentations. If anyone wants to invite me to their PowerPoint party for real, I kind of want to make slides.
Yeah, I'm kind of insulted that I haven't been invited to a power I know me party.
Yeah, I have heardy friends, where are you guys?
Yeah, I have to admit I'm usually the one who's making all the party plans and inviting everyone and forcing them into weird costumes and themes. So I guess it's my own damn fault. Time for me to I'm gonna wait till the winter. It's too nice out for a PowerPoint party. When the cold weather hits, It's on, all right, We got to take another break when we come back. Some of your favorite activations from Pride Month welcome back Slices.
Earlier this Pride Month, we asked you for your favorite activations across different sports and we loved hearing your stories. A lot of you love the tifos at Angel City and god MFC games. In fact, it was a lot of NWSL teams that snagged the bulk of the praise. Here's a few highlights of what Chelson in Super Slice Amanda Valo wrote, quote, I'd like to give my shout
out to the new home team, Denver NWSL. They don't have a name, players or coaches yet, but on their website they've provided a resource guide for celebrating Pride Month. Some might say this is rainbow washing or pandering for business, but I'm choosing to believe it's more than ticket sales. They're jumping ten toes into building community, and like some of us, they just came out of the womb knowing they're gay.
End quote. Love that.
Moe O'Donnell, who co owns a bar in Salt Lake City, wrote in saying, quote, I know it's surprising, but the Utah Royals actually did a lot of cool stuff for their Pride match on June thirteenth. First, they actually had a pride match, which in twenty twenty five shouldn't be
an act of bravery, but it is. The Utah Mammoth and the Utah Jazz both received threats from Utah legislature to pull some of their funding that's paid for by taxpayers, simply because they posted pride logos on their Instagram and released pride merch. The RSL Slash Royal's community outreach team went around to local LGBTQ plus owned businesses here in Salt Lake City and presented them with some merch and offered tickets.
Free of charge to the game. It was actually really cool to have them reach out and come to my bar.
We got to be part of presenting a very large Pride flag on the field at the game that day. Hopefully it helps some people feel included in ways that we haven't felt much lately. The personal cherry on the top for me was when my friend Leslie decided that she wanted to make sure the mascot Clio felt the Pride as well by giving her.
A big smooch end quote.
Okay, well now we're talking about kissing mascots, so we're really in my wheelhouse here.
Thanks for that, y'all.
We love that you're listening, but we always love when you get in the game too. So here's our good game play of the day. Now that we've heard your favorite Pride activations from this year, we want to know your favorite memories related to Pride, all things LGBTQ plus and women's sports from years past, so send them in. You heard our big Citrus highlights, now we want to
hear yours. Hit us up on email good game at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two four fifty seventy, and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review.
It's easy. Watch the San Diego Wave throwing a high school.
Graduation ceremony for mel Barsennis class ranking one of one review. The NWSL San Diego Wave held the high school graduation ceremony for seventeen year old forward Melanie Barsenis, complete with all the traditions, wearing a cap and gown and a stole with the Wave logo. Barsennis quote unquote graduated by walking through a tunnel of her teammates with Pomp and Circumstance playing in the background. Two years ago, Barsenas became the youngest player in NWSL history when, at the age
of fifteen, she signed with the Wave. The San Diego native has been homeschooled since elementary school, but recently completed her studies.
We love it.
Who among us hasn't been celebrated by our professional sports team on the day we graduated from high school? Meish al Yeah, me neither. Now it's your turn, rate and review. Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good game, Minji, Good game, Melanie, You Utah legislature hating on Pride logos. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You could find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rutter, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and Gianna Palmer. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain