Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Taketh Away

The WNBA's Washington Mystics aren't fans of the kiss-cam. The reason? It might show teh dreaded lesbians:
"We got a lot of kids here," Sheila Johnson, the Mystics' managing partner, said when asked last week at a game. "We just don't find it appropriate."

Understood is that women's professional basketball has two major fan bases: dads and daughters, and lesbians. The KissCam issue, frivolous on its surface, puts the effort to cater to both audiences squarely at odds.

Don't even think about being blinkered by Ms. Johnson's "explanation". I am highly skeptical that there are any more kids at a WNBA game than there are at, well, an NBA game. I've seen a kiss cam before at NHL hockey games (hell, I've even -- once -- seen two men kiss on one of them). The issue isn't the children. At "best", they're not protecting the children from smooches, they're protecting them from lesbian kisses.

The WNBA, of course, may only still be alive because of lesbian support. The money is green enough to take, but not enough to acknowledge. And that's shameful.

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