Kissing Cams and the WNBA

Canadians aren’t fortunate enough to see much of the WNBA for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is no WNBA team in a Canadian city and secondly, televised sports is still dominated by male athletes.

I would love to write about how fantastic the WNBA is, as professional sports teams for women are RARE and the WNBA as a league has worked hard to build a relationship with fans, be involved in the communities where their teams reside and gives young female athletes role models to look up to. So you can imagine how disappointed I was when I can across this story.

The Washington Mystics apparently do not have a “kissing cam” (that pans around the crowd and focuses in on couples whose kiss ends up on the jumbo screen) because they are worried that lesibians in attendence might disturb the children.

Point guard, Lindsey Harding is quoted saying,

“We wouldn’t broadcast on our Jumbotron about abortion issues because of the religious and political conflicts it would cause,” said Lindsey Harding, the team’s point guard. “It’s a similar, sensitive subject. We don’t want to put anything out there to turn down certain fans.”

It’s unfortunate that abortion is considered “the same” as same-sex partnerships. Perhaps it’s even more unfortunate that while the WNBA and professional sports teams for women is a major gain for women,  other women–those in same-sex relationships, are not welcome to the same rights as heterosexual women at the games.

You can read more HERE at womanist musings.