Partnership: Twenty-Five Years of The Lynx And Our Community

Would you believe that our Minnesota Lynx is celebrating their 25^th season?

The WNBA club has been our “go-to” sports franchise since day 1. Our community continues to support them from the courtside seats all the way to the upper level.

In turn, the Lynx have loved us back. Throughout its history, the club had its share of LGBTQ athletes and staff representing the four-time WNBA Champions. In fact, the Lynx are considered one of the teams with the greatest stability and legacy in the league.

One way the Lynx continues to love our community back is on their annual Pride Night. This year, it is on Thursday, June 22 with the Connecticut Sun at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. Tip-off is at 7:00 PM. This Pride Night is presented by Xcel Energy – another organization that also loves us back.

According to Carley Knox, the Lynx’s President of Business Operations, the team will be hosting a pre-game Pride Party, along with “content throughout the entire game and awards given to, for example, Inspired Women Award, various community members that are uplifting and fighting the fight within our community as well.”

Celebrating our community is part of the Lynx’s DNA. According to Knox, the Minnesota Lynx has been “involved with Twin Cities Pride, either the festival or their parade for all 25 years of our franchise. And it just completely aligns with our values of using sport as a vehicle of change to fight for all marginalized groups. And that has always authentically been at the core of our coaches, our players, our staff, myself, our business staff, and everybody is aligned value wise, and they’re part of this larger movement.”

If you want a deeper perspective about the Lynx’s history with our community, one should look at the bench and at Associate Head Coach Katie Smith. Smith explained that she was “actually part of the original team in 1999. The community here in Minneapolis, the LGBTQ community, has been so involved, so welcoming at all the events and just has always made us feel welcome. But, also, as players, being open to being ourselves, expressing ourselves in certain ways. And, even today with [Head Coach Cheryl] Reeve leading the charge at the helm of this thing [it is] always about inclusion, no matter what it is, it is a part of who we are.”

Not just to looking who’s sitting on the bench with Coaches Reeve and Smith. Just look in the stands – in particular, the courtside seats. Knox further explains: “I think when you’ve been to Lynx games, you can see how beautiful it is, the diversity amongst our fan base, that we’re the most diverse sports fan base in the Twin Cities, and that is something we’re incredibly proud of, that we feel like we’re showing the world what’s possible. And so, we’ve always been fighting these fights since the inception of our franchise.”

There had been players, coaches, and staff past and present that have shown up for the LGBTQ community. Players such as Napheesha Collier and Head Coach Cheryl Reeve still demonstrate their unwavering support for LGBTQ causes. Former Lynx stars, such as Seimone Augustus, have been a part of our community – one time serving as Twin Cities Pride Grand Marshal with her wife by her side.

If there was a driver towards how the team, the WNBA, and its players had reached out to our community, it was a change that no one saw when the Lynx began. “Even when I was in 1999,” Smith explained, “some people were really comfortable about it, other people just kind of lived their life and never spoke about it. And social media wasn’t necessarily that big back then either, so you weren’t putting things out and sharing things. It was more like if somebody saw you out, then maybe they know, maybe they don’t. But now there’s a platform for people to really express and share and really stand up for and believe in, and just be their authentic selves, and for other people to see that and hopefully have the confidence to just kind of live their lives.”

The Lynx seem to be pioneers in connecting the LGBTQ community with the team – not just in terms of the WNBA itself, but of all professional sports here in the Twin Cities market. Looking at the WNBA itself, Knox reflects: “I think for some of the franchises early on it was approached [the LGBTQ community] in more of an apologetic and don’t be too vocal or the whole ‘shut up and dribble’ phenomenon. But, the WNBA has quickly brushed that off and been like, ‘No. Look, this is a priority for us.’”

“When you take a look at the players union and priorities for the players union,” Knox said, “every player in the WNBA, all 144 of them are all completely committed, again, to fight for all marginalized groups, including our LGBTQ+ community and whatever form of barriers, discrimination, et cetera, that they are dealing with. And I just think it’s always been authentically at our core, and we’re just at a place now where we’re not going to shy away.”

Smith adds: “I think it was more of a team and city-driven kind of who’s coming out, who’s supporting, who’s buying tickets, who’s putting the money into it. And, then, I think eventually…the league really has grown into that, where now superstars are out and proud and married and talking about families and what families are, the diversity of families. Not traditional families, not a husband and wife, but everyone. So, I think that the teams and the cities were really in the forefront of all that, the folks that really got it off the ground, that bought season tickets that were there from the jump. And then I think the league, little things early on, but I think it’s gotten even bigger and really broad.”

As for the Lynx today and in the future, Smith said it best: “We want everyone to be able to kind of grab ahold and be like, ‘Man, I like this one.’ Or, ‘I identify like that.’ We just want people to always know that they can be their authentic selves. Because that’s the way we want to live as humans, and we want to do that, but we also want to be able to use our platform and speak up for injustices, for inequality, and make sure that we’re visible so that there are little girls, little boys, those that are non-binary, that you have somebody to identify with and you can do great things and with anything that you want. But we really just want people to know that they belong in any shape, form, fashion throughout their lives.”

With everything that has been reflected upon these past 25 years, what should you really expect at the Lynx’s Pride Game? “It’s always a great celebratory game that brings so many people out,” said Knox, “and it’s a great way to tip off that Pride Weekend with it being on June 22nd.”

That, and celebrating the Lynx’s 25^th Season!

Minnesota Lynx Pride Night vs. Connecticut Sun
Thursday, June 22 at 7:00 PM
Target Center, Minneapolis
Tickets: (612) 673-8200 or https://lynx.wnba.com/tickets/single-games/