This paper explores the investment in the discursive and spatial construct of 'lesbian community'. This 'community' is identifiable through the social spaces of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), where sport and community are connected descriptively and interpretively. To do so, this paper discursively examines fan comments that define WNBA spaces as sites of community. This conversation is situated within the material and discursive context of these spaces, which are continuously remapped as heteronormative by the WNBA. Consequently, this paper concludes that uses of 'lesbian community' discourse within heteronormatively coded spaces points to a key strategy of creating safe spaces in an oppressive social climate. Moreover, 'community' discourse can be read as an assertion of empowerment in a time and place when lesbian spaces have been integrated and sometimes dissolved into the urban landscape, and when there is no clearly identifiable 'lesbian space'.

The Women's National Basketball Association is a professional women's basketball league that is notable for constructing a heteronormative 'family friendly' selfimage while maintaining a sizable following of lesbian fans. This article examines this apparent contradiction through two case studies: a kiss-in protest by a group of New York WNBA fans, Lesbians for Liberty, and experiences by Minnesota Lynx lesbian fans of the marketing tactics and daily practices that regulate WNBA game spaces. By highlighting the socio-spatiality of the WNBA venue, it becomes clear how heteronormativity is naturalized, as well as accepted and resisted by lesbian fans in both New York and Minnesota. An overt act of resistance, however, failed to encourage the WNBA to reconsider its policies: the Liberty kiss-in, by situating lesbians as a counterpublic, foreclosed the range of attitudes held by lesbian fans. Moreover, as Minnesota Lynx fans demonstrate, WNBA spaces feel 'safe enough' to many lesbian fans. As a result, there remains a contest over the meanings and practices that define WNBA landscapes. To date, however, normative heterosexuality has contained the presence and visibility of the lesbian fan.

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