By JL Odom, Bay City News
For the ValQueeries, Pride unofficially started on May 8 when the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Golden State Valkyries played the first home game of the 2026 season at San Francisco’s Chase Center, aka Ballhalla.
“I feel like it’s Pride the whole basketball season — we want to get together, we want to listen to music, we want to dance, we want to connect,” says Megan Doherty-Baker, who, with her friends Vanessa Hernandez and Lorriane Valdes, founded the ValQueeries, a Valkyries LGBTQ+ fan group, soon after the Bay Area WNBA expansion team began its inaugural season in 2025.
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The group, which gives queer Valkyries fans a chance to watch games, talk basketball and build community beyond the arena, continues to draw crowds to watch parties, happy hours and other social gatherings.
Its June Pride Month activities include a Valkyries vs. Las Vegas Aces watch party on June 6 at White Horse in Oakland; a happy hour near Chase Center before the Pride home game against the Atlanta Dream on June 26; and a meetup at Dolores Park before the San Francisco Dyke March on June 27.
FROM CONCEPT TO COMMUNITY
For Doherty-Baker, a third-generation San Franciscan who identifies as a lesbian and queer, all it took was attending the Valkyries’ inaugural preseason game to witness numerous Bay Area LGBTQ+ fans boosting the team.
“I looked around and could tell that there were a lot of queer people there, and the energy was so amazing,” she recalls. “It was obvious that there are many of us who love the Valkyries and are super excited and also want to connect and build community, but I wasn’t sure how that was going to happen.”
Doherty-Baker, a Valkyries’ 2025 season ticketholder, asked Zina Patel, an account manager with the Valkyries, if there had been outreach to the team’s LGBTQ+ fans. Patel, an out lesbian, hadn’t heard anything, but supported seeing something come together.“I think that encouragement from her is really all I needed — that green light,” says Doherty-Baker. “I was already pretty convinced that the concept was a good one, because there was just an obvious need.”
Within a week, nearly 100 people responded to a Google survey Doherty-Baker designed to gauge interest, and the momentum continued to build.
“It was clear that people were excited about the concept and the name itself — they identified with this idea that ‘We are the ValQueeries, the queer fanbase,’” she says.
The group began casually meeting at Harmonic Brewing near Chase Center; Doherty-Baker sat outside wearing a rainbow-colored bandana so people could identify her. Watch parties, an easy and comfortable way for fans to celebrate their team together, became a ritual at the brewery.
“We wanted to make it low stakes for people,” says Doherty-Baker about the initial gathering. “People can be shy or introverted and have all kinds of different reasons that make them hesitate to connect. So we wanted to make it feel as accessible as possible, no matter who you were.”
Two queer bars — Mother in San Francisco’s Mission and White Horse in Oakland — then were added to the watch party rotation.
BUILDING A NETWORK OF INCLUSIVE SPACES
Connecting with local establishments for event hosting and fellow Valkyries fan groups like the People’s Watch Party, Doherty-Baker says, has been part of the fun of building the group.
“The Bay Area is such a small ecosystem, and it’s really cool to see how people are getting connected, how the partnerships are growing, and how people’s love for the game and love for the team are extending into bigger community building and business-building efforts, too,” she says.
ValQueeries’ partnerships include Rikki’s, a women’s sports bar in the Castro, and the restaurants Xingones Cantina in Jack London Square and Quik Dog in Mission Rock.
“From a value standpoint, we want to center queer- and BIPOC-owned businesses and bring our business to them, and we’ve had that very much with every place,” she says. “Even if they aren’t queer-owned, they’re allies and want us to feel safe and like we can have a hub to go to and feel comfortable.”
GROWTH AND CONNECTION
Early on, it was clear to Doherty-Baker that people would show up to queer-community/Valkyries events. The ValQueeries, drawing from fans across the Bay area, have 3,000 Instagram followers and a core group of regulars who attend pregame happy hours, watch parties and postgame meetups. Newcomers continue to join.
“We’ve had people who travel pretty far just to be in community and watch the game with other fans who are like them,” Doherty-Baker says.
While Golden State Valkyries players have not directly reached out to the ValQueeries, Doherty-Baker says the group is beginning to build connections with the team’s marketing and communications department.
“[The Valkyries] know we exist, so that feels pretty special for us when we realize, ‘They’re very much on our radar, and we’re on theirs,’” she says.
“We are hopeful that as time goes on, the franchise will really start to see community partners as true partners, and I’m excited to see what might grow there,” she adds.
Last year, the Valkyries made history as the first WNBA expansion team to reach the playoffs in their inaugural season before being eliminated by the Minnesota Lynx in the first round. Doherty-Baker anticipates the team will return to the playoffs this season — and eventually win a championship.
“I think between the team itself and this fan base, we really can help make that possible in terms of all the love and energy we pull around them, and that’s whether we win or lose,” she says.
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