Decades after former NFL player Dave Kopay made headlines by becoming the first major professional U.S. athlete to come out of the closet, visibility remains a battleground for LGBT individuals in most high-profile professional sports. With no active out athletes in the country's major pro sports, LGBT nights at the arenas and ballparks are one of the best opportunities we have to make positive statements about our presence. So kudos to the Golden State Warriors, who will this year join their Bay Area brethren 49ers, A's and Giants with the franchise's first LGBT Night.

It is believed to be the first LGBT Night in National Basketball Association history. How wonderful it is being put on by a team whose former star guard, Tim Hardaway, was banned from the 2007 NBA All-Star weekend for making homophobic comments. (See Jock Talk, Feb. 22, 2007.)

The 7:30 p.m. game on Thursday, March 11 between the Warriors and the visiting Portland Trail Blazers will feature Cheer San Francisco performing during the game and at halftime, a free commemorative T-shirt, and the national anthem performed by the Oakland East Bay Gay Men's Chorus.

Cheer SF will also be at the February 23 game against that team from the city of brotherly love, the Philadelphia 76ers, but will not be featured that evening. Discount tickets for both games can be purchased through Cheer SF, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Positive Resource Center.

"The opportunity to perform at the Warriors game on LGBT night is really special," said Steve Burke, Cheer SF program director. "We are excited about our debut at Oracle Arena and the chance to create awareness about our fundraising efforts is an added bonus."

Nguyen Pham, communications director for Cheer SF, said the 49ers had seen Cheer's success selling raffle tickets at AT&T Park during a Giants game and approached them about working together. That led to a successful cooperative fundraiser last fall, with Cheer selling 800 tickets to two games, and that in turn led to the approach from the Warriors.

"This is a landmark partnership," Pham said. "The Warriors had a program like that in place, but not to this scale."

Pham, 25, knows about the importance of visibility at big events. He came out to his family (which he said was "atypically supportive") when he was a 15-year-old junior in high school, then watched the San Jose Pride Parade, in which he was intrigued by his first glimpse of Cheer SF.

"It was the first San Jose Pride event I had ever attended," he said. "I was too young to join then, but once I turned 18 in college I auditioned and I made it."

And found another supportive family.

"I think it's very spirited," Pham said. "We are a family. We all gather for a weekly practice and our occasional performances. We're all adults and we respect each other.

"We are all either LGBT identified or we know somebody who is. We're there for a cause, not just a sport. It's not just a club sport: it's a volunteer-cause sport."

And in this case, an important effort to raise awareness. Lord knows the NBA could use it. As I wrote after John Amaechi became the first former NBA player to come out (See Jock Talk, Feb. 15, 2007), "Homophobic slurs are so ubiquitous in the NBA and in other sports circles as to numb the senses. [NBA Commissioner David] Stern's attempt to sweep the issue of tolerance under the rug is insulting and counterproductive. 'Faggot' is no less a cruel and offensive term than 'nigger,' yet the league which has been a trailblazer in racial opportunities for coaches and athletes alike tolerates the f-word to a daily degree that would make even an annual sensitivity session virtually useless. Bigotry, whether over race or orientation, occurs not on a once-a-year basis but minute by minute throughout the days. Like a mushroom, bigotry feeds in darkness on crap. It must be exterminated not by the occasional glare of the media spotlight on a single athlete coming out after the fact, but by the brightness of articulated enlightenment and an absolute intolerance for intolerance the instant it is uttered."

Pham said Cheer would be providing "color, but no choreography" at the 76ers game. Watch for them to pull out all the stops at the Blazers game, however. "It will be a high-flying, dynamic performance," he said.

For information on ticket sales, Cheer SF or to join their Facebook page, visit www.cheersf.org.

Local runners potluck

Four local LGBT running clubs – BayLands FrontRunners (www.baylands.org), San Francisco FrontRunners (www.sffr.org), East Bay Front Runners (www.eastbayfrontrunners.org) and San Jose Front Runners, Walkers and Wheelers (www.sjfrontrunners.org) – will hold a group potluck Saturday, February 6, at Infinity Lounge, 333 Main Street in San Francisco from 6 to 11 p.m. The event will include free wine.

Jasinski Classic basketball tournament

The Jasinski Golden Gayte Classic basketball tournament will be held February 13-14 at the UC Berkeley Fieldhouse Gymnasium, with 19 teams vying for the division championships. This is San Francisco Gay Basketball's first intercity invitational tournament since 2000.