Latest / Best of: Features / Anti-trans protesters showed up at the WNBA Finals. Valkyries fans shut them down.

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Anti-trans protesters showed up at the WNBA Finals. Valkyries fans shut them down. · Best of: Features

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Anti trans protestors showed up at the WNBA Finals, Valkyrie's fans shut
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them down This article is being read by an automated
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voice generated by Everlet. With just under seven minutes remaining in a
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historic Game One of the WNBA Finals, a shower of booze rained
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down from one section of upset fans. While the Golden State Valkyries
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were struggling offensively and failing to surpass the opposing Atlanta Dream, this
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wasn't a reaction to anything that was happening on the court. At
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that moment, arena security had started to escort a Valks fan from
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their seat, after the fan had confronted a group of anti transgender
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protesters. The fan in question was Ryan, whom SF Gate agreed to
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identify by first name only in accordance with Hearst's ethics policy. Ryan
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who uses the slash them pronouns, walked toward the five protesters who
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were wearing black shirts from XXXY Athletics, a sportswear company that refers
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to the identity of transgender people as a lie. The protesters had
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been taunting the trans person Ryan was, seated with, flashing the logos
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on their shirts and smiling. Ryan pulled out their phone to film
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the protesters faces, and, as the group flipped them off, Ryan responded
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in kind with a F all of y'all. I knew what the
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right thing to do was, Ryan told SF Gate in a phone
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interview on Monday, hours before game two. I was concerned that the
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person that I'm sitting next to is visibly trans, and I'm not
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visibly trans, and so I wanted to take the opportunity to make
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a poignant statement. Given that I have the privilege that I have
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of looking, and being perceived, the way that I look, I wanted
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to make a statement to them that was direct and confrontational. Ryan
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getting up out of their seat was enough for Arena Security to
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come down and investigate what had caused the conflict. When Ryan saw
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Security begin to head down the aisle, Ryan and the person the
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were with quickly used markers to write Trans Lives Matter on the
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signs the two of the had brought. As security walked the two
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fans up the stairs, one of The lifted up the sign, turning
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the booze into cheers. For all the stories that have been written
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about The queer population within the fan base, and the overwhelming support
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of the broader Valkyries community, the team has not been spared from
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the broader anti trans movement that has tried to use the WNBA
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as its culture war battleground. The fight over transgender inclusion truly entered
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the league after the publication of an ESPN profile of Sophie Cunningham
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in July. The Indiana fever role player blew the anti-trans dog whistle
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of wanting to protect young girls from playing sports against biological men,
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a rhetorical sleight of hand implying that children are being forced to
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compete against grown adults. Enter, XXXY founder Jennifer Say, one of the
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five protesters at the Valkyrie's sixty eight sixty four win on Saturday,
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Say has spent the past few months gloming onto Cunningham as a
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way to advance her startup, which actively donates to anti trans organization,
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and created a fund for athletes who are vocally against trans people
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in sports. Her company's shirts have been a staple of related protests
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at WNBA games around the country, including in Atlanta, where Game Three
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and Game Four of the WNBA finals will take place, in Seattle
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where storm owner Celeste Keaton was suspended by the WNBA for confronting
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fans wearing the shirts, and even in San Francisco back in August
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before a Golden State game. This seemed to be another case where
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the response to the people objecting to the shirts would be stronger
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that the response to the exclusionary messaging of the shirts themselves. However,
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Ryan eventually came back to their seat after a quick conversation with
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security, who Ryan says were otherwise polite and just doing due diligence
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in talking with both sides of the conflict. When security pulled the
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anti trans protesters aside to talk, the crowd celebrated. Videos from Ryan's
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seat show a mix of cheers in response to the group leaving,
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boos at that their shirts stood for, and fans waving goodbye to
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the protesters. Say would later post on social media that several Valkyrie's
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fans wished the group members would die, but a video she posted
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showed mostly sarcastic waves, And one fan who flipped them off and
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said they should kill themselves. That fan was several rows above Ryan's
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seat. All they heard was the support, which blew them away. It
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made me realize what we weren't alone, Ryan said. We weren't sitting
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there by ourselves, feeling this kind of intensity from these folks just
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directed at us, but that we had a whole stadium full of
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people that supported us, and that was really exciting. And I think
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Valkyrie's fans know that that's who we are. But I witnessed it
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first hand. I saw that that who we are. And my hope,
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my desire is that these folks understand how unwelcoming of an environment
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it is for them, and that the stay away. SF Gate reached
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out to XXY with a list of questions about what happened at
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Saturday's game, but the organization did not respond before publication. Hours after
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publication, XXXY spokesperson Sarah Mills responded to SF Gate's request on Thursday,
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and said Say never said she felt unsafe and that she felt
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security did a good job, though Say described they talking to Security
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gave her group as dumb in a post. This would not be
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the first time that anti Trans protesters wearing these shirts would be
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shouted down by the Valkyries community. They appeared outside Chase Center, ahead
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of a Golden State game against the Minnesota Lynx on august nineteenth,
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to demand the WNBA make a statement that allows them to wear
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the XXXXY shirts without being kicked out or being told to cover
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their shirts up. Three days prior, security at an Atlanta Dream game
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against the Indiana fever told two U women wearing the shirts, as
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well as someone wearing a shirt supporting trans people, that they needed
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to cover their shirts up. The next day the WNBA said security
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had been in the wrong. Coincidentally, Arne Johnson, a volunteer for Trans
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Kids Belong, wanted to organize an impromptu rally outside Chase Center at
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that same August game to thank Golden State head coach Natalie Nakase
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and star Gabby Williams for their recent vocal support of the trans
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community. The plan was to show up and hopefully convince a few
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people to rally together as a show of gratitude. But that plan
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was quickly thwarted when he saw that the sea of Valkyrie's fans
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outside the game were already on his side. We got there, and
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within like twelve seconds we were like Oost the rally's already here.
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We don't have anything to add to this, he told S F
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Gate in a phone call on Monday. They scrapped the rally to
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instead simply and out posters, which organizers had quickly printed, and let
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people do whatever they'd like with them. We don't have to rally
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these people, he recalled, thinking. Like this is already maybe the largest
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queer rally outside of Pride that I've ever seen. It wasn't a
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surprise to Johnson that then posters were popular in general, given the
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trans inclusive environment outside they arena, but it was a bit of
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a shock that’s
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the one thousand posters they had printed out vanished within forty minutes.
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He said he wasn't aware of the anti trans protesters at first,
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citing their limited size, and the fact what he says Chase Center
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Security moved his group, handing out posters away from the plaza toward
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the sidewalk. As it turned out, people were using those posters thanking
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Williams and Nakase to counter protest. Where was a phalanx of people
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holding our posters at the block, so people didn't have to look
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at these ugly signs that the had, Johnson said, holding back tears.
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What we had thought was we don't have to rally anybody. We
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just give people stuff, and the they'll express themselves. This is like
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an incredibly expressive community, and so they did. They took the posters
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and used the to wall these people off. I think that's the
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uniqueness of the WNBA relationship between the fans and they players, that
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there is that dynamic of great love and great feeling, but it's
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also grounded in social awareness and justice. To Johnson, the validation he
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saw that day in August, as well as what he saw later
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on social media on Monday, means so much. As the parent of
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a trans kid, he knows that this level of bigotry spreads beyond
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WNBA games, for example, to school board meetings where entire groups of
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adults fight against the existence of this child, fights he sometimes has
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to undertake alone. I know people in the WNBA feel this degradation
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by this energy coming in, he said. But, as a person who's
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a parent of a trans kid who's for the last two years
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been fighting many times alone in the darkness, I am in some
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ways grateful what the rest of the world sees how awful these
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people are, because we've tried to persuade folks, we've tried to tell
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journalists and politicians. These people are really mean, they're really awful, and
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they often don't understand or believe us, and now the world understands.
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For many of the supporters of transgender people, the sports argument is
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just the tip of the iceberg of something larger. A Mother Jones
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story, published in July, noted that just one week after the Supreme
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Court allowed states to ban transgirls from playing in girls sports, The
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Heritage Foundation, a huge supporter of the decision, released a report calling
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for the rollback of Title IX, the federal law that bans sex
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discrimination in education. Both Ryan and Johnson highlighted some form of this
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connection in their interviews. This struggle is set to continue throughout this
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series. Say has already said she is planning to attend Game 4
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of the finals in Atlanta on Saturday, and former NBA player Enes
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Cantor Freedom, an anti trans activist who has for months claimed to
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be a woman in an attempt to subvert what he calls unclear
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rules on who can play in The WNBA, has promised to be
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at Game 3 on Wednesday. Earlier this season he wore a shirt
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reading, woman, followed by noun adult human female, while sitting near the
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court during a Chicago Sky Indiana fever game’s During the game, Chicago
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guard Natasha Cloud got into an argument with they X Pro and
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the thirty four year old was ejected from the stands. For all
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the victories that Valkyrie's fans have had over anti trans activists in
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the Bay Area, it's not clear that those wins will guarantee any
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change elsewhere. I'm concerned for other arenas around the country, Ryan said.
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In Atlanta, I don't know if they're gonna get the same kind
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of welcome or vitriol from the fans there. I want those folks
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to feel like they're not welcome anywhere, because what they're doing is
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hate speech, and it hurts trans people, and it hurts women, and
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it hurts children. According to a report from The Athletic, the Dream
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and the WNBA declined comment about Conter Freedom's expected attendance. Eventually, the
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anti trans protesters at Saturday's game were led back to their seats.
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The two sides of the original conflict were told not to interact
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with one another any more. The protesters continued to claim they were
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just at Chase Center to enjoy the game. But in the sold
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out crowd, they were the largest group of fans who weren't wearing
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shirts representing either team on the floor, including the game's giveaway shirt,
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which turned the crowd into a sea of violet. Perhaps they could
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still enjoy the outcome. After the protesters brief departure, the Valks went
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on a nine two run as Golden State secured its first finals
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victory in franchise history. Editors Note. This story was updated at one
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PM on october twenty second, to correct how Jennifer Say presented the
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interactions with fans on social media.