Interesting.
I never hear it used except by gay people so I googled. Looks like it's an anemic new woke trend that will fail (like latinx) so makes sense the WSL is using it because they are trying to be the wokest sports league.
Basically it's straight people wanting to seem woke (partner is gender-neutral because WHY SHOULD GENDER MATTER?) appropriated it from gay people.
And gay people are deservedly laughing at them.
It's kinda funny that for the sake of looking WOKE straight white people want to appropriate gay terminology that actually serves a purpose as a sexual minority.
Some queer people feel it should belong to the LGBTQ community, but others feel the non-gendered term should be normalized for everyone.
www.vice.com