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Brittney Griner's way of coming out is progress in the sports world

posted by Swish Appeal
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 9:04am EDT

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Regardless of how people view her announcement, any time someone has to reveal a personal detail on his or her life, it's just not going to be easy, especially when that person is one of the most notable athletes in college athletics, and now the WNBA.

Plenty of media outlets have put out pieces regarding the significance of Griner's coming out including this by ESPN's Jemele Hill and this from ESPN's Kate Fagan. In Fagan's piece in particular, perhaps Griner's coming out last week wasn't so much of a coming out, rather than just verbally acknowledging the way she chooses to live considering that she told ESPN that she was "open about [her] sexuality" before then.

As WNBA fans probably know, there are some negative stereotypes of the league, such as "all of the players look like men," etc., and maybe with Griner coming out, this may confirm some of the things that "WNBA haters" want to believe. In the comments and reactions of many pieces regarding Griner's announcement, there were definitely some who already said things to the effect of "I'd be surprised if she were straight." or that "she's still a man." And as we pointed out in a piece last year, such comments are despicable.

In men's sports, though it seems like we're still a long way from seeing openly gay players in the "Big Four" Leagues (NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL), former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo intimated that as many as four NFL players who are "in the closet" are considering coming out simultaneously. Whether those players all come out this year at the same time and/or whenever another player in one of the other "Big Four" leagues does the same, that will be a big day. I hope the players who do this will also be happy about who they are, and keep most of their attention toward the game they play, though I also have to acknowledge that it will be hard to do, especially early on.

In summary, in regards to Brittney's coming out, I personally admire the way that she did it, because she is not afraid of who she is. Confidence in one's self is one of the most important characteristics that a person needs, especially in today's society. In addition, I'm also happy that she's focusing most of her attention to basketball and with the Phoenix Mercury, because as a basketball fan, I want to see how her skill set will change the WNBA game, and also how her team bounces back from last year's campaign.

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Crimson says:

The worst kept secret in all of professional sports is that the majority of WNBA ballers are lesbians. Lisa Leslie, a minority owner of the LA Sparks, has already gone on the record admitting that at least 30% of WNBA players are lesbian which is ten times the rate in the general population. For those of us familiar with the league it is acknowledged to be much much higher than that. The most loyal WNBA fan segment, which has basically kept the W in business over the past 17 years has been lesbians. None of this is news for anyone familiar with WBB. The primary consumers of the WNBA are lesbians with Dads and Daughters a very distant second.

Griner's orchestrated "coming out" and the "Three to See" and "Bullying" ESPN promos are all components of Laurel Richie's "Reimagining and Relaunch" of the WNBA which came out of last year's ESPN Women's Summit. To quote Richie "What we have learned through some good and in-depth research is the single unifying factor is that (WNBA Fans) love sports but on top of that they have very progressive views on the role of women in society". So WNBA Commissioner Richie, whose experience with basketball generally and women's basketball in particular is on a par with my girlfriend's cat has decided that the way to position the W to succeed is to double down on a progressive approach to the WNBA product.

We'll see. Credit her with being honest at least. Women's pro basketballers are overwhelmingly lesbians and their strongest supporters have always been lesbians so Griner coming out surprises no one except possibly people that knew nothing about what was going on to begin with.

Time will tell if David Stern's strategy to put a non-WBB person like Richie in charge of the W was a good move. Fortunately for Stern he will be retired before the results are known.

As far as men's sports go, it's pretty humorous that Ayanbadejo is so brave about predicting men coming out in the NFL right at the time he has announced his retirement from the league. This idea that women coming out in the W is in any way comparable to men coming out in the major men's sports is pretty silly. Regardless of what some would like the public to think there isn't some hidden significant gay crew balling in the major men's sports although that is certainly what some, like Richie, would like you to think. That would, after all, put the W in the progressive driver's seat now wouldn't it?

Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 11:41am EDT

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