This is
big. Real big.
Sheryl
Swoopes is the most decorated, biggest-name athlete in
American team sports history to
come out of the closet.
Period. And that's not over-stating it. Along with Martina,
she is, overnight, one of our two biggest name in sports.
To say the
Michael Jordan of women's basketball just declared that
she's a lesbian is no stretch. Swoopes won four consecutive
league championships with the Houston Comets. She won her
third league MVP award – more than anyone else – this past
season. She is in the top five on the all-time WNBA playoffs
lists for points, assists, steals and rebounds. She has won
three Olympic gold medals. She was the college player of the
year.
And, if all
that's not enough, she has a Nike shoe called the Air
Swoopes.
Some will
try to discount the impact of Swoopes' public declaration
because she's a woman. Because of the uneducated notion that
"every woman who plays sports is a lesbian," some will try
to say that this is not a story at all. Even Queerty, a gay
blog, says, facetiously, "Big shock."
While it
may not be surprising that a lesbian plays in the WNBA, what
is surprising is that one of the game's most recognizable
personalities, and it's best player, has decided to share
her homosexuality with the rest of the world. THAT is
shocking.
People are
always surprised when I tell them that (until now, of
course) only two WNBA players have ever publicly come out:
Michele Van Gorp and Sue Wicks. Both of them mentioned their
homosexuality to the press and now neither will discuss it.
While they're out in the sense that their sexuality is a
matter of public record, they are locked in a closet of
secrecy in all other regards.
While she's
only the third WNBA player to come out of the closet,
Swoopes is the first one to embrace it. She's endorsing
Olivia
Cruises, which plans cruises for lesbians. She's doing
interviews with tons of media outlets including ESPN, ABC
and, on Friday, Outsports.com. She is talking about her
life, her partner, and what it is to her to be gay.
While she
is the Michael Jordan of the WNBA, she, of course, is not
Michael Jordan. If Air Jordan himself was gay and came out
of the closet, the impact would creep into every household
in America and would be felt around the world. Given the
place of women's sports in our culture, Swoopes' declaration
won't have quite that impact. What it will do, though, is
take the conversation about gays in sports to the next
level. Despite the protests of many that an American
professional sports team can't operate with an openly gay
player, Swoopes' Comets will get the chance to prove all of
those people wrong next summer.
For that
matter, Swoopes' timing couldn't have been better. Many have
said the "media circus" that would erupt around an active
player coming out would be detrimental to their team.
Swoopes' timing makes playing with her team the final act of
the show, not the main event, with the season still over
seven months away. And besides, Air Swoopes attracts
significant media attention anyway; a couple more reporters
asking for comments from her partner wouldn't be any more of
a distraction.
The most
important impact of her coming out will be felt in the high
schools and the colleges of this country. Homophobia lurks
in the locker rooms of most institutions; it's no different
for the women than the men.
The last
few weeks have seen the emergence of one of these stories.
Penn State head women's basketball coach
Rene Portland has a long history of anti-lesbian policy
on her basketball team, according to the
National
Center
for Lesbian Rights. NCLR has recently brought complaints
against Portland, who is accused of kicking a star player
off her team in the last couple of years because the player
is a lesbian, and is prepared to file a lawsuit against her
and/or the University if something isn't done about it. NCLR
sports guru Helen Carroll, a former collegiate head
basketball coach, has told me many stories about
anti-lesbian collegiate coaches and "negative recruiting,"
in which a coach will tell recruits that a competing program
is a "lesbian program."
Hopefully,
what these coaches and programs will start to realize is
that they may be scaring off the next Sheryl Swoopes.
What
Swoopes' declaration can do is offer the young lesbian
athletes some hope and encouragement. While Swoopes' courage
could lead to more lesbian WNBA players sharing their own
stories, the real impact will be on the younger players who
just saw one of their idols tell the world about her
partner. If that doesn't give them the courage to be
themselves, then probably nothing will.
What some
may be worried about are Swoopes' quotes that position
herself squarely on one side of the nature versus nurture
argument. "Do I think I was born this way? No," she tells
ESPN the Magazine. "And that's probably confusing to some,
because I know a lot of people believe that you are."
To me, it's
the sensible conclusion of someone who was married and
obviously feels that love and marriage were as valid as her
relationship now. Frankly, I don't think I was born this
way, either. And I'm thrilled to see another gay person say
the same thing.
Swoopes'
story is now one of the biggest stories in the history of
gay sports. She joins a select few professional athletes who
have decided that they've had enough hiding; and she's one
of the even fewer who have done so while still playing.
Some people
say that WNBA games are just
jam-packed with lesbian fans. This season, when Swoopes
and the Comets come to Madison Square Garden, there will be
at least one gay man there, too.
Oct. 26,
2005
List of Out Athletes
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