WNBA player comes out
Oct 27th, 2024 by Viviane
Swoopes: ‘I feel like I’ve been living a lie’
NEW YORK (AP) - The only thing that outshines the exquisite diamond on Sheryl Swoopes’ left ring finger is the glow on her face as she discusses the love of her life.
It’s a love that the WNBA superstar has kept hidden for more than seven years. On Wednesday she “quit pretending,” disclosing that she is gay and in a committed relationship.
“I feel like I’ve been living a lie,” the Houston Comets’ star said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I’m at a place in my life right now where I’m very happy, very content. I’m finally OK with the idea of who I love, who I want to be with.”
Swoopes said she currently lives with her partner, former Comets assistant coach Alisa Scott.
The story was first reported in ESPN the Magazine, which hit newsstands Wednesday. She also announced an endorsement deal with Olivia, a lesbian cruise line.
Swoopes, the only WNBA player to win three MVP trophies, said she never had feelings for a woman before Scott and didn’t understand them when they began. But in the seven years since, she said she’s been “hurting” while hiding her relationship.
Now, Swoopes said, she finally feels free.
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Wow. So much going on here.
One thing I think about it how a sexual orientation may change over time. Swoopes was married to a man, and has a child. Whether she always had lesbian feelings or not before. Or whether it was something that just developed after finding out the right person was another woman.
I think about this often, because it’s shown up in my own life.
A friend and onetime (well, ofttime) lover of mine has been in a lesbian relationship for about five months now. Whether she still likes men or not, I don’t know, but her relationship excludes them, and she says she’s happier dating women than she was dating men. And no matter what, there is always a twinge of rejection I feel. Our attraction was intense, and sometimes it still is. But should I feel that way for something that may never be again?
But back to Swoopes, and less about me.
One thing that will be talked about is about homosexuality and women in sports. Swoopes comes out at the same time Penn State’s women’s basketball coach is under investigation for anti-gay statements.
Another is that this is among the few times an active athlete has come out. Most of them do so after retiring. And it is rare that such a dominant player — one of the best female athletes of all time, and probably one sport’s best athletes overall — has come out.
This will also shed light once again on the WNBA and its lesbian fan base, and how the league has often had to juggle between being a “family sport” and marketing to lesbians.
But something that may be overlooked in all of this also is that Swoopes is not just a lesbian today, but a black one.
Homosexuality is still something seen in the black community as an outside thing. Hell, my own sister is convinced that black people weren’t gay until they “learned” it from whites. But while black gay men are more in the open and visible, black gay women are not. Three strikes against them, it is said: black, female AND gay.
Now Swoopes is the most famous black lesbian on the planet.
I am interested in keeping up with black media to see how this is reported and debated. Too long gays have been outcast and placed in the shadows of the mainstream black community.
Could this be a chance for change? Let’s see. And hope.
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