ACTIVE, HIGH PROFILE professional basketball player COMES OUT!

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Granted, no fans will be more welcoming than WNBA fans, but ya gotsa start somewhere, right? We're talking about someone with a shoe here!

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-BKW-Comets-Swoopes-Comes-Out.html?hp&ex=1130385600&en=db1275a1d72597a4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

Woah dude! Although it seems my celebrity crush is even more useless than normal in this particular case.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

Wow, awesome!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

A release from ESPN The Magazine about the story did not disclose the identity of Swoopes' partner.

Weird, the story I read about this this morning, I think from the San Francisco Chronicle, did reveal her partner, it was an ex-coach? I'll try and find it again.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

SHOCKA!

My lesbian sister tried to get me to go to a pro-soccer game in San Jose a couple years back, with Mia Hamm and that other famous (Chastain?) girl playing. She tried to play it off like she'd always been really into soccer: "I watch all the time, for years." But then she said they wouldn't be going to the men's game, only the womens! So she was a fan of those girls, not soccer in general.

― andy --, Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

Swoopes' partner of several years is Alisa Scott, 40, a former Old Dominion basketball coach. Swoopes, 34, thanked Scott by referring to her ambiguously as "Scotty" in her MVP acceptance speech last month.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

(XP) LESBIANS ATTRACTED TO OTHER WOMEN SHOCKER

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

"Sheryl Swoopes has been with her partner, former college standout Alisa Scott, for eight years.

http://sports.espn.go.com/wnba/news/story?id=2204322

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

LESBIAN SHOCKER!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/unfailinglove/shocker.jpg

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:55 (twenty years ago)

yeah, is ANYONE surprised that a female athlete is a lesbian? i mean, isn't that the DE FACTO ASSUMPTION?!?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

It is if you're a dick.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

Sharapova would be a shocker.

― andy --, Wednesday, 26 October 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

"Do I think I was born this way? No,'' Swoopes said. ''And that's probably confusing to some, because I know a lot of people believe that you are.''

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 21:34 (twenty years ago)

And erotic.

xpost

― Jimmy Mod wants you to tighten the strings on your corset (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

I read this & my thought was "how is she the only WNBA player who is out?" She might not be, actually, I don't follow the WNBA very much, but it seemed like a bit of a "well, duh" news article to me. I think spending 9 years playing sports in single sex environments (8th grade -> college) influenced my views on this, it's probably not always the case, but most of the teams I played on had a very high percentage of non-straight women. (hello, all-women ice hockey team. that was an awesome team to be on, even if we never won a game.)

― lyra (lyra), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 23:41 (twenty years ago)

From her first-person account (my emphasis):

"Most of the players around the league already know I'm gay, and I do feel like there's a sisterhood among lesbian players. We know we're not going to get the support from a lot of other people. But the talk about the WNBA being full of lesbians is not true. I mean, there are as many straight women in the league as there are gay.

It's pretty much open-secret stuff.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 27 October 2005 03:08 (twenty years ago)

The only thing strange about the whole thing is what Pleasant Plains quoted, so she was sucked into it or what?

― svend (svend), Thursday, 27 October 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

She used to like men. Now she likes women. Ergo, she doesn't think she was born gay or that she was fooling herself during the period of time when she was in relationships with men.

This is akin to the situation of the sister of a friend of mine, who came out, then fell in love with and married a man, all the while identifying herself as a lesbian. I also have a gay male friend whose longest sexual relationship after he came out was with a woman who knew he was gay. HUMAN BEINGS IN NOT HAVING PREDICTABLE BEHAVIOR SHOCKER.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 October 2005 03:59 (twenty years ago)

"sucked into it"

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 27 October 2005 06:28 (twenty years ago)

http://www.unificationfrance.com/IMG/jpg/Mike_Quinn_Nien_Nunb_2.jpg

― Mattattack (matt attack), Thursday, 27 October 2005 06:33 (twenty years ago)

The SF Chronicle mentions a couple of other WNBA players who are out, but they aren't "big-name" players (i.e., nobody knows who they are).

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:45 (twenty years ago)

"But the talk about the WNBA being full of lesbians is not true. I mean, there are as many straight women in the league as there are gay."

I like the implication here that it's half and half.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

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