Gay in the WNBA: everybody knows the league relies on lesbian players and fans. So why hide it? A report from the slow road to visibility.

For the WNBA, lesbians are the six-ton elephant in the room--the one you're not supposed to notice. It's hard to imagine the league without lesbians, either on the court, in the stands, or even in the stadium club bars at halftime. But it seems that the league would prefer to keep the focus on those hetero families in the crowd and its heterosexiest players. Then Middle America won't get scared away and desert the "product."

Until superstar Sheryl Swoopes decided to come out, only three lesser-known WNBA players had publicly revealed they are lesbians: one at the end of her career (Sue Wicks of the New York Liberty), one who was kicked off her team (Latasha Byears of the Los Angeles Sparks, who was accused but not charged in a sexual assault case and is now suing her former employer), and one who's been injured and currently isn't in the league (Michele Van Gorp of the Minnesota Lynx). In addition, Liberty general manager Carol Blazejowski outed herself when she mentioned her partner, Joyce, and their two kids in a 1999 media guide--but hasn't uttered a public peep about her gay family since.

But even if the number of gay women in the WNBA doesn't much exceed the average in society--and that's a big "if"--there are undoubtedly 10 to 15 of the 150-some players in the league who keep their gay sexuality under wraps.

"All of the women's professional sports are still on such fragile ground that players self-censor," says Pat Griffin, author of Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport (Human Kinetics, ]998). Fearing that openness about their sexuality will drive away fans, sponsors, and opportunities to play, many athletes choose to stay silent. Within teams, says Griffin, there's more openness and acceptance than in the past, but players gay and straight keep the "family secret" from outsiders.

There's a similar dichotomy when it comes to lesbian players and fans in the WNBA as a whole. While not overtly homophobic, the league prefers to focus on obviously straight players, even going so far as to put out a press release a few years ago listing all those who were married or engaged. The league also hypes the "family" atmosphere at games, trying to distract attention from all those dykes in the seats.

There have been hopeful signs, however. Many of the individual teams actively woo gay fans with promotions and gay pride nights, knowing that lesbians form a solid base of season ticket support. That's been a city-by-city affair, and New York, surprisingly, is one of the more recalcitrant WNBA venues. After futilely asking the Liberty for six years to support gay pride, a group of the team's lesbian fans got fed up enough in 2002 to stage a well-publicized "kiss-in" during a Liberty game. They followed that up on Fan Appreciation Day by distributing THANK YOU, LESBIANS cards at the game, praising gay fans for such things as "supporting women's basketball since its beginnings."

It would be nice if Swoopes's brave announcement would fling open the WNBA's closet doors, but it hasn't happened that way in women's golf or tennis and isn't likely to occur in pro basketball either. There's no doubt, though, that lesbian fans throughout the league will have a whole new reason to cheer next season.

Kort is author of Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro and Dinah! Three Decades of Sex, Golf, and Rock 'n' Roll.