I’m not a sports follower, as I’ve said before. However, there are some things that are obvious to me. LIke when the WNBA started up I simply assumed that there would probably be more than a few lesbians among the players. I knew there were more than a few lesbians among the fans, as most of the women in my office — when I worked at HRC — were pretty faithful attendees of the games of our local WNBA team the Mystics.
So it doesn’t come as a surprise to me to hear that WNBA star Cheryl Swoopes says she’s lesbian.
Houston Comets forward Sheryl Swoopes is opening up about being a lesbian, telling a magazine that she’s “tired of having to hide my feelings about the person I care about.”
…“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.”
…“It’s not something that I want to throw in people’s faces. I’m just at a point in my life where I’m tired of having to pretend to be somebody I’m not,” the 34-year-old Swoopes said. “I’m tired of having to hide my feelings about the person I care about. About the person I love.”
She has a right to speak her own truth, but I have mixed feelings about some of her statements. Maybe that’s because she seems to have mixed feelings herself. Still, I have to give her props — particularly as an African American woman — for coming out at all, because in so many ways it would be easier not to.
I think one of the big reasons so few black gay celebrities ever come out is because there are so many added pressures. There’s the worry about losing support in black communities by coming out. And there’s the concern of having to “balance identities” — being sometimes literally asked “which are you first? black or gay?” — and being pressured to prioritize one identity over the other.
So Swoopes isn’t exactly “coming out strong” (I wonder, if she believes she wasn’t “born this way,” what she thinks made her “this way”), at least she’s coming out. That’s a big step for her, and for the rest of us in a way — because how can we begin to challenge the homophobia we see in our communities if we don’t come out?
(Keith has more on this.)
Technorati Tags: celebrities, current events, gay rights, sports, race
T,
I want to add one thing to this quote. You said,
I would add "which are you first? Black or Gay or a Woman?"
But seriousl, I like what you said, especially about the mixed feelings part. You have been on a roll lately with your blogs.
RS
I felt like her statements about how she feared the repercussions from parents of her young fans was a disclosure that deserved some attention. She’s worried, probably accurately, that parents are going to tell their kids that she is no longer an appropriate role model. That really saddens me because my guess is that she’s right.
For some of us who are raising little girls of color in a country that verges on hostile many days, her willingness to risk coming out is heroic. Not because it makes her more special that she’s gay–it’s that she decided to be honest. The values we’re trying to instill in our daughter include honesty and bravery…which makes Sheryl more of a role model than when she was just another basketball player.
we all belong to GOD, an if she wishes to live free then who r we. this life is full of turns, trials, tribulations and if someone is not hurting another human being than i dont have a problem with that. let her live her life, we have more important drama to b concerned with. is she a terriorist?, murderer, or worst? let her b.