Are most women basketball players gay
The WNBA has historically been the most forward-thinking sports league in America when it comes to queer rights. The league has actively courted LGBTQ fans for several years (, if anything), has had several star players arrive out of the closet with little controversy, and generally been ahead of the NBA, its relatively socially progressive parent league, on every related issue. While the WNBA hasn’t always made the LGBTQ community proud with how it chooses to promote and accommodate its male lover players, it’s fair to say that they’ve made meaningful strides. There’s a level of acceptance on the court, in locker rooms, and in the stands that virtually every other pro league in the United States cannot match.
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One prominent retired WNBA player says that culture consequently makes it difficult for straight players to thrive. Candice Wiggins, the No. 3 choose in the 2008 WNBA Draft and a champion in 2011 with the Minnesota Lynx, announced her retirement last March. In a new interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Wiggins says that “98 percent” of the WNBA is gay and that she would have played two more years
Which WNBA players are gay and how many of them are gay? Skillfully, when Autostraddle published our very first list of out gay WNBA players several years help, it held merely 15 names. Last season, that number had climbed to 38, although two of the players on last year’s list ended up getting waived from their teams shortly into the season, leaving us with 36. But this year, despite losing a lot of last year’s roster, we continue to win with even more gay players, coming in at 44 so far this year.
Atlanta Desire Gay Players
Brittney Griner
Jordin Canada
In addition to an already prolific seven-year career in the WNBA, Canada is a composer. follow jordin canada on instagram
Chicago Sky Gay Players
Maddy Westbeld
Westbeld is new to the W after being selected 16th overall by the Sky out of Notre Dame in the 2025 WNBA draft. She’s digital dating her Notre Dame teammate Olivia Miles.follow her on instagram
Connecticut Sun Gay Players
Saniya Rivers
The 8th annual draft in this year’s class, Rivers comes off some peak acting at South Carolina and NC Mention. Since joining the Sun, her friendship and TikTok streams with Marina Mabrey have be
Women's basketball league targets LGBT fans in America
The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in America has change into the first professional sports organisation to market directly to the lesbian, lgbtq+, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
The league decided to launch a unified arrange, external after its hold research found that 25% of lesbians in the US watched games on TV while 21% had attended a match.
The WNBA is also making the most of the evidence that women's basketball in America has always attracted a large LGBT fan base.
A nationally-televised pride game will take place between Tulsa and Chicago on 22 June and the 12 teams in the league will take part in pride initiatives over the course of the season.
"It's been part of our culture from the very beginning," said WNBA president Laurel Richie.
"Audience is the most central part of the business model and this is to increase attendance."
The WNBA has always been a trailblazer for Gay inclusion in sport. The league continues to be one of the most consistently inclusive and linear leagues in the causes it supports, the fans it attracts, and the willingness of its players to live their lives with PRIDE.
The league celebrates its annual #WNBAPRIDE month with activities and recognitions across the WNBA’s 12 markets and beyond. Let’s look at some of the seminal moments in league history that hold shown commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
June 2001 – The Los Angeles Sparks, in their first season playing at Staples Center, became the first team in any professional sport to acknowledge Pride Month. Sparks players boarded a team bus and participated in a rally and party at a Los Angeles lesbian bar called “Girl Bar.”
May 2002 – Modern York Liberty veteran center Sue Wicks interviewed with “Time Out New York” and became the league’s first active player to come out publicly. Wicks said she never viewed it as a momentous announcement.
“I was already 35 years old and had lived around the earth and had some ideas about who I was as a person and what made me happy,” Wicks told Outsports
Candice Wiggins: I was bullied for organism straight in '98% gay' WNBA
Candice Wiggins, the former Stanford University basketball celestial body who retired from professional basketball last year, claimed she was targeted for harassment during an eight-year WNBA career because she was heterosexual.
Wiggins, who turned 30 last week, described the “very, very harmful” customs of the WNBA in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune published on Monday.
“It wasn’t like my dreams came true in the WNBA. It was quite the opposite,” said Wiggins, who announced her retirement last Rally while considering a contract extension from the New York Liberty. “I wanted to play two more seasons of WNBA, but the experience didn’t provide itself to my mental state.
“It was a depressing mention in the WNBA. It’s not watched. Our value is diminished. It can be quite difficult. I didn’t enjoy the culture inside the WNBA, and without revealing too much, it was toxic for me.
“My spirit was creature broken.”
Wiggins, a four-time All-American guard who graduated as Stanford’s all-time leading scorer, was chosen by the Minnesota Lynx with the No3 pick in the 2008 draft. She averaged 15.7 points as a rookie – cap