I remember going to my first WNBA game. I bought season's tickets because my partner A. and I thought that if women didn't support professional women's sports, who would? Okay, that part is true, but also, who wouldn't want to watch young athletic women run around for two hours on the court, in shorts and sleeveless shirts and play some serious basketball? At the first game of the Washington Mystics, not only were the players proud, but Donna Shalaya threw out the game ball. Tipper Gore was in one of the sky boxes, our very own DC (she's not a senator, she doesn't get a vote, but she is amazing just the same) rep Eleanor Holmes Norton stood side by side with these young women breaking ground in a game that was historic, women actually getting payed to play basketball. The sell out crowd was hyped, and it was like Lesbo Central, everywhere you looked, there were sisters. We won the game, we haven't won many since, but every year I write the check for the season's tickets, after all, it doesn't really matter if we win, it matters that a professional women's league still exists.
The year before, I had to root for the Houston Comets, even though I dislike the city of Houston. My favorite player was Cynthia Cooper, she was not the tallest, but she was the heart of the team. I also loved, and still do (don't tell my partner A) Tina Thompson because she's just gorgeous, six foot something, built like a brick house, and she can knock down a three pointer from the same spot as the NBA guys. My least favorite was Sheryl Swoopes. In those early years, the cameras always found her husband and baby in the stands, and it seemed as if the league was trying to plug the one hetero hero of the league and pointedly ignoring the more butch members of the league. There are not a whole lot of straight women basketball players, but you can tell that a lot of the ones with hyphenated names, Milton-Jones (hey even though she's straight she is one kick ass player) Scott-Richardson, want to let the fans know that they have husbands. And that's okay, I can even understand why the promoters of the league don't speak about the thing that you can't speak about, if they want the suburban Moms to bring their daughters to the WNBA games. I can't think of any straight woman thinking at the birth of her newborn daughter, "Gosh, I hope she grows up to be a lesbian," even though I am here to tell you that the lifestyle is wonderful if you are lucky enough to be born into it. Straight suburban women want daughters to marry and pro-create, and sometimes I wonder if they even care who the daughters marry, as long as they marry.
But even so, I still bought Sheryl Swoopes Nike basketball shoes, because it was an historic first. There were no other women's basketball shoes to buy. So Sheryl Swoopes, once the poster girl for straight women in basketball has come out, and I'm so proud of her. It's never easy to stick your head out of that closet, but in professional sports, it's suicide. There is not a Nike guy in the whole corporation who's going to now give her an endorsement, even though as a player, she's won everything. Three Olympic golds, two or three championship rings, MVP, all of that. And the most amazing thing about Sheryl Swoopes aside, from making the game of basketball look like ballet, with all of the grace and athleticism of a prima ballerina, is that she can play a game and come out with 20 plus points, 2 fouls, ten rebounds, a couple of assists, and never even break a nail.
Coming out in such a public way, without the blessing of the League, and let's be honest, the African American community does not exactly embrace it's gay children, is a difficult and courageous thing to do. And why is she doing it? Why do we all do it?
She just wants to live truthfully.
It's always easy to lie at first, the need to be accepted and loved is a powerful human desire. After a while, the lies become more difficult, the pronouns become confused, you say she, when you should have said he, the name of your fictional boyfriend slips your mind, was it Brian, or Kevin? it was one of those really manly names for sure, but after a while it's just easier to risk the hatred of your fans, your church, and sometimes even your family, to just live honestly and comfortably. And to Sheryl Swoopes, I say welcome to a life of honesty. It may be cruel at times, but you'll never have to be anyone but who you are. And that's a good feeling.
Just so you know how homophobic the WNBA truly is, go to the website. I did, and I searched for news about the MVP, and her coming out. Guess what I found?
Nada.
I hope that someday, the league and the owners become as courageous as Sheryl Swoopes. Until that day, I have to decide whether to buy season's tickets to support women's basketball, when the league that sponsors women's basketball doesn't support women who play basketball.
The Comets will always be my team. Only now I have to decide who is my favorite Comet. Hot and sexy Tina Thompson, or brave and fabulous Sheryl Swoopes.
