Brittney Griner is a proud gay person, though she only recently officially came out publicly. The Phoenix Mercury center says she came out to her parents in high school and that she was openly gay at Baylor, though she was discouraged by the athletic department from talking about her sexual orientation. Now that she’s in the WNBA, Griner has talked about her sexual preference at length.
Griner is featured in a great profile by ESPN W’s Kate Fagan that is full of insight into Griner’s character. Fagan also did a video with Griner to accompany the profile. In the video interview, Fagan asks Griner which of her multiple tattoos best represents her. Griner said it’s her “lesbian tattoo.”
“It’s the double-linked female sign. I call it my lesbian tattoo,” Griner tells Fagan.
Though Griner says she was discouraged from public talking about being gay, she says she wasn’t the only gay athlete around.
“I wasn’t alone, I’ll say that. I was not alone.”
In Fagan’s profile, it’s revealed that Griner moved in with her high school’s JV basketball coach during her senior year of high school because of clashes with her father, who did not want to raise a gay girl. But he apparently has come around and regularly texts Griner’s girlfriend of six months.
Griner also says in the profile that she wears men’s clothing because she feels most comfortable in it. And in addition to being told to keep her sexual preference to herself at Baylor, Griner says she was asked by coach Kim Mulkey to wear a shirt under her jersey to cover her tattoos.
As you can tell based on all the interviews Griner has done the past few months, she surely is embracing the opportunity to speak about being gay.
Image via ESPN
