Who is the gay basketball player
The Weird Dwight Howard Saga Shows the NBA Still Has a Problem With the Closet
Washington Wizards center Dwight Howard. Photo: Will Newton/Getty Images
This past September, it was seven years since I wrote, in this magazine, “The Last Closet,” a feature about the total insanity that, in September 2011, there were no openly gay players in the four major North American men’s professional sports leagues. Sports seemed like the last bastion of this sort of homophobia left in American life, but it did seem appreciate that taboo was … loosening, at least, within sports culture. “Something has happened in the last year,” one expert told me. “It’s almost enjoy homophobia is no longer considered fresh in sports.” Two years later, NBA journeyman Jason Collins came out in the pages of Sports Illustrated to nearly universal acclaim and a standing ovation at Barclays Center. A year after that, the Rams drafted openly gay defensive finish Michael Sam in the seventh spherical of the NFL draft, and he kissed his crush in celebration inhabit on ESPN’s airwaves; his jersey posthaste became the second-best-selling in the NFL. They seemed appreciate just the start.
They were not. Sam never played a regular-seaso
Which WNBA players are same-sex attracted and how many of them are gay? Successfully, when Autostraddle published our very first list of out gay WNBA players several years back, 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 Dream Gay Players
Brittney Griner
Jordin Canada
In addition to an already prolific seven-year career in the WNBA, Canada is a musician. 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 performing at South Carolina and NC State. Since joining the Sun, her friendship and TikTok streams with Marina Mabrey have be
Welcome to my annual Who’s Gay in the WNBA Report! For those of you who are modern, every year I crack down the list of athletes who are openly queer in the league. As a queer person who has played basketball my entire life, the off-court drama is always equally as exciting as the on-court display of skills. Knowing who’s same-sex attracted and who’s dating who only adds to that for me. If you’re more of a pure viewer of the game and prefer only knowing what’s going on while the clock is running, I do regularly construct WNBA TikToks that I like to think are pretty informative!
The league is well known to contain some of the top pre-game walk-up outfits in all of professional sports, so you’re missing out if you don’t shadow at least the @wnba account on Instagram. Here’s a complete list of all out gay players in the league, broken down by team. For my purposes, “Out” means confirmed by the player either in an interview or on their social media. No matter how masculine presenting someone is, I will not be speculating!
Last Updated: 6/27/25
Las Vegas Aces
The Aces are a very nice team and as prolonged as A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray are both there they’ll always own a shot at t
NBA’s first openly homosexual player Jason Collins gets married to longtime partner
Former Nets player, and the first openly gay runner in the NBA, Jason Collins married his longtime partner, Brunson Green, recently.
The couple reportedly tied the knot over the Memorial Day weekend in a ceremony in Austin, Texas, after the two had been together for more than a decade.
Collins and Green, a Hollywood producer best known for his work on the movie “The Help,” reportedly got engaged in 2023 during Pride Night at a Lakers game.
Collins came out in a personal essay for Sports Illustrated in 2013, which made him the first openly same-sex attracted athlete in a major American team sport.
“When I was younger, I dated women,” he wrote in the essay. “I even got engaged. I idea I had to survive a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue.”
He had started his NBA career in 2001 with the Nets, who were still in New Jersey at the time, where he spent parts of seven seasons with the group before stints with the Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Hawks and Celtics.
Collins returne
BY: Zaniah Boykin
Published 5 months ago
The street to LGBTQIA+ public presence in sports has been a lengthy and bumpy one, especially in professional basketball. For years, the NBA and other major leagues were slow to embrace openly queer players, but things are changing. Today, more athletes are stepping up, living their truth, and making basketball a more inclusive vacuum. The courage of these players is shifting the society and inspiring future generations. Let’s seize a look at some of the most notable lgbtq+ basketball players who have helped direct this evolution.
1. Jason Collins
In 2013, Collins made history as the first openly gay player in the NBA while playing for the Brooklyn Nets. At a time when few athletes in any sport had come out, Collins’ bravery was a game-changer for LGBTQIA+ visibility in professional sports. His courage paved the way for others, and since retiring, he has continued to advocate for equality. Collins remains among the most essential figures in the LGBTQIA+ rights movement within professional athletics.
2. Brittney Griner
Brittney Griner is one of the most high-profile openly gay basketball players ever. Recognizable as a dominant force in the WNBA