My Weekend Crush: Freed BG

Wow, and thank goodness. Yesterday, after nine long, hard months, Brittney Griner is free. The Biden administration made good on their promise and brought BG home. Yes, it took swapping a despicable arms dealer to make it happen. But, uh, what exactly do you think the NRA is if not an arms dealing organization with better PRR that has an entire political party beholden to them like lapdogs? So. I won’t get into the political machinations of what made this happen. (Also, Paul Whelan’s family praised it as “the right decision,” so stop with all the “They left a (very former) Marine!” stuff.) Russia was using her – a Black, openly queer, more masculine-presenting, married gay woman – as a political cudgel to extract what it wanted. Diplomacy is hard, and not magic.

Yesterday also saw the House pass the Respect for Marriage Act, following the Senate’s successful passage last month. President Biden may be signing it as we speak. It passed 258-169, meaning only 39 Republicans voted for marriage equality while a whopping 169 of them voted against queer people being allowed to marry. In this year 2022. Tell me again that there’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans. Also you thing That Orange Stain would have freed Brittney? Please.

While old-school homophobia is back in a big ugly way, we don’t have to retreat into despair. Yesterday we had two unequivocal wins on the world stage. And if a win is a win, then two wins is two wins. I’ll take it. Happy weekend, all.

My Weekend Free BG

Well, we’ve entered worst case scenario zone in the case of Brittney Griner. In custody in Russia since Feb. 17, the WNBA superstar has been wrongfully detained away from her wife, family, friends, and country for six months already. And yesterday the Russian court handed down almost as strict a sentence as possible — giving her 9 years in prison. All for accidentally carrying a couple cannabis vape cartridges with her into Russia as she went to play off-season for her international team.

Never mind that Brittney and her family/friends have done everything they could to have her freed. Immediately following her arrest, they tried to turn down the political heat and negotiate without too much media. Then, when it was clear that wasn’t working, they went wide with their message.

Indeed Brittney actually confessed before her trial started (though, in Russian, they continue after a confession anyway). And she apologized and owned up to her mistake during the trial, asking for leniency from the judge. But instead, Russia is now using her as an obvious political pawn.

While initially their response has been slow, I do think the Biden Administration has been more aggressively tracking her case. President Biden issued a statement almost immediately yesterday condemning the verdict and sentence. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made a “substantial proposal” for a prisoner swap. Reporting suggests the deal could include Brittney and fellow American Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018 and was sentenced to 16 years in a labor camp for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

As much as I’d rather not have an international merchant of death set free, these Americans need to come home. Period.

Russia is clearly making an example of Brittney. Here is a wildly successful Black and queer female athlete at the top of her game who is married to a woman and presents more masculine. The Russian government is vehemently anti-LGBTQ+, and public displays of queer activism, solidarity or just love are actively quashed. So of course, of course they’ve given Brittney the harshest sentence possible. We can only hope it is for leverage for an inevitable prisoner swap.

The fact is, if the United States and WNBA valued female athletes and paid them similarly to their male counterparts, she wouldn’t even have to be in Russia or to play for a foreign team off-season.

It’s hard to overstate how big a star Brittney is in women’s basketball. NCAA champion. No. 1 draft pick. WNBA champion. Eight-time All-Star (she was named an honorary All-Star this year). Two-time Olympic gold medalist. This is rarified air for any athlete, male or female.

Yet her detention in Russia continues to drag on without much public outcry, aside from queer women everywhere and WNBA fans and her family. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, has clearly been very vocal. Megan Rapinoe, whose fiancée Sue Bird is herself a huge WNBA star, wore Brittney’s initials embroidered on her suit’s lapel when she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom this month from President Biden. And some NBA stars have also spoken out — a little.

And as frustrating as that is, the grossest part of her detention and now conviction is that American conservatives are cheering it on. I’ve seen the jokes and memes from Right Wing trolls about her deserving what she gets and other even less charitable (and obviously more racist and homophobic) characterizations. And that The Orange Stain weighed in to call Brittney “spoiled.” In case you need a reminder, the U.S. Right Wing and Russian authoritarian ideologies are in disgusting lock step. Empathy is simply not a conservative value.

I can’t imagine the anguish her wife feels, her family feels, her friends feel. I just know more people need to be demanding her release, and at every opportunity. Brittney, for her part, has apologized to the family, team and wife for what she calls an “honest mistake,” and told the court her hopes its ruling “does not end my life.”

God, I hope not either. Keep the pressure on. Keep the faith. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. And, once more with feeling, free Brittney Griner. Happy weekend, all.

Free the Other Brittney

This news is about as “Oh shit” as it can get. WNBA player, seven-time All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist and the first league draft pick (at No. 1 no less) to enter while out, Brittney Griner is being held in Russian jail for allegedly carrying “vape cartridges that contained hashish oil” when she arrived at a Moscow airport last month.

Black. Queer. Out. Married. Masc-presenting. And now held as a prisoner in a country that is notoriously, notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ rights — and that’s underselling it, honestly.

To say this news is terrible is an understatement. It’s terrifying. The charges she is being held on carry an up to 10-year sentence in Russia. Ten years. Oh shit doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Like many WNBA players, she supplements her league salary with high-paying work overseas in professional leagues. While the timeline for her arrest is a little hazy, it seems to have happened before Russia began its unprovoked war against Ukraine. But now, her detainment has tense geopolitical overtones.

The simple human tragedy of this extraordinarily talented human person being held hostage in a decidedly unfriendly country with the possibility of her losing a decade of her life because of something that’s perfectly legal in large swaths of America is one thing. (Yes, of course, I know it’s illegal in Russia.) The possibility that her situation becomes a highly charged international incident is quite high right now. As is the possibility Russia makes an example out of this very “other” American superstar. Again, the possibilities are truly terrifying.

Brittney’s team the Phoenix Mercury, WNBA, US Basketball and even U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have issued statements supporting her (though Blinken’s was intentionally vague and didn’t name Brittney). I honestly don’t know what the best solution is here. If it’s better to not make her detention a flashpoint with more publicity and to allow backchannels to work more quietly or to just raise holy hell. But I truly, truly hope there is a solution that sends her home to her wife safely soon. I’m not a person who prays, but I am a person who worries and hopes. And that’s what I’m doing.

U-S-GAY! U-S-GAY! U-S-GAY!

Not to be a homer, but – you know – “USA! USA! USA!” Now that 17 days of admiring Hot Lady Arms (a.k.a. watching the Olympics) has begun, it’s time to get to know who exactly we’re cheering for. This year the games have a record 43 out athletes competing. Eight of them are on Team USA. (Yes, I know, there are many more queer American Olympians – but these are the officially and on record out.) It’s interesting to note that all our eight queer athletes are women. And, if we break it down further, half are on the basketball team, two on rugby and one is a kayaker and one is Megan Rapinoe. Outsports has a quick breakdown of all 43 out athletes. And here is a closer look at the home homo team for all of us here in the states.

Seimone Augustus, basketball

A player with the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA and former league MVP during her team’s 2011 championship season. Last year when the Supreme Court ruled marriage equality was the law of the land, she wrote a piece about her own marriage for The Players Tribune.

Elena Delle Donne, basketball

A player with the Chicago Sky in the WNBA, she was named league MVP last season. She also came out right before the Olympics started in a profile for Vogue magazine where she spoke about her fiancée, Amanda Clifton.

Kelly Griffin, rugby

Women’s rugby makes its debut in the Olympics this year. Griffin is something called a “hooker” for the team, which does not make me giggle even a little because I am an adult. Her official Team USA bio mentions her wife and their two children.

Brittney Griner, basketball

The No. 1 WNBA draft pick in 2013 came out before her professional career started. She is now a center for the Phoenix Mercury.

Angel McCoughtry, basketball

A forward for the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA, she came out in an Instagram post last year where she celebrated her relationship and talked about her faith.

Ashley Nee, kayak

The Maryland native will compete in whitewater slalom. Earlier this summer a Baltimore Sun profile about the athlete casually mentioned her wife.

Jillion Potter, rugby

She is something called a “prop” on the USA rugby team, which leads me to believe all the positions in this sport are trying to confuse us with their names. She has survived cancer and a broken neck. And you can watch a cute video of her talking about her wife on the NBC Sports site.

Megan Rapinoe, soccer

Please, she’s Megan Rapinoe. She needs no introduction.

So there you have it. Now get busy cheering. U-S-GAY! U-S-GAY! U-S-GAY!

p.s. Don’t worry, world. You’ll get your big gay turn before the 17 days are over.

Vacation Vixen: Brittney Griner

Tank top, tattoos and a snake? I’m on vacation, what do I care?

My End-of-the-Year Crush

It’s been a bad year for closets. A bunch of famous ladies decided to only store their clothes in them and join our big gay family. Granted, many of us knew about many of them already. But there’s still something so special – and so necessary – about making it official. And there was such a wide array of ways they all came out: at award shows, on morning TV, in magazine interview, through newspaper columns and, yes, even on Twitter.

Here’s a look at The Out Eight of 2013 (I know, there were more, but these are some of the most high profile. Autostraddle has a nice run-down of alllll the ladies who kicked open the closet.)

Jodie Foster, actress

Sure, it was a little rambling and never quite said the “L” or “G” words, but Jodie’s coming out acceptance speech at the Golden Globes in January was the confirmation of something we all knew but also though would never go acknowledged. And now she’s got a hottie girlfriend out of the deal. Get it, girl.

Jenna Wolfe, TV journalist

The NBC “Today Weekend” anchor came out and announced her and her partner’s impending parenthood on the popular morning show in March. She gave birth to a baby girl in August. As I don’t get up early on the weekends, I wasn’t too familiar with Jenna before the announcement. But, goodness, am I glad I did my research. Hello, arm porn.

Brittney Griner, professional basketball player

After being selected the No. 1 draft pick by the WNBA in April, Brittney came out in a matter-of-fact way during an interview afterward. Granted, she’d never been necessarily in. But saying it out loud with confidence and pride silences the snide whispers. Being able to dunk on them doesn’t hurt either.

Charice, actress and singer

You might remember Charice from “Glee.” Or you might know the Filipina superstar from her own music. But even if you don’t know her at all you have to commend her courage in coming out this June in an often conservative and largely Roman Catholic country. Also, love the hair.

Raven-Symone, actress and singer

Coming out is now so Raven. I’ll happily date myself and say that I can remember little Raven-Symone as the adorable Olivia on “The Cosby Show.” And for others she was the sassy Raven and lead singer of The Cheetah Girls. So coming out in a tweet about marriage equality in August after so many grew up with her makes such a difference.

Michelle Rodriguez, actress

Yeah, finally. After years of talking loudly about not being gay and liking sausage, the actress came out as bisexual in an Entertainment Weekly article this October. She followed it up by telling Latina magazine she decided to be honest about who she is to “see what happens.” Well, honey, what happened? Other than that long-awaited toaster oven you got in the mail.

Abby Wambach, professional soccer player

While she wasn’t necessarily in, she certainly never said it out loud. So getting married to teammate Sarah Huffman and gushing about their big day and thanking well-wishers on Twitter made it official this October. Saying I do and I am all at once means one hell of a honeymoon.

Maria Bello, actress

Modern love can lead to modern families. And Maria Bello wrote eloquently about her own when she came out in a New York Times column earlier this month. She didn’t label herself (well, she called herself a “whatever”), but put words to the love she has for her female partner, the platonic father of her son and their child.

So, there you have it. Eight women who decided the truth was better than any dark closet. Here’s to another open year in 2014. Happy weekend, all.

Hottest of them all

Right, so each year I feel a little responsible for creating The Beast that is the AfterEllen Hot 100. It was, after all, a post about my fury over Lindsay Lohan and the Maxim Hot 100 oh so many years ago that helped to start it all. But each year, I also dutifully tell you my vote. (Sure, this year it can be votes, but I am old school and choose to vote only once like the Founding Fathers intended or whatnot.) My picks vary, there are some constants (Tina, duh), but really whatever is turning my brain and/or heart and/or other regions most on at the moment is what makes my list. And this year is no different. Seeing as today is the last day to vote in the AE poll, I thought I would show you mine. So here they are. For all to see. Now you show me yours, it only seems fair.

p.s. You can vote in the AE Hot 100 here.

Level playing field

High five, Jason Collins. You’re awesome, you’re inspiring, you’re essential to our continued struggle for full equality. You are not, however, the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. This takes nothing away from your accomplishment and your courage in coming forward and coming out. But there are openly gay active female players on several American sports teams and sports who have blazed a trail and deserve recognition.

When news broke yesterday the headlines I saw were all a variation on “Jason Collins first openly gay active player” and “Jason Collins first active gay player in major sports.” As the day wore on, several modified that headline with an important word: “Male.” Collins, a 34-year-old who was center for the Washington Wizards, is indeed the first active American gay male player in one of the four major American sports teams – basketball, baseball, hockey and football. But active American gay female players exist in basketball and softball – not to mention soccer, tennis, golf and more.

Your Brittney Griner and Sheryl Swoopes (basketball), your Vicky Galindo and your Lauren Lappin (softball), your Megan Rapinoe and your Natasha Kai (soccer), your Martina Navratilova (tennis), your Patty Sheehan (golf). I could go on.

When Griner came out earlier this month as the first professional WNBA player to come out at the start of her career, it was greeted with headlines like, “Female Star Comes Out as Gay, and Sports World Shrugs” and “Brittney Griner coming out is no big deal, and that's a big deal.”

Yet Collins coming out was in continuous discussion on ESPN and across the frontpages of sports sections everywhere. So in case you were wondering, that double standard is alive and very well.

Granted, I understand that there are inherent and significant cultural differences between the perception of gay male athletes and gay female athletes. One could joke that for female athletes being lesbian or bisexual is almost the default assumption. That’s a stretch, of course, but the ugly stereotype is that girl jocks are considered “too manly to be straight” and guy jocks are considered “too manly to be gay.” The cult of machismo continues to smell worse than a locker room on a hot day.

Look, I am not being ungrateful about Collins coming out. Quite the opposite. He could well be the game-changer to open the closet door wider for more to follow. I am thrilled for the positive support coming from everyone from Michelle Obama to Bill Clinton to Kobe Bryant to Steve Nash more. And I am disgusted by the Chris Broussards of the world who fall back on the old bigotry of the past. I would just like it acknowledged that female professional athletes are also part of this conversation, have been blazing a trail and matter when it comes to creating an accepting sports culture for all who want to play. Hive fives all around.

NOTE: Nothing in this post is a denigration of Collins' accomplishment and importance, nor an expression of anything but happiness at his coming out yesterday. I could not be happier about it. What it is is a multifaceted expression of emotions based on the media coverage of his coming out. We, as humans, are capable of feeling multiple things all at once. Like in the late evening on Nov. 4, 2008 when my heart was filled with pride and joy at our nation electing its first African-American president in its history. But on that same night, at the same time, my heart was also filled with sorrow that my fellow California voters deemed my love unworthy of being officially recognized by the state by passing Proposition 8. One does not take away from the other. Saying I am proud of Jason Collins and I wish gay female athletes were given more respect in the media are not mutually exclusive ideas. We can do both.

My Weekend Crush

In a week of tragedy, chaos and insanity (seriously, let’s not have another week like that in a long time), let’s end on a high note. We had a nice respite thanks to our friends in New Zealand mid-week. And now we’ll finish off with who will surely be your newest crush: Brittney Griner. Granted, she’s not new to many people – what with her being a record-setting career at Baylor University, her NCAA Champion in 2012 and her status as the No. 1 pick in the WNBA this year. Brittney is the second most leading all-time scorer in women’s college basketball, with 3,283 points, and the best shot blocker in college basketball ever, both for men and women, with 748 blocks. She can also dunk. And, oh yeah, she is gay.

After being selected as the top WNBA draft pick by the Phoenix Mercury on Monday, Brittney sat down with some of her fellow top draftees and spoke to ESPN Wednesday night. And in that interview, she casually, confidently came out publicaly. And you have to believe if she hadn’t attended a staunchly Christian university like Baylor, she would have come out a lot sooner, too. Now, there are and have been other out players in the WNBA, including Seimone Augustus, Sheryl Swoopes and Chamique Holdsclaw. But Brittney is the very first to come out at the very start of her professional career. Before the big money endorsements and jersey sales roll in. And this, this matters. It matters because as much progress as we’ve made toward equality, both in the court of public opinion and real courts, sports remains a sad stronghold of homophobia where few venture out of the locker room closet. The amount of internal (and external, ugh Chris Cullivers of the world) resistance to out gay athletes is still palpable. So coming out in professional sport, it makes a difference. Of course each person who comes out, athlete or not, makes a difference. But there can be only one crush each weekend. And this week it goes to the lady who just dunked her way out of the closet. All that, and she is a snazzy dresser. Love the bowtie. Happy weekend, all.