WNBA Star Brtney Grer Talks About Beg First Openly Gay Athlete Endorsed by Nike - TheWrap

Contents:

• WNBA'S BRTNEY GRER ON BEG A GAY ATHLETE: I FELT LIKE HALF OF ME WASN'T ACCEPTED
• BAYLOR STAR BRTNEY GRER ACKNOWLEDG SHE IS GAY
• BRTNEY GRER DISCS BEG GAY
• COLUMN: ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ IS A PUT REGIME CREATN. BRTNEY GRER IS S PRISONER
• WNBA STAR BRTNEY GRER TALKS ABOUT BEG FIRST OPENLY GAY ATHLETE ENDORSED BY NIKE

WNBA'S BRTNEY GRER ON BEG A GAY ATHLETE: I FELT LIKE HALF OF ME WASN'T ACCEPTED

But as a gay woman, she also felt burned by a policy wrten to the stunt handbook at her private Christian universy, which banned homosexual behavr and advocy for LGBT issu, she tells PEOPLE exclively for a portfol of gay profsnal athlet who discs their cisn to play and live openly. But after beg out to iends and fay at home Hoton om the age of 15, Grer, now, 23, says the school’s official stance – which she didn’t disver until the start of her sophomore year – ed tensn, pecially when a ach lled Grer to her office after she sent a Tweet to her then-girliend.

For more on Brtney Grer and the exclive portfol of gay profsnal athlet, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now. Pro Gay Athlet Share Their Movg Stori.

BAYLOR STAR BRTNEY GRER ACKNOWLEDG SHE IS GAY

Grer was asked by SI's Maggie Gray on the difference between men's and women's sports when to acceptance of sexual orientatn; why the WNBA has been able to often embrace many lbians wh their sport, while male sports Ameri still was on s first publicly gay player. Bee that moment, Grer beme the most proment openly gay basketball player the had always wanted to be upont about her sexual orientatn.

BRTNEY GRER DISCS BEG GAY

One day, the middle of her sophomore season, she was summoned to the office of her head ach, Kim Mulkey.

”At the time, Baylor had a formal policy the stunt handbook forbiddg homosexual activy and premaral sex general.

COLUMN: ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ IS A PUT REGIME CREATN. BRTNEY GRER IS S PRISONER

“It’s hard to get at that table, beg yourself, beg Black, beg gay and beg unapologetilly yourself, ” Sun guard Courtney Williams told ESPN’s Katie Barn. But those imag, while pturg the bleakns of her current suatn, only distort the larger has always had a eper power: her abily not only to survive and thrive, but to make that ia seem possible for mak her so pellg now is precisely the same reason she has too often been overlooked Amerin society – and why she sticks out as a eful target for Vladimir Put, who has long wield vlently anti-gay rhetoric and polici to further his polil agenda.

"Grer said don't matter what others might thk of her or other gay athlet. "Grer told USA Today the day of the draft that she's been guid by the advice of her parents, who gave her the urage to open up about beg gay.

”Sce 1993, is no longer illegal to be LGBTQ Rsia, but sce adoptg the “gay propaganda” law 2013, is illegal to talk about around a ’s right, Vladimir Put created a “don’t say gay” bill first. Perhaps some elected officials eyeg their own versn of a “don’t say gay” law unr the guise of protectg children should take a moment of pse. “It’s a statement about the value of women, ’s a statement about the value of a Black person, ’s a statement about the value of a gay person — all those thgs.

WNBA STAR BRTNEY GRER TALKS ABOUT BEG FIRST OPENLY GAY ATHLETE ENDORSED BY NIKE

WNBA star Brtney Grer broke barriers when she beme the first openly gay athlete to be endorsed by Nike, and on the eve of Saturday’s Natnal Comg Out Day, she discsed why her $1 ln ntract is openg doors for the LGBT sports muny. Also read: Whoopi Goldberg Warns Christians: Gay Marriage Is Comg Whether You Like or Not (Vio). “It is everybody; I am all about who you are — whether you’re gay, straight or transgenr.