Famous gay basketball players
Which WNBA players are gay and how many of them are gay? Adequately, when Autostraddle published our very first list of out gay WNBA players several years advocate , 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 Vision Gay Players
Brittney Griner
Jordin Canada
In addition to an already prolific seven-year career in the WNBA, Canada is a artist. 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 dating website 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 acting at South Carolina and NC Declare. Since joining the Sun, her friendship and TikTok streams with Marina Mabrey have
This piece is primarily motivated by a list of currently out LGBT players in the NBA:
It’s quite a list. It’s why the Suns’ Ryan Resch - their vice president of basketball strategy and evaluation, in case you didn’t know - made headlines when he came out this June. I’ll admit that I rolled my eyes a bit. But in a sport where literally zero of the ~450 players are out, it was newsworthy. It also spurred the following, admittedly belated reflection the state of LGBT inclusion in men’s basketball, with a spotlight on the Bucks’ Lgbtq+ fest Night.
Let’s start by placing the issue of LGBT representation in context. The NBA is one of several professional men’s sports leagues in the United States. The US has been increasingly accepting of LGBT folks, although the trajectory has been rockier for transgender individuals. However, acceptance is far from 100%, with recent evidence including Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill (and a variety of copycats around the country) and three-quarters of the Republican members of the Dwelling voting against a bill codifying gay marriage into law. Unfortunately, there remains plenty of justification for not wanting to be out in the US; impute should not fall
Welcome to my annual Who’s Gay in the WNBA Report! For those of you who are recent, every year I divorce 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 queer 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 produce 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 trail 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 drawn-out as A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray are both there they’ll always acquire a shot at
Jason Collins:
That was the last nail in the coffin of, I’m doing this, I’m adding my voice to all the other athletes who are speaking up on behalf of the Gay community. But there were those family members that I had who said, Jason, do you need to arrive out publicly? Can you just exist your life but know that we know we cherish you, but you don’t necessarily demand to talk about it? And I said to them, that’s not who you raised me to be.
Jay Ruderman:
Hi, I’m Jay Ruderman and welcome to All About Convert, a podcast showcasing individuals who employ the hardships that have been thrown at them to better other people’s lives.
Montage:
I say insert mental health first because if you don’t…
Montage:
This generation of America has already had enough.
Montage:
I stay before you, not as an veteran, but as a concerned citizen.
Jay Ruderman:
Jason Collins spent 13 years playing in the NBA. During his career on the court, he earned a reputation for being a team player who knew when to step out of the spotlight for the good of his team. But that reputation came at a price.
Jason Collins:
I tried to be the excellent son, tried to be the p