Advertisement

Brittney Griner: Baylor not supportive of gay athletes

Brittney Griner said she was encouraged to keep her sexual orientation quiet while at Baylor University.

By Danielle Haynes

WACO, Texas, April 20 (UPI) -- Former Baylor University basketball phenom Brittney Griner said the school wasn't supportive of her sexual orientation.

Griner, who went on to play for the WNBA and is now playing for the Golden Bulls in China, said she never hid the fact that she is a lesbian during her years at Baylor, but she was encouraged to.

Advertisement

“The more I think about it, the more I feel like the people who run the school want it both ways: they want to keep the policy, so they can keep selling themselves a Christian university, but they are more than happy to benefit from the success of their gay athletes,” Griner wrote in her new autobiography. “That is, as long as those gay athletes don’t talk about being gay.”

She said she had particular difficulties with coach Kim Mulkey.

During the recruitment process, Griner remembered Mulkey said, "Big Girl, I don’t care what you are. You can be black, white, blue, purple, whatever. As long as you come here and do what you need to do and hoop, I don’t care.”

But once Griner was at the Waco, Texas, campus, she said Mulkey would ask her to keep "her business quiet."

Advertisement

“I would love to be an ambassador for Baylor, to show my school pride, but it’s hard to do that,” Griner said. “I’ve spent too much of my life being made to feel like there’s something wrong with me. And no matter how much support I felt as a basketball player at Baylor, it still doesn’t erase all the pain I felt there.”

[Los Angeles Times] [Deadspin]

Latest Headlines