35 Gay WNBA Players to Follow and Thirst After on Instagram This Season
The 2023 WNBA season klicks off today, and, as always, we’ve got a list of openly gay players for you to follow and thirst after on Instagram. The first time we published this list, we had 15 out players. Today we counted 35!
If you know of more (confirmed!) openly gay WNBA players, drop them in the comments.
35 Gay WNBA Players to Thirst After on Instagram This Season
Brittney Griner, Phoenix Mercury
Candace Parker, Las Vegas Aces
Natisha Hiedeman, Connecticut Sun
https://www.instagram.com/p/CpGEjijNU0W/
Jasmine Thomas, Los Angeles Sparks
https://www.instagram.com/p/CoLB9jAyWus/?hl=en
Danielle Robinson, Indiana Fever
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp-c4TcLLss/
Jonquel Jones, New York Liberty
https://www.instagram.com/p/CrBohbnJ-a-/?hl=en
Courtney Williams, Chicago Sky
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsB_09_pvmu/
DeWanna Bonner, Connecticut Sun
Alyssa Thomas, Connecticut Sun
Chelsea Gray, Las Vegas Aces
Jewell Loyd, Seattle Storm
Kahleah Copper, Chicago Sky
Sydney Colson, Las Vegas Aces
Stefanie Dolson, New York Liberty
Jordan Horston, Seattle Storm
Elena Delle Donne, Washington Mystics
Layshia Clarendon, Los Angeles Sparks
Amanda Zahui B, Washington Mystics
https://www.instagram.com/p/CmmqvJeN9SA/?hl=en
Aerial Powers, Minnesota Lynx
Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty
Riquna Williams, Las Vegas Aces
https://www.instagram.com/p/ChKmynXr6GE/?hl=en
DiJonai Carrington, Connecticut Sun
Natasha Cloud, Washington Mystics
Sami Whitcomb, New York Liberty
AD Durr, Atlanta Dream
NaLyssa Smith, Indiana Fever
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRAgFWADFyV/?hl=en
Tiffany Hayes, Atlanta Dream
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ciu51Vxrg43/
Brittney Sykes, Washington Mystics
https://www.instagram.com/p/Co5HRpvrnuw/
Victoria Vivians, Indiana Fever
Jordin Canada, Los Angeles Sparks
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVWhR5wJN-s/?hl=en
Erica Wheeler, Indiana Fever
https://www.instagram.com/p/CmhlgBcpA0C/?hl=en
Diana Taurasi, Phoenix Mercury
Courtney Vandersloot, New York Liberty
Natasha Howard, New York Liberty
Crystal Dangerfield, Dallas Wings
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp35lC0Nqsl/
Also.Also.Also: Sue Bird Announces Retirement After 19 Seasons, the Most in WNBA History
Feature image of Sue Bird, who announced her retirement from the WNBA today, by Steph Chambers/Getty Images
This heatwave is murder and also my lights have now flickered three times, and despite being warned by multiple queer people in my life — I have never built an emergency preparedness kit, so everyone… ummm… keep good thoughts?
(Thank you all for the strawberry recipe recommendations! We’re going with Smitten Kitchen’s Red and Black cocktails from Hester and How Sweet Eat’s Strawberry Cobbler Bars from Linnea. Y’all are the best, and I really mean that. 🍓)
Queer as in F*ck You
This is huge news alone, but also the way that Sue Bird announced her retirement has stayed with me all day.
I’ve decided this will be my final year. I have loved every single minute, and still do, so gonna play my last year, just like this little girl played her first ☺️ #TheFinalYear @seattlestorm pic.twitter.com/Uo2YqCCKUD
— Sue Bird (@S10Bird) June 16, 2022
“War is a great enforcer of gender rules.” How Kyiv’s L.G.B.T.Q. Community Found Shelter from the Russian Invasion
“Like many trans people, I dealt with puberty by creating a lot of mental space between myself and my body. I didn’t know what I was, but it couldn’t be this.” How Being Trans Prepared Me for Pregnancy
“‘I hid for 75, 85 years, and this is actually basically the first time I’ve ever come out,’ AAGPBL player Maybelle Blair said at the show’s screening.” A Baseball Player Who Helped Inspire ‘A League of Their Own’ Came Out as a Lesbian at 95 Years Old (we got this one from an A+ member, thank you!)
Saw This, Thought of You
Bimbo Feminism!?!?
How to Make the Baggage of Your Past Easier to Carry. “Rewriting the stories you tell about yourself can make for a better future.”
A lot about this has made me very angry. Egg Freezing’s BMI Problem.
Anna Delvey Is in the NFT Business Now. Of course she is!
Political Snacks
Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe Are Engaged, Love Will Never Be a Lie Again!
Friends! Lesbians! Queers! Good Straddlers of this land! Lend me your ears! The time has finally come to declare, once and for all, that love is not a lie! And lo, it shall never be a lie again! For Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe are ENGAYGED TO BE MARRIED!
I’m sure more information will be available soon, but for now:
Bird and Rapinoe first announced their relationship in 2017. It was kind of just known, but finally someone asked Bird about it and she said, “I’m gay. Megan’s my girlfriend.” And that was that! In the nearly four years since then, they’ve become arguably the most famous lesbian couple on the planet, aided, weirdly, by Donald Trump, who took aim at Rapinoe during the 2019 World Cup, to which Bird responded with a blistering and loving essay and Rapinoe responded by… winning the World Cup. Then, this year, it was Bird’s turn to win a WNBA championship — the Seattle Storm and Bird’s fourth title — with Rapinoe by her side.
DANG I AM JUST SO GODDAMN HAPPY FOR THEM! These days are dark and this news is BRIGHT AS THE SUN THAT’S BACKLIGHTING MEGAN RAPINOE AS SHE SLIPS A RING ONTO SUE BIRD’S HAND! The only thing that could make me happier than this is confirmation that Rapinoe, like Ashlyn Harris, will wear sparkly soccer socks and a shorts tux at her wedding.
CONGRATULATIONS YOU TWO!
Our Favorite WNBA Wubble Couples
One of the best things about the Wubble has been the content players are sharing from inside it. Teammates — along with players from other teams — are forced to spend much more time together as a result of being siphoned off from the rest of the world. Luckily for us, the result is a seemingly endless stream of TikToks and Instagram Stories that give us a peek into the lives of the players inside the Wubble.
Some players brought family members with them to their Bradenton bubble which, in some cases, means couples content. Any gay fan of the WNBA is going to have their favorite queer couples. There are many, many lesbian couples to stan, far too many to include in a single column.
We love Layshia Clarendon and their wife, Jessica, but Jessica is pregnant and stayed home. Diana Taurasi and her wife, retired WNBA player Penny Taylor, are basketball royalty (and known for getting drunk on Instagram live and talking shit for four hours with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe), but Penny stayed home with the couples’ son, Leo. So for this column, I’m choosing to narrow down this list to couples who are in the Wubble together and providing us cute content from their isolated little world.
1. Aerial Powers and AzuréRae Turner
Aerial, a forward for the Washington Mystics, and her girlfriend, YouTuber AzuréRae, have a joint YouTube channel they started four months ago, during quarantine. You can watch them eat spicy noodles together and see AzuréRae meet Aerial’s family for the first time. The couple is in the Wubble together, creating videos. They’ve been receiving a bunch of homophobic comments after Powers had the gall to demand respect from an NBA player tweeting about her and failing to mention her name. If you have it in you, head over to their page and leave them supportive comments and show them how much the queers love them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Zy_8cqCAQ
2. Brittney Griner and Cherelle Griner
Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner and her wife, Cherelle, are sickeningly in love with each other and it drips from every single one of their posts. Cherelle posts Instagram Stories from the Wubble hanging out with Griner and watching her play. The two met years ago when they were both students at Baylor.
3. Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley
The married backcourt for the Chicago Sky (aka #Vanderquigz) are posting cute selfies from the workout room and being #goals for their teammates. You can also tune into Sky games to see the two balling out together. The couple kept their relationship private for more than five years, until two days after their wedding in 2018, when they announced their marriage on social media. “My career really took off once we started dating and we started really committing to each other and the court,” Vandersloot said in 2019. “Both of our careers took off. We owe each other a lot. We just want to continue to grow together both on and off the court.”
4. Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe
Lesbian icon and soccer superstar Megan Rapinoe is in the Wubble with her partner, Seattle’s Sue Bird. They haven’t posted a ton of content together but tbh I’m just living for the shots of whatever Megan is wearing that day. She looks like she walked out of Grey Gardens and is playing the part of Little Edie in the Wubble.
RT if you think @S10Bird and @mPinoe should do an impromptu episode of “A Touch More” commentating on tonight’s game!!! pic.twitter.com/8Y8G1vhANx
— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) August 2, 2020
Megan Rapinoe’s getting her own gameday arrival photos off in the wnba bubble.
I love it.
cc: @leaguefits pic.twitter.com/SRqdjS9CEi
— meredith minkow (@murrminks) July 26, 2020
"She’s chillin" -Sue Bird on how Megan Rapinoe is handling life in the #Wubble pic.twitter.com/kFGIZFr7tE
— Meredith Cash (@mercash22) August 5, 2020
This is a uh, look for Megan Rapinoe LMAO https://t.co/M6krJ3IVhE
— Halbridious (@Halbridious) July 31, 2020
5. Breanna Stewart and Marta Xargay
2018 MVP Stewie is in the Wubble with her girlfriend, Marta, a professional basketball player who has played for the W and currently plays in Spain. In addition to adorable photos on Instagram, Breanna Stewart’s girlfriend Marta is posting killer content on TikTok. In one video we learn that Marta kissed Stewie first, but Breanna Stewart said “I love you” first. In another, we watch Marta poke Stewie in the face repeatedly, which is truly relatable content (I am always the annoying partner in that scenario).
@mxc10
@mxc10
6. Chelsea Gray and Tipesa Mercedes
L.A. Sparks guard Chelsea Gray married her wife, Tipesa, last year. I’ve deduced from Instagram Stories that Tipesa is in the Wubble, though the two haven’t posted much content together from within it. However, they make this list because the two are gorgeous and have an Instagram Live show that talks about queer history.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCEaocUAM3i/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCHGQ3TAehj/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJ-xrXgV-2/
This week’s treat for your eyes: the Chicago Sky
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCXGJETF5ZV/
Pop Culture Fix: Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe Join the Call of Black Athletes for Racial Justice at the ESPYs
Welcome to your Monday Pop Culture Fix, friends.
+ ESPN’s annual ESPY Awards aired this weekend, and it was a whole different show this year — not only because it was happening remotely, but also because it centered Black Lives Matter, including the opening five-minute film which honored Jackie Robinson, Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, Colin Kaepernick and other Black athletes who have fought for racial justice throughout their careers. It’s narrated by Russell Wilson, Sue Bird, and Megan Rapinoe (who also managed multiple outfit changes throughout the night!).
"This is our moment to prove that we know a better world is one where Black lives are valued."@DangeRussWilson, @S10Bird and @mPinoe open the 2020 #ESPYS. pic.twitter.com/ntJzgtkhMq
— ESPN (@espn) June 22, 2020
+ Also:
I was very closeted when we made this film. Countless people over the years have told me how this movie made them feel seen and helped them come out. I want them to know their words and strength did the same for me. Thank you.
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎💗🤍💙 https://t.co/72XmYPdGqI— Clea DuVall (@cleaduvall) June 20, 2020
+ Variety‘s chief TV critic Caroline Framke has spent the morning calling out the TCA Awards’ overwhelming whiteness: “TCA’s only one org, but its historically narrow view of Good TV is an awful failure that’s indicative of a much larger issue: which shows get more notice, consideration, accolades, ‘mainstream’ cultural capital to spend. We need to stop talking about being better and just be it.”
+ Y: The Last Man is moving to FX on Hulu (a distinction I still don’t quite understand).
+ Please enjoy the FULL TRAILER for the Baby-Sitter’s Club and get excited for Carmen to review the heck out of this.
+ A whole documentary about Curve magazine, if you can believe it!
+ One Day at a Time‘s Gloria Calderón Kellett and Insecure’s Natasha Rothwell have sold a new feature to HBO Max. Listen to this! “The film is a classic ’80s coming of age story set in John Hughes’ Chicago but in this story the Brat Pack is in the background, and for the first time the focus is on the Brown kids, the LGBTQ kids, the Black kids, the real outsiders, because they were there, too.”
+ The AV Club’s list of best comedies on Hulu features some of your gay faves.
+ From Yohana Desta over at Vanity Fair: The Watermelon Woman: The Enduring Cool of a Black Lesbian Classic
Pop Culture Fix: Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe Keep Powering Each Other Up
Feature image via Sue Bird’s Instagram
Hello, friends, and welcome back to your weekly Pop Culture Fix.
+ Sue Bird at Team USA are training and traveling and doing press in the lead up to the summer Olympics and Bird just can’t stop talking about how much she loves Megan Rapinoe, even to CNN.
Living alongside Rapinoe, herself a pioneer in women’s soccer, has certainly had an influence on Bird. The pair are both unapologetic in their ambition and want to use their own success to pull others up behind them. It’s a relationship that seems to have got the best out of both and Bird is excited for what the future holds. “I’ve learned so much from Megan. Just watching her, how she carries herself, how she believes in certain things and sticks to it, never wavers, and there is a confidence that is required for that,” she says. “Who better to share ideas with, compare ideas with, poke holes in each other’s ideas? I mean, it’s really nice to just sit down and have someone to talk to that is going through the exact same things. More than anything I’m just incredibly proud of her.”
+ Over at the New York Times, Jenna Wortham profiled Dee Rees and it is brilliant.
+ Vampire Diaries fave Kayla Ewell is joining Batwoman as Nocturna and I am praying to every lesbian Jesus that they do not go with her storyline from the comics because it is so messed up and I love this show so much.
+ Brandi Carlile is recording a new song for the next Pixar film.
+ Rachel Charlene Lewis over at Bitch: An Ode to Diane Nguyen, Depressed Feminist Writer
+ At Sundance, GLAAD hosted a Queer, Black and Unapologetic panel. It’s really good.
+ Looks like agent Sheryll Barnes is queer on FBI: Most Wanted.
+ In a truly ironic turn of events, Will & Grace tried to tackle bisexual erasure.
+ Out of Sundance, Amazon picked up Tessa Thompson’s Sylvie’s Love.
+ Why the Friends vs. Living Single Twitter beef really matters.
+ Did you know Fact Checking The Bold Type is a thing at EW? ‘Cause it sure is!
+ Missy Elliott has joined Sony’s Cinderella adaptation.
+ Here’s what 10 queer and trans creatives predict for the next decade of LGBTQ2 representation.
+ Netflix has renewed Sex Education for season three.
+ Brit Marling: I don’t want to be the strong female lead.
+ Jane Fonda is building an army to defend the earth.
+ How #OscarsSoWhite changed the conversation around The Oscars.
+ If you haven’t yet seen the Gay Men’s Chorus Of Los Angeles perform their tribute to Laura Dern, please stop what you’re doing and treat yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcchdxkYfbQ
Sue Bird’s Essay About Megan Rapinoe Will Punch Your Heart in the Face in the Very Best Way
In two hours (from the time I hit publish on this post) the United States Women’s National Team will take on England in the FIFA Women’s World Cup, a tournament that’s always the absolute biggest deal in soccer, but has taken on even more significance this year as Donald Trump decided to go after Megan Rapinoe — whose vocal intersectional activism has always put her at odds with his oppression and tyranny — after a video of her saying, “I’m not going to the fucking White House” went viral last week. She responded to the media frenzy with not one, but two goals in last week’s victory over France, and struck such a pose after the first one that the entire world went berserk and Deadspin proclaimed “Purple-haired lesbian goddess flattens France like a crêpe!”
a mood #USWNT pic.twitter.com/S5rlI2CPRm
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) June 28, 2019
This morning Rapinoe’s partner, women’s basketball legend Sue Bird, penned a little essay in The Players’ Tribune called “So the President F*cking Hates My Girlfriend” and it is, without question, THE GREATEST THING I HAVE EVER READ IN MY LIFE. Bird opens thus: “I remember telling my editor here [after I broke my nose last season] something like, ‘It would take the President of the United States going on a hate-filled Twitter spree trolling my girlfriend while she was putting American soccer, women’s sports, equal pay, gay pride and TRUE LOVE on her back, all at once, scoring two majestic goals to lead Team USA to a thrilling victory over France and a place in the World Cup SEMIFINALS, for me to ever even think about writing again.'”
The essay follows the format of Bird’s old WNBA posts at the Players Tribune and is, ostensibly, about the World Cup semi-finals — but actually is THE GREATEST LESBIAN LOVE LETTER EVER WRITTEN (apologies to Emily Dickson, Mary Oliver, Anne Lister, and Vita Sackville-West). Part of it is about how surreal it was to become a personal target of Trump and his MAGA trolls, but most of it is just about how Megan Rapinoe is the baddest ass motherfucking athlete, partner, and human being in the world and how Sue Bird could not be more in love with her.
Like this:
But then Megan, man….. I’ll tell you what. You just cannot shake that girl. She’s going to do her thing, at her own damn speed, to her own damn rhythm, and she’s going to apologize to exactly NO ONE for it. So when all the Trump business started to go down last week, I mean — the fact that Megan just seemed completely unfazed? It’s strange to say, but that was probably the only normal thing about it. It’s not an act with her. It’s not a deflection. To me it’s more just like: Megan is at the boss level in the video game of knowing herself. She’s always been confident….. but that doesn’t mean she’s always been immune. She’s as sensitive as anyone — maybe more!! She’s just figured out how to harness that sensitivity.
And this:
And then eventually I came to realize the obvious: that Megan Goggles are a lot more than some cute running joke between us, about fashion choices or whatever — and that they’re actually this kind of skeleton key to Megan herself. Or, put another way: When I put on my Megan Goggles?? What I’m really doing, I think, is learning to understand her better — and, if this even makes any sense: I think at the same time, I’m learning how to understand myself better as well. I swear, it was like the most amazing thing happened [in the match against France]: It was like the entire country, all at once, for this one fleeting and improbable but also somehow very very very very possible moment….. PUT ON MEGAN GOGGLES.
Look, just go read it. You’ll never be the same.
Pop Culture Fix: Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe are Naked Together For ESPN’s Body Issue
This is your weekly Pop Culture Fix and Natalie wrote this headline but not as a headline just as a heads up in Slack, and when I saw it my eyes goggled out of my head and immediately I made it a headline. (Thank you, Natalie!) If Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe had been doing this gay bonanza when I was playing four sports in high school I would have been out of the closet in a nanosecond!
The 10th annual Body Issue drops June 25 … and we've got the full roster of athletes right here. pic.twitter.com/1XyfnOBntk
— ESPN (@espn) June 19, 2018
Over at HuffPo Margaret Cho is talking about how no one has ever truly accepted that she’s bisexual.
Janelle Monáe chatted with Ashley C. Ford for Allure about visibility, loving openly, and choosing freedom over fear. It’s a powerful, candid interview about how she used the her anger after Trump got elected and some therapy and some advice from Stevie Wonder to make Dirty Computer. You should read the whole thing, especially on this week.
We can confirm that: yes, there is some subtext between Elastigirl and the very obviously queer Evelyn in The Incredibles 2, and yes we’re gonna write about it, and yes Voyd is Kristen Stewart.
Al mentioned this in the Sunday Funday but I’m here to tell you that our own Kayla Upadhyaya is now officially a style icon and has been featured in The Cut with her Timothée Chalamet–inspired haircut.
The cast and crew of Vida and One Day at a Time have demanded an end to the separation of families at the border and they’re asking other series to step up with them and do the same.
Valerie Anne wanted you to know that your Dracula headcanon and her Dracula headcanon are true canon.
Roseanne spin-off or whatever.
Lena Waithe continues her rightful rule of the world.
MTV Trailblazer honoree @LenaWaithe brought fiancé Alana Mayo to the red carpet. ❤️❤️❤️ | Tune into #MTVAwards Monday at 9/8c on @MTV. pic.twitter.com/Qb1QtOrmgf
— Movie & TV Awards (@MTVAwards) June 17, 2018
#MTVAwards: @LenaWaithe thanks trail blazers: "they strutted through a brick wall so we wouldn't have to" pic.twitter.com/0f20rUJxEE
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 19, 2018
This shit again: Apparently Zia was meant to be a lesbian in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
If you haven’t seen Hearts Beat Loud you need to rectify that immediately and if you don’t believe me here is a brand new music video to prove it.
For Pride, Vulture has ranked the gayest Marvel movies.
And finally, and most importantly, meet the dog who plays Cheddar on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
26 Celebrity Gal Pals Who Made Us Swoon In 2017
Click for more 2017 End of the Year Lists
Is love a lie? PROBABLY, but these couples charmed the heck out of us this year anyway.
Abby Wambach and Glennon Doyle
The seemingly unlikely pairing of retired soccer star Wambach and noted Christian mommy blogger Glennon Doyle captured our imagination almost immediately. They tied the knot in May, but remained super cute and charmingly supportive of one another all year long.
Ellen Page and Emma Portner
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYeHFuphGH0/?taken-by=ellenpage
Anyone following Ellen Page on social media can tell that she’s obviously got it bad for this adorable dancer. For obvious reasons, my favorite kind of relationship is one that results in copious Instagram collaborations.
Kehlani and Shaina Negron
This has been a huge year for Kehlani, and it’s been particularly refreshing watching her open up in interviews about her sexuality – positive bisexual representation is still all too rare in the current media climate. Kehlani was particularly candid about her relationship with tattoo artist/painter Shania Negron and posted a lot of cute photos of the pair together. As of this writing, they seem to have deleted a lot of social media postings including one another and I’m not 100% sure if they’re still together, but I am including them here because they look(ed?) so damn incredible together.
Maisie Richardson-Sellers and Clay
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc0pzO-nZ5B/
Get you someone who looks at you the way these two BEAM at each other.
Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe
But did she spill a drink all over her shirt or what?
I will be the first one to tell you I don’t know a lot about sports people, but this year basketball superstar Sue Bird not only came out as gay, she also announced her relationship with soccer champ Megan Rapinoe. I imagine that they spend a lot of time gazing into one another’s eyes while doing hundreds upon hundreds of jumping jacks.
Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcKqHBPDp1b/?taken-by=cameronesposito
Perhaps you read Heather Hogan’s thoughtful profile of these two on this very website, or you fell in love with them through their excellent show Take My Wife, or maybe you went to see these two hilarious weirdos on their Back to Back comedy tour! Somehow, despite working together pretty much all the time (my personal relationship nightmare), Cameron and Rhea have emerged from 2017 with a #1 comedy album, excellent haircuts and an adorable social media presence.
Rutina Wesley and Chef Shonda
In the year of our lord 2017 I watched True Blood for the first time and was aghast at all of my friends who spent years telling me to watch this horrible show. Does Tara ever get a fucking break? She does, apparently, because Rutina Wesley came out in possibly the gayest Instagram post of all time – also announcing her engagement!
Gigi Gorgeous and Nats Getty
Riese’s favorite couple of 2017™ have been so adorable lately that news that they were around a baby once threw the internet into an uproar. They did not have a baby together this year but they did take this cute-ass photo on a boat.
Gaby Dunn and Ellen Ford
https://www.instagram.com/p/BY1mkREg4t7/?taken-by=gabyroad
I asked Gaby Dunn if she would like to make a statement about being in an article about the best celebrity couples of 2017 and she offered, “just that I am blessed and everyone should get a soft butch.” She would also like to let you know about Ellen’s Instagram account, where you can look at more pictures of her.
Kristen Stewart and Stella Maxwell
These two creeps have been stalking and glaring around Los Feliz for the better part of 2017 and even went as far as to adopt a (very cute) dog together. I may or may not have made a Google map detailing all the places they have been spotted purchasing green juice, and may or may not have dragged NSFW Editor Carolyn to almost all of those places on my last visit. This was also a notable year for Kristen because she gave us the following gift:
Janelle Monáe and Tessa Thompson
Listen, there’s no ACTUAL proof these two are actually dating but there’s also no proof these two aren’t dating and I believe that if you will something hard enough, you can actually manifest it with your brain. I have high hopes for these two UNCONFIRMED LOVEBIRDS in 2018 (and if for some reason it doesn’t work out, Janelle, Mara Wilson would like for you to call her).
For a thorough glimpse into all the extremely telling evidence that Janelle and Tessa are together, please enjoy this Twitter thread:
ok so it was not an awards show, it was the 2015 MOCA gala, but they a. went as dates and b. wore COMPLIMENTARY OUTFITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/9MRY9rwBkQ
— jaye (@hayejunt) October 9, 2017
Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor
Every year forever. No question.
Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli
These two nerds look deliriously happy around each other 100% of the time to the point where it’s actually rude. This was a depressing year on almost every level, but then Lauren and Samira shocked us all with their goddamn Funfetti-themed wedding and somehow, it gave us hope that everything just might turn out OK after all.
Legendary WNBA Superstar Sue Bird Is Gay and Also Dating Megan Rapinoe
Did you feel it this morning? The disturbance in the universe created by all the queer souls trying to escape their bodies at the news that WNBA superstar Sue Bird is dating USWNT superstar Megan Rapinoe? The disturbance was brought forth by ESPN’s wide-ranging, candid interview and profile with Bird, who has remained pretty quiet about her personal life throughout her career. It was both surprising and exhilarating to hear her simply say, “I’m gay. Megan’s my girlfriend.”
In the article, Bird opens up about dating Rapinoe; the two got together last fall, which is probably part of the reason the world didn’t entirely fall apart after the election, because there was still invisible LGBT magic holding it together at the seams.
Sue and Megan (and UConn superstar Maya Moore, cut off on the side of the frame) watching UConn win their 100th consecutive game in February.
Legendary women’s basketball writer Mechelle Voepel opens her profile with what Sue Bird is wearing the same way all profiles of famous women establish what they look like, but it’s glorious, and it’s for us. “She wears a ‘Femme Forever’ T-shirt, jeans and white Chucks. Dressed up or dressed down — even in her practice togs — her look is effortless.”
Voepel does a really nice job explaining Bird’s reticence to come out not as a shame issue, but more of a personal decision from a naturally private person (though Bird and the writer do touch on the very real issues of homophobia, sexism, and racism in professional sports).
“It’s happening when it’s happening because that’s what feels right,” Bird says. “So even though I understand there are people who think I should have done it sooner, it wasn’t right for me at the time. I have to be true to that. It’s my journey.”
Bird’s journey started at UConn when she realized she was gay, but she didn’t talked about it then, not even with her bestie and teammate Diana Taurasi, who just came out when she married retired WNBA player Penny Taylor in May. Bird and Taurasi only finally discussed their sexuality in the mid-2000s when they were playing together in Russia.
Bird said she was tempted to come out during the 2016 Olympics, but “chickened out.” She almost added it as #25 on a publicity questionnaire that asked her to write 25 things most people didn’t know about her. Then she heard it from the mouths of babes, one babe in fact: Elena Delle Donne, her Olympic teammate and Chicago Sky first-round-pick who also casually came out in a 2016 just ahead of the Olympics. She saw how easily Delle Donne, 26, chatted about her fiancée, Amanda Clifton, and was comforted by how ordinary it was.
Sue and Megan at a charity event for New York City Schools in December.
Of course Rapinoe is adorable throughout the interview, talking about how Sue Bird is her rock. And Bird speaks very plainly about how she enjoys her girlfriend’s passion.
The rest of the article is great, showing many facets of Bird’s life (I especially love her relationship with her best friend from childhood). According to teammate Lauren Jackson, Bird is always right and impossible to argue with.
I remember seeing Sue and Megan on TV in the crowd at a sporting event somewhere and thinking, “Holy smokes what if they’re together,” quickly followed with “Noooo, no way. It would be too much. They’re too beautiful and muscle-y and I am not sure we’re ready as a people yet.” But ready or not, this is real news in the real world. Two poster-worthy sports babes who have probably graced the bedrooms of a few readers and writers at Autostraddle, living and loving and shooting gay hoops together.