Professional Athletes Who Identify As LGBTQ+

The following article includes mentions of attempted suicide and homophobia.

For decades, several professional athletes have continued to break down barriers when it comes to conversations surrounding sexuality and gender identity in their respective sports. Back in 1981, tennis legend Billie Jean King made history as the first prominent female athlete to publicly come out as lesbian after being outed. "I said: 'I'm going to do it. I don't care. This is important to me to tell the truth,'" King later told NBC News of her decision to confirm her sexuality. "The one thing my mother always said, 'To thine own self be true.'"

Some 32 years later, NBA star Jason Collins became the first openly gay player in any of the major U.S. sports leagues. "I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay," he wrote in an essay for Sports Illustrated, adding, "I've reached that enviable state in life in which I can do pretty much what I want. And what I want is to continue to play basketball. ... At the same time, I want to be genuine and authentic and truthful."

Apart from Billie Jean King and Jason Collins, however, several more athletes have, in more recent years, fully embraced their truth, proving time and again that their sexual and gender identities do not define their skills as athletes. From Nikki Hiltz to Brittney Griner, here are some professional athletes who proudly identify with the LGBTQ+ community.

In June 2021, Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Carl Nassib became the first active player in the NFL to come out publicly as gay. "I'm at my house here in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I just wanted to take a quick moment to say that I'm gay," Nassib said in an Instagram video shared with his thousands of followers. "I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest. I really have the best life, I've got the best family, friends, and job a guy could ask for."

Nassib would later attribute his coming out to his hopes of helping young LGBTQ+ people who might have been struggling just like him. "Personally, from my life, I didn't want to do it, but I just ... felt a huge obligation to my community," he said during an appearance on the "Comeback Stories" podcast that September. "To all the young kids out there who were struggling with their sexuality, if I could just help a few of them out, then I really could sleep better at night."

This reasoning has further played out in Nassib's involvement with The Trevor Project, an organization providing crisis support to LGBTQ+ youth. In his coming out video, Nassib announced a $100,000 donation to the group. "They're an incredible organization. ... They are truly doing incredible things, and I'm very excited to be part of it," he said.

Not willing to hide his truth anymore, hockey player Luke Prokop came out as gay in July 2021. "It has been quite the journey to get to this point in my life, but I could not be happier with my decision to come out," Prokop wrote in part in an Instagram post. "From a young age I have dreamed of being an NHL player, and I believe that living my authentic life will allow me to bring my whole self to the rink and improve my chances of fulfilling my dreams." With his announcement, Prokop made history as the first active NHL player to openly identify as gay.

And if Prokop had any fear about how his life or career would be affected by coming out, he soon found a depth of support surrounding him in the league. "It seems like it was a long time ago, but it's been nothing but a positive experience for me," the Nashville Predators defenseman said, per the NHL's website. "It's been really amazing the way my teammates have been with me, even opponents." 

Unsurprisingly, coming out has also done wonders for this athlete's confidence on and off the ice. Prokop has since racked up several achievements, including the WHL and CHL humanitarian of the year awards for his contribution towards LGBTQ+ inclusion in hockey and sports at large.

During their freshman year in college, runner Nikki Hiltz came out as gay to their roommate and teammate, per ESPN. Having hidden it for so long, they finally felt free — to be themself and to live their truth. As a result, Hiltz experienced tremendous changes in their running skills. "I started placing higher. It was like I was finally myself," they told ESPN. "Running is such a mental sport. When you can be happy and holistic off the track, it's really going to translate on it. I saw that direct correlation." This, however, was not the end of Hiltz's discovery journey.

In March 2021, the pro runner came out as transgender and non-binary. "Sometimes I wake up feeling like a powerful queen and other days I wake up feeling as if I'm just a guy being a dude, and other times I identify outside of the gender binary entirely," they wrote in part on Instagram. "It's complicated and complex and something I'm still trying to navigate myself, but I've decided it's time to share my gender fluidity with you all." 

By coming out, Hiltz hoped to inspire a real change in society's reaction to LGBTQ+ identities. "I think sport could actually be one of the first places that change can happen," they said, per WBUR.

Though she initially came out to her family as a high school student, it was not until a 2013 interview with Sports Illustrated that WNBA star Brittney Griner publicly came out as a lesbian. In that same interview, she opened up about being bullied as a child for a number of reasons including her sexuality. "It was hard. Just being picked on for being different. Just being bigger, my sexuality, everything," the basketball center said. "I overcame it and got over it."

Since coming out publicly, the WNBA star has continued to champion LGBTQ+ representation in sports. That same year, Griner even signed a deal with Nike, making her the first openly gay athlete to sign with the company. "It's safe to say we jumped at the opportunity to work with her because she breaks the mold," Nike's spokesman Brian Strong said of her signage at the time (via ESPN). Even though Griner has been regarded as a trailblazer in sports, she's insisted she's only trying to help LGBTQ+ youth. "I just kind of look at it like ... I'm just trying to make it where it's not as tough for the next generation," she told People.

In 2019, Griner married wife Cherelle Griner, who has continued to fight for the basketball pro's release from Russia following her February 2022 arrest and subsequent nine-year prison sentence for marijuana possession. That November, Cherelle told "The View," "BG's my person. We do absolutely everything together and so it has been really hard trying to adjust how to live every day without your favorite person."

In 2004, Diana Taurasi made her entry into the WNBA when she was selected first overall pick by Phoenix Mercury. That same year, she won the WNBA rookie of the year award. In the years that have since passed, Taurasi has garnered even more achievements, including four WNBA championships, five Olympic gold medals, and three FIBA World Cups, per The Guardian. To top it all, in 2021, Taurasi was named WNBA's greatest player of all time, as reported by People.

But outside of her stellar career, the WNBA star enjoys a beautiful family life with her wife and former Phoenix teammate, Penny Taylor, whom she married in 2017, according to TMZ Sports. "It was the most amazing and beautiful day of our lives," Taurasi told People of their big day. "To be able to share our love with family and close friends meant the world to us." The following year, they welcomed their first child, son Leo Michael. Their second child, a daughter whom they named Isla, was born three years later in October 2021.

As for her stance on the sexuality conversation in sports, Taurasi believes maturity will play a bigger role in helping people accept everyone's differences. "Whether it's sexuality, whether it's race, whether it's religion, as you get older and as you become a smarter person, you'd think you would look at things differently," she said, per USA Today. 

Though Chelsea Gray was drafted into the WNBA in 2014, a knee injury had her sitting out her first season. The point guard made her debut the following year, albeit with not as much confidence as she needed. "I wasn't really hesitant on my leg or worried getting hit in the air," she told Andscape. "I kind of prepared for that before going overseas, but having that confidence was what I needed to work on." In the years that followed, Gray proved herself an incredible baller, winning two championships as well as a finals most valuable player award.

Outside of work, however, the WNBA player enjoys just as much bliss with her longtime partner, Tipesa Mercedes Moorer. Having gotten engaged only a year before, Gray and Moorer tied the knot in 2019. Per OutSports, the couple's big day was graced by many other WNBA stars, including Jantel Lavendar, Candace Parker, and Ify Ibekwe. Though the two keep their marriage as private as can be, Gray and Moorer never fail to let the world — or in this case, their thousands of Instagram followers — know just how smitten they are by each other! "You're my person forever and always," Gray captioned a sweet black-and-white pic of the two in November 2022, adding alongside a heart emoji, "Happy Anniversary babe."

In 2015, WNBA star Layshia Clarendon came out in an essay written for The Players' Tribune, writing, "I identify as black, gay, female, non-cisgender, and Christian." Five years later, Clarendon touched on their gender identity again in a heartfelt Instagram post. "There is indeed no one way to be Trans," they wrote in part, adding, "Existing outside of the binary for me is freedom. I've learned that my gender just doesn't fit into these molds that keep trying to hold it down and box it in." The WNBA star also noted that as they continued to grow, so would their gender continue to evolve. In January 2021, Clarendon, who uses all pronouns, shared that they had undergone top surgery, noting on Instagram that the procedure had them "feeling a sense of gender euphoria as opposed to gender ⁣dysphoria."

Two years after initially coming out, Clarendon tied the knot with their partner, Jessica Dolan, per OutSports. The couple has since welcomed a baby together, whom Clarendon revealed is free of gender assignment. This, according to the WNBA star, will help the baby figure out the gender they want to identify with when they are older. "We aren't going to give them a pronoun just because they have been assigned one sex," Clarendon said during a 2021 appearance on the "Our Body Politic" podcast. "... So, I really just want them to know that their life and their body is their own, to make decisions at their own time and with their own free will."