I wanted to be out, and I wanted to be open, but it was like a survival tactic.

See more of Layshia Clarendon on Facebook. We have been emotionally abused, kicked out of communities and ostracized for simply being ourselves.

He was totally fine with it, like, ‘I love you.’ And I came out to my sister earlier than that, kind of like, ‘I am what you are,’ but I still didn’t have all the words for it. or. I’d be out in some basketball spaces, but not ones where I knew those parents clearly weren’t accepting, but their daughter might know, you know? She was just super affirming, so I knew I could go to Cal and I could be okay, I could be safe.“I came out to my brother when I was in college, and he was totally fine. We were supposed to go to Hawaii for a basketball tournament around Thanksgiving and I asked him, ‘Would you come if you knew I was gay?’ “And he was like, ‘No!’ And I was like, ‘Well, I guess you’re not coming!’ I feel bad that it was such a terse way to come out to your dad, but at that point I was just so sick and tired of living for other people. I really just was like, ‘I’m the same person. Then I came out to my mom in [sophomore] year and one of the first things she said to me was, ‘Please don’t tell your dad,’ because it was that strong of a, ‘Oh, no, this is gonna cause another problem in the family.’“She was always a little more relaxed on it, kind of, I think, supporting my dad a little bit, but less so that she really believed it was wrong, and so I was just like, ‘Mom!

Empowering the influencer generation. Eventually he just got to a place where he saw that this is who I am and who I’ve always been, and so we’re in a much better place. I’d be out in some basketball spaces, but not ones where I knew those parents clearly weren’t accepting, but their daughter might know, you know?

Congratulations to WNBA star Layshia Clarendon and her wife, sports agent Jessica Clarendon, who say “no, we aren’t finding out the sex” of their baby.And with the picture and through her tongue-in-cheek hashtags, Layshia made it clear her wife is the one carrying: #ShesCarrying #AintGotTimeForThat“I’m terrified and ecstatic all at the same damn time!” the former Layshia also made it clear in her post: they are not going to find out the baby’s sex in advance.“From the beginning I was like, we better be queer-inclusive on this,” Clarendon said at that time. The WNBA player reflects on coming out to her parents and identifying as gender nonconforming in a new podcast interview.Clarendon came out not all at once but, “more in little spurts,” she said. New York Liberty’s Layshia Clarendon shares her coming out storyGay high school lacrosse player found strength from pro player’s allyshipAntonio Corral came out as gay while playing high school lacrosse and said a pro player’s support for LGBTQ athletes meant a lot.Triathlons kept gay athlete sane during his coming out‘Swimming, biking, running and lifting took away the anxiety caused by being in the closet,’ says Matthew Helmerichs.Here’s your daily look at LGBT Sports stories, social and starsOutsports invites you to join The Huddle every morning for a fresh look at what’s new in LGBT sports, the latest links and the hot goss.The World Gay Boxing Championships look to ‘disrupt’ homophobia in sportsFounder Martin Stark plans to hold the first World Gay Boxing Championships in Sydney, Australia in 2023 with a number of LGBTQ fight nights in the lead up.NFL coach Bruce Arians honored as ‘Champion for Equality’ by Billie Jean King’s foundationThe Women’s Sports Foundation is honoring Arians as its "Champion for Equality" for his commitment to gender inclusivity in football. All those things from the very beginning, I’m trying to really make sure we’re making it as inclusive as possible for all types of working moms in this league.”Thanks to her hard work, stipulations in the WNBA collective bargaining agreement include a $5,000 child-care credit, plus a guarantee for two-bedroom housing.

It was kind of fluttering between two worlds, which is oftentimes how the coming out process works.“I wasn’t out to my family and they were super, at the time, homophobic, like, ‘This is not okay.’ So that was a level of like, shit, I gotta get out of here and get somewhere that I could be more out. They got to the rim. At that point I’d been pretty immersed in my church and feeling better about who I was and solid in my identity.