WNBA basketball star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner and her spouse, attorney Cherelle Griner, are expecting a child in July, they announced Saturday. They will join a growing number of queer parents in the WNBA—let’s meet some of them and look at their lives as elite athletes and mothers!
“Can’t believe we’re less than three months away from meeting our favorite human being,” the Griners posted on Instagram—and honestly, that’s a great way to think about your kid. They added the hashtags, “#BabyGrinerComingSoon #July2024”.
The couple married in 2019, although they met years earlier while students at Baylor University. In 2022, Brittney was detained in Russia for nearly 10 months for carrying vape cartridges with hashish oil, which she was authorized to use for medical purposes in the U.S., but which are illegal in Russia, reported the New York Times. Cherelle was instrumental in pushing for and obtaining her release. Brittney also has two children via a short-lived previous marriage.
Other queer-parent families with at least one parent (and sometimes two) in the WNBA include:
- Las Vegas Aces player and two-time Olympic gold medalist Candace Parker and her spouse, Russian Olympian Anna Petrakova, who will soon have three children (and made an awesome basketball-themed birth announcement for their third);
- Griner’s Phoenix Mercury teammate and five-time Olympic gold medalist Diana Taurasi and her spouse, former Mercury player Penny Taylor, who have two children. They had their second child between WNBA playoff games in October, when Taurasi flew home in a rush from Las Vegas to Phoenix after uttering the immortal words on camera, “Hold it in, babe. I’m coming.”
- New York Liberty player and two-time Olympic gold medalist Breanna Stewart and former Mercury player and Olympic silver medalist for Spain, Marta Xargay Casademont, who have two children. Their first child was born one day after Stewart won gold at the Tokyo Olympics. They even made a short video about their experience becoming parents via surrogacy and the first days of parenthood. Their second child, carried by Xargay, was born last fall, just a week after the Liberty took part (but lost) in the WNBA finals.
- Washington Mystics player and Australian Olympian Leilani Mitchell (who also played for the Mercury with Griner for several years) and her spouse Mikaela Dombkins, a former player and now assistant coach in Australia’s Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL), who have two children. Mitchell spoke with ESPN last year about playing while pregnant and breastfeeding, asserting, “I don’t know why people continue to assume if a woman gets pregnant in their 30’s they’re done playing basketball.”
- Connecticut Sun player DeWanna Bonner, who has two children with former Mercury teammate and former spouse Candice Dupree, but is now engaged to Sun teammate Alyssa Thomas. She told CT Insider last year that parenthood has inspired her playing, saying, “I’m more focused. I think I want it more (because of them). It’s pretty cool to look up and see your two kids sitting there going crazy and cheering for you. It makes you go a little bit harder. Everything I do is for them.”
- Las Vegas Aces player and Olympic gold medalist Chelsea Gray and former American Samoan team player Tipesa Gray, who had their first baby earlier this year.
- LA Sparks player Layshia Clarendon, the first out nonbinary WNBA player, and spouse Jessica Dolan, a sports executive, who had a child in 2020.
- Seattle Storm player Sami Whitcomb and spouse Kate Malpass, who have two children and were profiled in the Seattle Times about basketball and motherhood.
- Mercury assistant coach and Olympic silver medalist for Australia Tully Bevilaqua and spouse Lindsay Bevilaqua, a police sergeant, have two children.
- Sun head coach and former WNBA and Team USA player Stephanie White and partner Lisa Salters, an ESPN broadcaster and former college basketball player, are raising four sons, three from White’s previous marriage and one whom Salters had adopted while single. White told CT Insider last year, “I need to manage my time enough to where I can have my work time and I can have my time where I’m completely present for [my kids]. And, you know, there’s no balance. It’s just finding the right flow.”
Finding that flow between motherhood and an elite-level career in sports is not easy, as the CT Insider article shows. Yet White also spoke about the benefits, saying, “I love the fact that my kids get to be around strong women, that they get to understand what it means to champion women…. It shows them what you have to do to be really good and to be great at the things that you love.”
Bonner added that it is nice that her kids don’t care how many points she scores, noting, “When I get off that court and just get to be a mom, it’s the best.”
I’ll also point out a 2023 article from The Athletic about Atlanta Dream player Cheyenne Parker (who is not queer, to the best of my knowledge) and how she balances basketball and motherhood, particularly while playing in Europe during the WNBA offseason. The article notes that Cheyenne got lots of advice on motherhood from Candace Parker (no relation as far as I know), “who has offered wisdom about raising a daughter, the postpartum snapback process and the importance of treasuring time with a newborn.” I love seeing that kind of wisdom being passed on. To a large degree, I think, motherhood is motherhood (and parenthood parenthood), with the similarities between queer and not queer far outweighing the differences—although there is much we can learn from our differences as well.
The WNBA itself has had a bumpy road towards supporting its parent and prospective-parent athletes. Maternity and childcare benefits were expanded in its 2020 collective bargaining agreement, as Sports Illustrated reported, although at least one player has more recently accused her coach of harassing her about her pregnancy, reported the AP. And while players with eight or more seasons in the league can be reimbursed up to $20,000 per year for the costs of adoption, surrogacy, egg freezing, or other fertility treatments, many players have far fewer seasons—and LGBTQ players are more likely to need such assistance. The AP is sadly right, though, in noting, “Compared to other industries, this is a progressive offering that is inclusive of LGBTQ+ athletes.” Despite some progress, though, I think the WNBA and our country as a whole can do better here.
Here’s to all of the players and coaches, then, who have taken on the challenge of handling both dribbling balls and dribbling kids, and congratulations to the Griners on their upcoming arrival!
(If I’ve missed anyone above, apologies, and please leave a comment to let me know!)
