Seimone Augustus helped change the WNBA for gay players. Now she guides one at LSU
Seimone Augustus tells Outsports she was never truly 'in' the closet, became a beacon of hope for gay WNBA players. The post Seimone Augustus helped change the WNBA for gay players. Now she guides one at LSU appeared first on Outsports.
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This interview with trailblazing gay WNBA superstar and college basketball legend Seimone Augustus is part of Outsports’ monthlong series for Women’s History Month, “How women have led the way out of the closet in sports.”
There weren’t a lot of ways for Seimone Augustus to hide being gay when she entered the WNBA.
Years before that life-changing day in 2006 — when she was selected by the Minnesota Lynx with the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft — she’d come out to her parents, still a teenager in high school.
“I don’t think I could really hide,” Augustus recently told Outsports for our ongoing Women’s History Month series documenting how women have led the way out of the closet in sports.
When Augustus entered the league, only a very few players had come out publicly. New York Liberty player Sue Wicks is believed to be the first. WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes was another, her coming-out having at the time a big impact on a young Augustus.
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“She was expressive,” she remembered of Swoopes’ public coming-out. “Everyone else was behind the scenes. We knew who they were. But she was the first to say, ‘This is me.’
“That was a shift for everyone.”
When 2006 rolled around, Augustus wasn’t waving a rainbow flag up and down the court, but she was also very much not in the closet in her life.
“I’m a 6-foot, masculine-presenting Black woman. When I came out to my parents they were like, ‘We just wanted to hear you say it.’ And they cracked a beer open, went on with their day. That’s the biggest fear for anyone, disappointing their family.
“Once they were OK, I didn’t care what other people said.”
Entering the WNBA in just the league’s 10th season, still finding its way as a league and a culture, Augustus felt pressures not to stop being gay, but maybe not be so gay. She remembered watching WNBA games on ESPN as the camera seemed to give outsized attention to families in the stands.
“High school is different from college, and college is different from the pros,” she said. “They feared being gay, being out would run fans away. When in reality, a good amount of our fan base was LGBT.”
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Seimone Augustus in good company, gay in the WNBA
Success did not come quickly to the Lynx, despite the arrival of their new star. In her first five seasons, she she was WNBA Rookie of the Year and a multi-time All-Star while dealing with injuries that became a multi-season impediment to the development on the court of Augustus and her team.
Fortunes changed in 2010 when the Minnesota Lynx hired a new head coach, Cheryl Reeve. In their second season together, Reeve and Augustus led the Lynx to the WNBA championship, Augustus was named MVP of the WNBA Finals and Reeve won the WNBA Coach of the Year honor.
Reeve would marry her wife — Lynx executive Carly Knox — just days after the team celebrated its first-ever WNBA Championship with a parade in Minneapolis. By the following year, Augustus was completely out publicly, talking about her engagement to marry her then-girlfriend. She was named the Grand Marshall of Twin Cities Pride.
“I never felt alone entering the league knowing I’m gay. And especially with the Lynx. The parades that go on there, they do embody the melting pot.”
Yet being gay and in love in America in 2012 could still feel a bit unnerving at times. An election year, same-sex marriage was vilified by some, championed by others and on its way to the Supreme Court.
No men had come out while still playing in any of the Big Five pro leagues, and only one NBA player — John Amaechi — had done so in retirement.
Even in the WNBA, by the time Augustus came out only about a half dozen players had talked publicly about being gay or lesbian while still in the league.
Swoopes had shared her story in the final years of her playing career — Yet here was Augustus near the beginning of her career that would lead to four WNBA championships, eight WNBA All-Star teams, three Olympic gold medals, multiple Halls of Fame and a place on the all-time Top 25 WNBA team for the league’s quarter-century anniversary.
As she found success on the court — doing it all while publicly out — Augustus heard from others across the league and beyond about the impact she was having on their lives just by being her true self and living life openly.
“When I went on my journey I saw other people empowered by my life.
“Was it easy? Hell no. There are people who will try to tear you down, but you just have to have very thick skin and have confidence that you know you’re blazing a trail.”
Seimone Augustus joins LSU, her alma mater, as a coach
That journey has now taken her to coaching, first with the Los Angeles Sparks and now back at her alma mater, LSU, serving as an assistant coach for women’s basketball coaching legend Kim Mulkey.
“I wanted to be kicked up on an island on a beach,” she laughed. “Coaching found me. With the success I had, the player and person I was, so many opportunities were coming my way.
“I remember the day I got bit by the bug. I was able to instruct a player and she did it like I said. And I realized, they’re listening to me. How can I make this player better?”
One of those players she has had the chance to mentor this season is MiLaysia Fulwiley, who transferred from South Carolina last season. Fulwiley is one of the many out gay players competing in this year’s March Madness, and Augustus has been there to share her life story with the prodigy.
“Being an out athlete, there weren’t many players who were out like me when I played at LSU. [Milaysia’s] also a masculine-presenting woman, and people come with their perceptions. To be able to talk to her about that helps.”
Yet over the next three weeks, Augustus will be far more focused on her players’ numbers on the court than most anything off of it. The LSU Tigers are a 2-seed in the women’s March Madness tournament, playing the 15-seeded Jacksonville Dolphins in the first round.
Augustus is hoping to see greatness from her young gay player all the way to the final.
“As far as the basketball side for her, the upside is through the roof.
“Scary great.”
Now the four-time WNBA champion is chasing just about the only title she didn’t win when she played at LSU: National champion.
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The post Seimone Augustus helped change the WNBA for gay players. Now she guides one at LSU appeared first on Outsports.
