Sexual intolerance and bigotry is still very much alive in women's basketball. The intolerance toward another's sexual orientation spans across all sports and is not limited to the frequently chastised men discussed every day in the media. Last year, one of the most inspiring female basketball players of a generation, Brittney Griner, spoke out against Baylor University's intolerance toward open lesbianism. Now, two young female athletes are taking legal action against Pepperdine University for "running them off" after their relationship was discovered.
The 24-year-old Brittney Griner currently plays for the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA. Before that, she played college ball for Baylor University out of Waco, Texas. During her time there, she was the first NCAA player to score 2,000+ points and block 500+ shots.
In 2012, she was nominated for most outstanding player of the Final 4.
Even with such a grand reputation, she was still oppressed on a personal level. According to USA Today, Griner admitted that coaches informed her to keep her sexual orientation to herself:
"Don't talk openly about your sexuality if you're a lesbian and a member of the Baylor women's basketball team. That's the message coach Kim Mulkey relayed to her players, former star center Brittney Griner, who is gay, says in a story on ESPN.com. The coaching staff felt it was better for players to keep their sexuality to themselves to lessen any impact on the program's recruiting efforts."
One would think that with all this generation has done to progress equal rights in country, blatant intolerance from a notable university such as this would be dying out. In reality, it is still happening far too often.
According to TMZ Sports, Haley Videckis and Layana White are suing Pepperdine University for giving them the boot:
"Two female college basketball players have sued Pepperdine -- claiming the University is running them off the basketball team because they are involved in a lesbian relationship...several officials at Pepperdine -- a Christian-based university in Malibu -- began to suspect the players were in a lesbian relationship earlier this year...and started looking for an excuse to boot them off the team...The women claim the basketball coach, Ryan Weisenberg, gave a speech...in which he said, 'Lesbianism is not tolerated on this team. It is the reason why teams lose.'"
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