Which WNBA players are gay and how many of them are gay? Well, when Autostraddle published our very first list of out gay WNBA players several years back, it held merely 15 names. Last season, that number had climbed to 38, although two of the players on last year’s list ended up getting waived from their teams shortly into the season, leaving us with 36. In the weeks leading up to rosters getting finalized this year, it looked like we might improve on that number — but cuts were made, and we find ourselves here, today, with 36 definitively out gay players. There are also four players I’ve seen mentioned elsewhere as gay but can’t find additional sources to confirm, and some rookies who could come out as the season progresses, perhaps! I will update this post as events warrant.
If you want to prepare yourself fully for the 2025 Season, you will find everything you need to do so in Natalie’s previews for the Eastern Conference and the Western.
Atlanta Dream Gay Players
Brittney Griner
The legendary Brittney Griner and her wife, Cherelle, welcomed a baby boy just before the Olympics last year. Griner became the first out gay college player drafted to the WNBA when she went first to the Phoenix Mercury in 2013, and was traded to the Dream ahead of the 2025 season.
Jordin Canada
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In addition to an already prolific seven-year career in the WNBA, Canada is a musician.
Chicago Sky Gay Players
Courtney Vandersloot
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In December 2018, Vandersloot married her then-teammate Allie Quigley, who left the Sky in 2022. They welcomed a baby girl to their family this April.
Dallas Wings Gay Players
Arike Ogunbowale
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Ogunbowale got engaged to her fiance, influencer Lala Ronay, last May.
Dijonai Carrington
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Dijonai Carrington, traded to the Wings from the Sun prior to this season, is dating her now-teammate, Nalyssa Smith. Their relationship has been a non-stop delight for the women’s basketball community.
Nalyssa Smith
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Smith previously played for the Fever and now is playing alongside her girlfriend, Dijonai Carrington. They’ve had an on-and-off relationship since attending college together at Baylor.
Tyasha Harris
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Harris’s girlfriend, Autumn Jones, is already sporting memorable courtside looks and facial expressions. Harris was drafted by the Wings in 2020, but played a season at the Sun and one in China before returning to the Wings this year.
Golden State Valkyries Gay Players
Kate Martin
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Kate, who was drafted to the Aces out of college and traded to the Valkyries this year, came out by going public with her relationship to Claire Gransee, with whom Martin attended college.
Cecelia Zandalasini
The Italian player spent a season with the Minnesota Lynx in 2018 and again in 2024, but was picked up by the Lynx in the expansion draft. She has a hot Italian girlfriend, Sara Barbieri.
Indiana Fever Gay Players
DeWanna Bonner
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Bonner is in one of the W’s most high-profile couples — she is engaged to Alyssa Thomas, with whom she played on The Connecticut Sun until they were both traded this year. (Thomas landed at the Phoenix Mercury.)
Natasha Howard
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Howard was drafted to the Fever in 2014, but didn’t stay there — after playing with the Wings for her last two seasons, she came to the Fever as a free agent ahead of the 2025 season. Her wedding to hair salon entrepreneur Jac’Eil Duckworth Howard was featured on the eleventh season of Basketball Wives.
Sydney Colson
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Sydney Colson is the face of the WNBA, the star of the Syd & TP Show, a fashion icon and truly the most entertaining human being in the league. She comes to the Fever this year from the Aces.
Las Vegas Aces Gay Players
Crystal Bradford
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Crystal wrote an essay for The Player’s Tribune in 2023 that included a story of coming out to her mother in high school. After one season with the Sparks in 2015, she didn’t play in the W again until a 2021 run with the Atlanta Dream. After sitting out one game for a suspension over a 2021 fight in Atlanta, she’ll be on the court with the Aces this season.
Chelsea Gray
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Gray is a legend, sporting two Olympic gold medals, three WNBA Championships and one Unrivaled championship. Chelsea and her wife, Tipsea Gray, had a baby in February of 2024.
Jewell Loyd
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The Las Vegas Aces picked up one of the league’s top talents after she asked to be traded from the Seattle Storm, where she’d been playing since 2015. Her girlfriend, Téa Adams, is a point guard for the Estonia Women’s National Basketball Team. (They haven’t posted together recently but I think they’re still together??)
Kierstan Bell
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Bell has been with the Aces since the 2022, when she was drafted by them 11th overall.
Los Angeles Sparks Gay Players
Emma Cannon
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Cannon debuted in the WNBA in 2017, and has played internationally and for four different WNBA teams before signing with the Sparks for 2025. She and her wife, Tia Cannon, had their first child in 2022, and welcomed twins, a boy and a girl, to their family in April.
Julie Allemand
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Belgian baller Julie Allemand was picked up by the Indiana Fever in the 2016 draft, but she spent the next three years playing in Europe before returning to the Fever in 2020, but sat out the subsequent year for her mental health. She joined the Sky for 2022, but opted out in 2023 to focus on the Belgian national team — she was the only out lesbian on their 2024 Olympics squad. In 2024, she was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks, but was injured shortly thereafter. This will be her first season actually playing for the Sparks, and her second in the WNBA.
Minnesota Lynx Gay Players
Alanna Smith
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Smith has played for the Australian Olympic basketball team as well as for the Mercury, Fever and Sky. This is her second season with the Minnesota Lynx.
Courtney Williams
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Top WNBA Hottie Courtney Williams, who began her WNBA career in 2016 and was a key player for the Lynx as they battled for a championship last year, got engaged to her girlfriend, real estate agent Shya, last November, and we were all pretty excited about it!
Kayla McBride
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McBride, who’s been playing in the W since 2014 and with the Lynx since 2021, recently wrote a piece for The Player’s Tribune about her mental health journey.
Natisha Hiedeman
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Tisha and her former Connecticut Sun teammate, Jasmine Thomas, got engaged in 2021 and had a wedding website set up for 2023, but they haven’t posted pictures together in quite some time. This is Tisha’s second year with the Lynx after five in Connecticut.
New York Liberty Gay Players
Breanna Stewart
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Stewart’s wife, Marta Xargay Casademont, is a former player for the Phoenix Mercury and the Spanish National Team. They have two children together.
Isabelle Harrison
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Two WNBA couples traded their way into playing on the same team (literally and figuratively) this season, one of them is Harrison and girlfriend Tasha Cloud. Cloud has described herself as dating an “beautiful straight woman that fell in love with me,” which is interesting!
Jonquel Jones
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Our King, 2024 WNBA Championship MVP Jonquel Jones, has been engaged to her fiancee, nail tech Nesha Keeshone, since 2023.
Natasha Cloud
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Natasha Cloud is, as aforementioned, dating Izzy Harrison, who she says radically transformed her life at a time when she was in need of refocusing. Cloud began her WNBA career in 2015 and is a new addition to the Liberty’s roster.
Phoenix Mercury Gay Players
Alyssa Thomas
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Alyssa Thomas is one of the WNBA’s top players and is engaged to DeWanna Bonner, her former teammate at the Connecticut Sun.
Kahleah Copper
Copper, the Mercury’s top scorer, got engaged to her girlfriend, Swedish National Team baller Binta Drammeh, in 2023, but haven’t posted much about the relationship since then! Unfortunately she underwent a left knee arthroscopy last week that has sidelined her for the first 4-6 weeks of the season.
Natasha Mack
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(Photo by Aryanna Frank/Getty Images)
Mack was drafted to the Sky in 2021, played in Poland for two years, and then joined the Mercury in 2024. Her girlfriend, Leecy, is a middle school teacher!
Sami Whitcomb
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Whitcomb’s career has been long and international, including 8 years in the WNBA. This is her first season with the Mercury. She and her wife, Kate Malpass, have two small kiddos.
Sevgi Uzun
The Turkish basketball player played her first season with the WNBA last year in Dallas and, I believe, is married to athlete digital creator Selin Uzun.
Seattle Storm Gay Players
Erica Wheeler
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Erica Wheeler is engaged to her girlfriend, Danielle Edwards. She went undrafted out of Rutgers in 2015 and is now a two-time WNBA All-Star. She signed with the Storm after playing for the Fever last year.
Washington Mystics Gay Players
Brittney Sykes
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Sykes’ girlfriend, Morghan Medlock, is a chef with courtside style so good it was featured in Vogue magazine last year — she often coordinates her outfits to match Sykes’ chosen color palette of the day.
Emily Engstler
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This is Emily’s second year at Washington.
Stefanie Dolson
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Stef Dolson, who won a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with her 3×3 team, recently celebrated her two year anniversary with her girlfriend Kristen Podlovits, who works as an Account Manager for Membership Services for the New York Liberty.
Sug Sutton
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Sug has been with the Mystics since 2024, after originally being drafted there in 2020, getting waived in 2021, playing overseas, and then playing with the Mercury in 2023.
Which WNBA Team Has the Most Gay Players?
The Phoenix Mercury was the WNBA team with the most gay players in 2024 (six) and despite losing several of them —Brittney Griner to the Dream, Natasha Cloud to the Liberty and Diana Taurasi to retirement —Phoenix managed to recruit new homosexuals to fill their spots, and is once again the gayest team in the WNBA.
The Connecticut Sun managed to break the mold this year, after losing three lesbians including power couple Alyssa Thomas and Dewanna Bonner, they are attempting to compete in the league with zero (0) lesbians on their team.
What Percentage of the WNBA Is Gay?
23% of the WNBA is gay. As of right now, there are 36 out gay players in the WNBA for the 2025 season. Last year we had 36 gay players (because two were waived shortly into the season) — but we also had a smaller league last year, which gave us a solid 25% of WNBA players clocking in as gay or lesbians, with similar levels the year prior.
But now, with the addition of the Golden State Valkyries, we’ve got 153 players on rosters for the 2025 season, and with just 35 of them being out as gay, the percentage has dropped to 23.5%. So now we’re somewhere in between 2022, when the league was 20% gay, and last year, when we’d scaled the mighty quarter.
Seven of last year’s gay players aren’t on any rosters this year. The league’s all-time highest scorer, Diana Taurasi, retired, as did Layshia Clarendon, the league’s first out non-binary athlete. The Atlanta Dream’s Aerial Powers and the Seattle Storm’s Victoria Vivians are now free agents. #1 Shorty Crystal Dangerfield was waived by the Atlanta Dream 15 games into the 2024 season, and played a 7-day hardship contract with the Los Angeles Sparks but didn’t land on any 2025 rosters. Dyaisha Fair, drafted to the Aces for her rookie season, was waived the day after her league debut last May and then left the country. Jordan Horston suffered an ACL injury during the 2025 Athletes Unlimited Pro basketball season and it was confirmed in April that she’d miss the 2025 season.
Which New Gay Players Are in the WNBA This Year?
Sadly not Shyanne Sellers, who was drafted to the Valkyries, then waived, then picked up by the Dream, and then waived again. Czech lesbian Elissa Cunane also was signed to a training camp contract with the Valkyries but didn’t make the final roster. But we also added three new lesbians — Belgian player Julie Allemand came back from her injury to play for the Sparks and Italian baller Cecelia Zandalasini joined the Valkyries and Crystal Bradford signed with the Aces. Stay tuned for anybody else coming out because we deserve a little joy in this world and that joy exists on the court of a women’s basketball game. I promise.
Where Can I Get a Gay 4 WNBA Hat?
i have so been looking forward to the return of wnba writing on autostraddle! all the coverage has been great and i will be copping a gay 4 wnba hat asap
also i have spent a considerable amount of time googling “is kayla mcbride gay” and “kayla mcbride girlfriend” and “kayla mcbride boyfriend?????” but i wasn’t able to find an answer so i really appreciate finally getting some clarity on this important topic!