Coming Out in Print

Award-winning actors, iconic rock stars, champion athletes, and controversial political figures — all have shared their coming-out stories with The Advocate.

BY Jeremy Kinser

August 23 2012 5:00 AM ET

Sheryl Swoopes
Issue 951, November 22, 2005
The Houston Comets star, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time MVP of the WNBA, is considered one of the greatest female basketball players in the history of the sport. In 2005, Swoopes told the world she was in a long-term relationship with another woman and landed a lucrative endorsement deal with Olivia Cruises. In 2011 newspapers reported that Swoopes was now engaged to a man, but the athlete refuses public comment.

“I don’t want to say I’ve been living a lie, but for the past seven, eight years I haven’t been able to be comfortable in my own skin, around my own friends and family.”