Swoopes not only sports one of the highest profiles in women’s basketball, but she is virtually peerless as one of the few top black athletes ever to come out while still playing. That fits the definition of “newsworthy” several times over, and the major news outlets have all picked up the story.

It’s no surprise that there have been blatantly homophobic and misogynistic reactions from many news columnists, such as this one from The Trentonian: “So did you here the SuperBigImportant news? You know, that Sheryl Swoopes is a lesbian? Pardon me if I care less. Bottom line, Sheryl Swoopes is a WNBA player—a great WNBA player, but a WNBA player nonetheless—which means she’s about as culturally important as the guy who played Nat on "Beverly Hills 90210."

The reaction by well-known television and radio sports talk personality Jim Rome was especially predictable. Exhibiting an almost literal phallocentrism, he said that compared to women athletes, men “have a lot more to lose because they have a lot more at stake. Bigger league. Bigger profile. Bigger dollars. Bigger backlash. Bigger ball. Bigger everything."”

The homophobia has been expressed more subtly in some major newspaper columns, through loaded language like stating that Swoopes has been “secretly living a gay existence” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

The major media coverage of the news has, for the most part, minimized, exaggerated and/or trivialized the issue of what it means to be a lesbian athlete who isn’t closeted.

The attempt to trivialize it comes in the form of positioning the matter as “private” because it’s about someone’s “sex life,” and therefore irrelevant to their position as an athlete. To wit: “Let's face it: On the list of shocking headlines, ‘WNBA player is gay’ falls somewhere between ‘Romo took steroids’' and ‘Steinbrenner is angry’” (The San Jose Mercury News), and: “This wasn't a big deal partly because the WNBA isn't a big deal, but partly because a star female athlete coming out really isn't that big a deal” (Salon.com).

But the idea that lesbian athletes are a non-issue assumes a climate of acceptance that queer athletes could only dream of. The supposed acceptance these columnists point to isn’t acceptance as much as a show of obligatory tolerance. WNBA President Donna Orender issued a statement that Swoopes's "lifestyle choice is a non-issue for us." Swoopes’ coach of nine years, the Comets’ Van Chancellor, issued a statement that "What she does in her personal life is her own decision.” Fellow star Lisa Leslie has said “I don't know why we're even talking about it. It's a private matter. It has nothing to do with basketball.”

This goes hand in hand with an exaggeration of how common and well-accepted lesbians are in the world of women’s sports. Women’s sports are popularly assumed to be teeming with lesbians, so one stepping forward less a surprise than it is a confirmation of a generally open secret.

In an amusing twist, in attempting to dispel the notion that most WNBA players are gay, Swoopes very casually confirmed some people’s worst fears and others’ ultimate fantasies—that half of the league is gay. In her ESPN coming-out article she insists that “the talk about the WNBA being full of lesbians is not true. I mean, there are as many straight women in the league as there are gay.”

But she also points out that “there are so many other issues to discuss besides rumors about the WNBA being full of lesbians. And I think that's why we don't get the type of fan support we deserve."

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