USA Today Hypes Tattooed Lesbian WNBA Player as ‘Role Model’

June 18th, 2013 2:11 PM

If you’re looking for a new role model for your daughter, USA Today has a suggestion: heavily-tattooed, androgynous lesbian Brittney Griner.

Newly-famous WNBA player Griner made a few sports headlines recently, but USA Today’s Scott Gleeson lauded her as both “the face of WNBA” and as a “role model.” He simpered over her sense of humor as she picked out new tattoo ink with her current girlfriend, and hailed the moment as an example of how Griner is “finally free to be herself” after coming out last April.  

After announcing that she was gay, Griner promptly sealed a contract with Nike to model men’s clothing, but claimed she already was planning to flaunt an “androgynous” style.

Gleeson spent time hyping Griner’s new-found adult “freedom,” which has made her “comfortable in her own skin” – a skin which sports skull and sexuality tattoos, among other inky artwork.  Gleeson painted her as “the victim of bullying” because of her homosexuality and quoted Griner on her current girlfriend: “We hooked up and it was good, it was different … I'm a rebel; I buck the system a little bit. She's like the complete opposite.”  

Another part of her “rebel” side, apparently, is her confessed “road rage,” but Gleeson focused on the fact that Griner is gay. The WNBA player, Gleeson explained, claims that she wants society to get “to the point where the reaction to being gay is ‘oh, that's cool.’” 

Gleeson concluded the article by quoting a WNBA fan whose daughter looks up to Griner as her “hero” because she’s so “confident with who she is.” 

We already know the media will gush over any athlete who comes out of the closet, and even blame discrimination when teams cut underperforming athletes who happen to support the gay agenda. And the sports world certainly has pushed the sexual image of its stars in the past. But, seriously? A tattoo-splattered androgynous lesbian rebel with road rage who dresses like a guy is the new role model for our daughters? 

Maybe she should just stick to being a model for men’s clothing instead.