MISTER-RY

So Who Is Bisexual Sheryl Swoopes’ Mystery Fiance Anyway?

Yesterday when we announced that WNBA basketball player Sheryl Swoopes was engaged to a man, one of you called her a “lie-sexual” (which is a clever, if not bi-phobic neologism). But more of you wanted to see the man that changed her lesbian ways. Well here he is and in our humble but accurate opinion, he’s not as hot as her ex-girlfriend. But that’s just us.

Her fiance is longtime friend Chris Unclesho (Uncle Show?). When Swoopes initially came out, Swoopes was dating Alisa “Scottie” Scott, “the former assistant coach for Swoopes’ original WNBA team the Houston Comets.” Scott and Swoopes’ son Jordan frequently attended her practices and games as she played for the Dallas Fury and the Seattle Storm. But before Scott, Swoopes was married to a man, so her “newfound” bisexuality shouldn’t come as a total surprise.

When she first came out Swoopes said, “I’m not bisexual. I don’t think I was born [gay]. Again, it was a choice. As I got older, once I got divorced, it wasn’t like I was looking for another relationship, man or woman. I just got feelings for another woman. I didn’t understand it at the time, because I had never had those feelings before. After being [with Scott] for three to four years and not having feelings for another man is when I understood who I really was.”

She has also said, “It doesn’t change who I am. I can’t help who I fall in love with. No one can. … Discovering I’m gay just sort of happened much later in life. Being intimate with [Alisa] or any other woman never entered my mind. At the same time, I’m a firm believer that when you fall in love with somebody, you can’t control that.”

But we shouldn’t misunderstand her. She’s not saying that no queers folks are “born that way,” she’s just saying that she doesn’t think that she was. And when she calls it “a choice”, she probably means that she chose to give in to her love for her lesbian partner.

Her fluid sexuality doesn’t diminish her accomplishments as an NCAA WOmen’s Basketball Champion, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and three-time recipient of the WNBA’s MVP award. Nor does it diminish the positive effect she has had as an openly-queer, African-American, female athlete. We need role models like her and do ourselves no help by judging her for her sexual partners.

So much for her being a “lie-sexual.”

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