Lynx Player Becomes The Only Openly Gay Active WNBA Player

Lynx C Michele Van Gorp recently became the "only active WNBA player to publicly acknowledge being gay," according to Pam Schmid of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. Van Gorp discussed her four-year civil union with spouse Kyleen in a recent interview with Lavender, a Twin Cities-based magazine geared to the gay community. The relationship has been mentioned in the team's media guide "for years." The Lynx, which hosted a booth at a recent Gay Pride Festival, advertise in local gay publications and routinely give away tickets "at a downtown Minneapolis bar catering to gays and lesbians." While the WNBA has no overall policy on marketing efforts to the gay community, the Monarchs have staged gay pride events at home games and the Sparks signed a lesbian social club as a strategic partner. WNBA President Val Ackerman: "We've had a good response from the lesbian community, and some of our teams do actively target that audience in their ticket sales efforts. It's been win-win. ... It is good business — especially in this day and age when many companies are understanding of their customer bases" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 7/4).