Which Out WNBA Player Are You Based on Your Sign?

The Women’s National Basketball Association is gloriously gay.

In 2022, as Outsports reported, 20% of the league’s players were publicly out as LGBTQ+. That’s a lot of queer people, and they’re all really good at basketball! Fortunately, the WNBA’s popularity has been growing in recent years, though there still aren’t nearly as many viewers as there should be. When the U.S. women’s soccer team plays on a big stage, they draw millions of eyeballs, but the best (and most decorated) women’s basketball players in the world don’t get nearly as much attention. Soccer superstar Megan Rapinoe attributed this disparity in viewership to our country’s “deep history of racism” and its “deep history of homophobia.”

“[I]f you look at the players in the W: Most of them are Black, and a lot of them are gay,” she wrote in an incisive 2020 essay for The Players’ Tribune.

But if those factors keep some people from watching the WNBA, they’ll also ensure its long future with a generation of fans who are themselves growing more diverse and more openly LGBTQ+ with every passing year. Arguably no professional sports league is better prepared to greet our gay future with open arms than the WNBA. And if you don’t hop on board for the excellent displays of athleticism, you can at least follow my example by getting incredibly invested in the personalities of the players and imagining yourself among them. Yes, this is an astrology article. Get ready.

In the rigorous scientific research I have conducted since becoming a WNBA fan myself, some trends among currently out LGBTQ+ players have emerged:

• WNBA players love to fall in love with other WNBA players. Failing that, they fall in love with other athletes in different leagues or sports.
• A helluva a lot of out WNBA players are fire, earth, and air sun signs, especially Virgo, Libra, and Aquarius.
• Coupled WNBA players often partner up with like element signs (fire/fire, air/air), even dating and marrying within their own sun signs outright.

What does it all mean? Magnificent entertainment for us fans, both on and off the court. Read on to see who shares your sign:

Click here to jump to a sign: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.

Springtime rams share a sun sign with legendary WNBA All Star, three-time championship winner, and 2022 Time 100 honoree Candace Parker. She was the Los Angeles Sparks’ first pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft and still holds the record for most points by a rookie in her debut game (34!). Then she played for the Chicago Sky, who wooed her back to Illinois in 2021 where she won the second WNBA championship of her career, before signing with the Las Vegas Aces and netting a third ring. Parker is now retired, but she continues to craft her legacy as the president of Adidas women’s basketball.

In true Aries fashion, Parker spent her time in the game on the frontcourt, playing as forward and center. In romance, she appreciates the warmth of a fire/fire partnership: she married Sagittarius Anna Petrakova-Parker in 2019, later choosing to share that news with the public shortly before the birth of their Aquarian son, Airr, in 2022.

Parker’s family is the real fuel for her drive to victory. She brought her teenage daughter Lailaa onto the court with her to receive her championship rings (accompanied by Airr as well, the second time around). In her Time 100 announcement, she dedicated the achievement: “To my wife, Anya, and to Lailaa and Airr, thank you for pushing me every day.”

On May 23, 2022, at 10:59 AM, Erica Wheeler, the first-ever undrafted player to win an All-Star Game MVP award in 2019, had a thought to share with the world.

Born on May 2, 1991, the emotive, enamored point guard Erica Wheeler is, after getting an eyeful of that tweet, obviously a Taurus. (Danielle Edwards, now Wheeler’s fiancée and the subject of the above-referenced obsession, is a May 20 Taurus herself.)

Wheeler has had a challenging path in professional basketball. After losing her mother to cancer immediately prior to her senior year at Rutgers, she finished the season and graduated but wasn’t selected in the WNBA draft. Then, after signing a training camp contract and earning a spot on the Atlanta Dream, she was cut mid-season after playing 17 games.

She rebounded by playing three games with the New York Liberty, which “turn[ed] that light back on,” as she told the Los Angeles Times, then charged through four increasingly impressive years with the Indiana Fever, culminating in her All-Star Game achievement. Alas, COVID-19 took Wheeler out of the 2020 WNBA season. Wheeler ultimately found her way back onto the Atlanta Dream, bringing her not only her point guarding experience but her incredible collection of T-shirts to Georgia, before joining the Indiana Fever in 2023. Erica Wheeler is a highly recommended social media follow.

She is the G.O.A.T. She was briefly a CGI snake in Space Jam: A New Legacy. She is the reigning queen of erudite and not-at-all awkward interviews! Don’t let her surname fool you: Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury is suuuuch a Gemini.

Taurasi is astoundingly, meteorically amazing at basketball. It would take way too long to list all of her awards and accomplishments here. But the truly fascinating thing about her is the unique juxtaposition of her superhuman guarding and shooting abilities with a goofy personality.

On the court, her playful affect vanishes into focused, deadly intensity. That video of her kissing Seimone Augustus in the 2013 play-off game between the Mercury and the Minnesota Lynx? Priceless archival footage of a Gemini redirecting aggression and breaking tension with an impulsive, unexpected maneuver in combat.

Taurasi met her now-wife Penny Taylor when they were both drafted to the Mercury in 2004, but they didn’t become romantic until around 5 years later. The double Gemini pair married in 2017 and now have a son and daughter, the latter of whom arrived in the early A.M. following Taurasi and the Mercury’s Game 5 win in the 2021 finals.

“Hold it in babe, I’m coming,” Taurasi romantically declared to her laboring wife in her ESPN post-game interview, before catching an overnight flight from Las Vegas to Phoenix and arriving just in time to greet the emerging next generation of air sign women’s basketball royalty.

Cancer is American-Australian shooting guard Sami Whitcomb, born July 20. When California-born Whitcomb went undrafted in the WNBA following her college career, she played in Germany for a few seasons before being recruited by the Rockingham Flames for the Australian State Basketball League. In Australia, she really hit her stride, winning championships with the Flames and racking up honors for her playing with the WNBL Perth Lynx. In 2017, Whitcomb returned to the WNBA, joining the Seattle Storm for a successful next three years and playing in all 22 games of 2020’s reduced, no-audience “Wubble” season.

After winning three semi-final games against the Minnesota Lynx, however, Whitcomb left the bubble to go home to Australia so she could be by her wife Kate’s side for the birth of their first child, spending over a month in quarantine in both Sydney and Perth to ensure that she would be safe to attend the delivery.

Whitcomb also sat out the 2020 Perth Lynx season, prioritizing her growing family’s health, safety, and precious time together. As Whitcomb put it in an appreciative post about her wife on Instagram, “2020 has been an epic shit show but it’s also put in perspective how important family is, how fragile life is and how lucky I am to share it all with you. And soon, 2020 won’t just be the year of Covid, it’ll be the year we became mums and that’s pretty fucking great ❤️❤️”

Also cool: earning her second WNBA championship when the Storm went on to defeat the Las Vegas Aces in her absence.

In 2021, Whitcomb returned to the WNBA for a career-best season with the New York Liberty, then returned to the Perth Lynx for for the 2021–22 WNBL season before coming back to the Seattle Storm in 2023. As for her future going forward, one thing remains certain: there will be tons of beach pics featuring Kate and their adorable kid, so go follow her on Instagram right now.

There are a number of mothers on this list, some of whom handled the business of gestation and birth personally before returning to the court. That’s a mind-blowing physical feat: growing a whole human, giving birth, and then recovering sufficiently to return to the demands of professional athletic competition.

In 2017, 6’4” DeWanna Bonner added a showy Leo twist to the undertaking by managing it twice in one go, giving birth to twin girls before returning to win the 2018 Associated Press WNBA Comeback Player of the Year and earning a spot on the WNBA All-Star roster: “I didn’t want to come back and just be mediocre,” she explained in an interview with the league.

While co-parenting the twins with former partner (and fellow Leo WNBA champ) Candice Dupree, Bonner announced a new relationship with Aries Connecticut Sun teammate Alyssa Thomas on Instagram in February 2021. The spring/summer double-fire couple appears to be firmly at peanut butter + jelly status in 2024.

Bonner’s legs, additionally, remain so long as to defy mundane human comprehension.

There’s a whole roster of incredible out queer Virgo WNBA superstars, such as Angel McCoughtry, Elena Delle Donne, and Anneli Maley, to name a few. But today we’re going to focus on Breanna Stewart, first overall pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft and 2016 WNBA Rookie of the Year with the Seattle Storm, the WNBA MVP in 2018 and 2023, and a two-time league championship winner.

In May 2021, Stewart proposed to Marta Xargay Casedemont in extremely Virgo fashion, presenting the ring to her now-wife in a comfortable, casual tee and athletic shorts: “Did a thing. Another ring. She said YES.”

Not one to waste any time, Stewart married Xargay two months later in July. The couple welcomed their daughter via gestational surrogate in August of that year, immediately following Stewart’s second Olympic gold medal win in Tokyo. “Why can’t I be the best player and also have a baby, but not carry a baby?” she said of her path to parenthood in an interview with Bleacher Report. “Why can’t we do both?”

Alongside Xargay, Stewart wrapped up August 2021 in very Virgo fashion by giving an interview on the importance of frank financial communication and planning for Brides magazine. In 2022, “Stewie,” as she is known by fans, added further notches to her extensive résumé of excellence, announcing the upcoming release of a signature sneaker with Puma in March, and becoming a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model in May. And her Virgo dominance has only continued with her recent launch of a 3 x 3 women’s basketball league alongside Napheesa Collier.

Las Vegas Aces point guard Chelsea Gray, WNBA champion and four-time All Star, is known to share and enable glory for others in typical generous Libra fashion, with a high league ranking in career assists per game.

Her move to Vegas following her debut season with the Connecticut Sun and five years with the Los Angeles Sparks was also inspired by cardinal air sign exploratory motives. As she told ESPN prior to a successful season in 2021, “I think that's part of human nature, being interested in going to a different place. That was the draw as well: some new scenery, new experience, new opportunities.”

According to my extensive Instagram research, Gray often tends toward the soft-butch side of the style spectrum, preferring athletic wear for daily activities and suits for formal occasions, but stunned in a strapless white wedding gown and veil for her 2019 wedding to Tipesa Moorer. (Seriously, the photos are absolutely to-die-for.) Then, the couple donned matching white Adidas tees and track pants to break it down at the afterparty. As a Libra, Gray understands that life is all about balance: balancing through the burn of exhausted quads in the gym lets you you hold an extended squat while you grind on your wife to celebrate your iconic love commitment.

Also a Libra: Sue Bird, the legendary retired point guard for the Seattle Storm and partner of soccer star Megan Rapinoe.

In 2021, tattooed October 30-born Ty Young announced her retirement from the WNBA after 12 seasons with the Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, and Las Vegas Aces. In true Scorpio fashion, the conclusion of her WNBA career has seemingly allowed Young more time for romantic drama.

In 2020, Young proposed to Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta star Mimi Faust after four years of dating. However, the couple split less than a year later, with Faust stating in a Live chat with fans that the two had simply grown apart. In January 2022, the pair announced their second engagement at Faust’s 50th birthday blowout, but after tabloid images emerged of Young spending time with Connecticut Sun shooting guard DiJonai Carrington, the couple confirmed the final end of their relationship and Young’s current single status, as Essence reported.

Now serving as an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky, it’s great to see her back on the court: In stereotypical Scorpio style, Ty Young is — respectfully — sexy as fuck.

Technically no longer a player, former Minnesota Lynx power forward Rebekkah Brunson, the only five-time WNBA champion to date, retired in February 2020 following a decorated 16-year career with the league…. only to immediately be hired as assistant coach for the team.

Now, she’s busier than ever, also working as a mom, a broadcaster, and along with her wife, the co-owner of Sweet Troo Vī, a liege waffle and luxury vegan cookie company founded to share her love of Belgian waffles with the world. Makes a certain amount of sense, if you think like a Sagittarius.

Brunson, like several other players on this list, is in a fire/fire sign relationship with fellow Sagittarius Bobbi Jo. Bobbi Jo’s sun sign took some time to confirm via Instagram sleuthing because Brunson doles out grid posts rather sparingly for special anniversary events such as birthdays, and instead — in true Sag fashion — posts adorably captioned photos of her wife for such occasions as “the sun was shining” and “it was a Tuesday.”

Our Capricorn representative on the WNBA zodiac roster is Stefanie Dolson, two-time champion with the Chicago Sky and currently the 6’5” center for the Washington Mystics. Teased by an acquaintance growing up that she’d be gay simply because she enjoyed sports, Dolson developed an aversion to the stereotype and blocked the very possibility of her own queerness from her mind. Then she was approached by another woman in a coffee shop during her first WNBA offseason and recognized a spark. That’s how she described her coming-out experience to Katie Barnes in an as-told-to for ESPN in 2016.

“How did I know I didn't like something until I tried it?” Dolson asked herself in sensible sea-goat style. Turns out she loved it. “Not everyone in the WNBA needs to be out,” Dolson noted,  “but I feel called to lead an authentic life in the open.”

Dolson’s precision on the court extends to absolutely sickeningly fresh makeup and style when she’s out of uniform. Just look at this Waiakea water bottle-inspired eye look.

(In other cardinal earth sign considerations, shout out to Briann January of the Seattle Storm for managing to be born perfectly in the proper month to match her surname — a Capricorn power move from the start.)

One half of the renowned “Vanderquigs” duo alongside Gemini wife (and former Chicago Sky teammate) Allie Quigley, Courtney Vandersloot is a February-born water-bearer. The Aquarian met her future wife playing against each other in Slovakia, and found herself impressed by the easy comfort she felt upon getting to know Quigley.

“I just don’t like small talk,” Vandersloot explained in a 2019 Sports Illustrated feature, “and I never felt that with her.”

In 2018, Vandersloot and Quigley married in Seattle (“It was cool,” Vandersloot remarked succinctly of the event). Though the portmanteau-nicknamed power couple is certifiably #relationshipgoals, independent-minded fixed air sign Vandersloot has some words of caution for those who may follow in their footsteps.

“We’re lucky to be in the position that we are, but it’s not for everyone,” she told the Seattle Times. We wouldn’t recommend it by any means because you do spend a lot of time — maybe too much time — with each other. We happen to handle it well. But I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Recommended or not, the Vanderquigs handle not only their work/life balance but also the ball extraordinarily well: in 2020, Vandersloot broke the WNBA record for most assists in a single game by passing to her wife for a three-pointer.

After helping the Washington Mystics win their first-ever WNBA championship in 2019, Pisces guard Natasha Cloud chose to forego the 2020 season, paying back her year’s salary to prioritize social justice work, and penning a powerful message on Instagram.

“I am more than an athlete. I have a responsibility to myself, to my community, and to my future children to fight for something that is much bigger than myself and the game of basketball,” Cloud wrote. “I will instead continue the fight on the front lines for social reform, because until black lives matter, all lives can’t matter.”

Returning to the court in 2021, she sadly became the league’s first player to be sidelined by COVID-19 safety protocols this year after only two games. Now playing for the Phoenix Mercury, this February fish seems to have found smoother waters, recently telling Cronkite News, “I’m happy to be embraced as the dog I am.”

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