WNBA All-Star Sue Bird came out gay in
an ESPN interview released Thursday.
The 36-year-old Bird also revealed for
the first time publicly that she's dating U.S. soccer star Megan
Rapinoe.
“I'm gay,” Bird said. “Megan's
my girlfriend. … These aren't secrets to people who know me.”
“I don't feel like I've not lived my
life. I think people have this assumption that if you're not talking
about it, you must be hiding it, like it's this secret. That was
never the case for me,” she said.
Bird, a point guard for the Seattle
Storm, and Rapinoe, a midfielder and winger for the Seattle Reign,
have been dating since last fall.
“We have a lot in common and just
sort of clicked,” Rapinoe
told ESPN. “I joke she is my No. 1 go-to-for-advice person.
She's just so level-headed.”
Bird said that she has been out to
family and friends for years and started dating women while attending
the University of Connecticut. She called her sexuality a
“nonissue.”
“I think the hard part is being
public about it,” Bird said. “I don't like to be, not
necessarily 'gossiped' about but the topic of conversations.”
(Related: Out
soccer star Megan Rapinoe vows to continue kneeling in solidarity
with Colin Kaepernick.)