Like other athletes, WNBA players have made some major fumbles with Twitter. In 2011, Angel McCoughtry accused Fenerbahce coach Laslzo Ratgeber of being "racist" on Twitter, and then deleted the offending tweet. That same year Cappie Pondexter made Tweets claiming that God must have meant Japan to be hit by an earthquake and tsunami, since He "makes no mistakes".
McCoughtry later said that she was misunderstood. Pondexter later apologized.
Yesterday, Sophia Young tweeted that she was voting NO on gay marriage in San Antonio. When the WNBA's gay friendly fan base demanded Young to explain herself, she confirmed her initial statement and tweeted a picture of herself holding a "NO" sign.
Young's sign undoubtedly had something to do with the non-discrimination ordinance which is being proposed and debated in the San Antonio city council. The ordinance would expand San Antonio's non-discrimination laws to include gays, veterans, and the disabled. This has the usual wowzers up in arms, with Black and Latino church groups protesting the ordinance. Gonna be a hot time in San Antonio.
If you look at Young's Twitter feed, she doesn't make a lot of tweets. The tweets she does have are about going to church and tweets of Bible verses. Trust me, if you go on Twitter and look at a lot of women's basketball coaches and players, you'll find a lot of Bible verses and general Christian aphorisms. Joel Osteen gets a lot of retweets from some players.
This is what a lot of followers of the WNBA forget - the locker rooms ain't all lesbian and liberal. Oh, there might be a large percentage of lesbian players but I doubt it's a majority. There are a lot of what are derisively called "God-squadders" in athlete locker rooms, too. Think of Tim Tebow, or A. C. Green or Reggie White.
Coaching philosophy tends to lead in a conservative direction anyway. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a respected organization in sports. Many WNBA teams have prayer groups. In short, there is a sizable percentage of active Christians that are a part of the WNBA as well.
So is there going to be a clash in the Silver Stars locker room? Maybe it will all blow over by 2014. Young isn't on the team this season, recovering from an ACL tear in February while playing in China. Even if her teammates still remember what she said, pro players are good at compartmentalizing. You don't have to like the person you're playing with, you don't have to believe what they believe, you just have to keep your mind on basketball and play together.
The Silver Stars are professionals, and that's probably how they'll react. Even if the atmosphere is permanently changed, what goes on in the locker room stays in the locker room. Christian players and lesbian players (*) have learned to get along with each other, although they probably don't take the same cab after the game. One group of players holds Bible Study and the other heads off to Hot Legs.
My prediction is that unless Young pops off with an anti-gay slur in the locker room and gets punched in the head, the Silver Stars will keep it to themselves. Whether anyone asks the players how they feel depends on whether or not any reporter has the guts to do so.
But what people feel about Young outside the locker room is outside her control. The conservative Christians that are Silver Stars fans will probably laud her, but there aren't that many of them - the WNBA's fan base is probably the most liberal fan base of any sport. You don't want to offend your fan base if you can help it, and it will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the months ahead.
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(*) I do not wish to imply that lesbian players aren't Christians. There are players who I think are bisexual or lesbian that come off as very active Christians. However, there are some Christians - conservative ones, usually - who think that one can't be both gay and Christian.
This is a problem in Christianity - that people these days think less of Christianity as a religious philosophy and more "that bunch of weirdos that hate gays and abortions". This has to do with certain powerful Christian figures allying themselves with the Republican party.
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