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Basketball star forced to hide her sexuality

Basketball star forced to hide her sexuality

American basketball star Brittney Griner has revealed she was told to keep her sexuality a secret during her decorated college career.

Griner, a WNBA All-Star for Phoenix Mercury, said her college career was tarnished by the conservative and secretive attitude of her Baptist school.

Griner came out in her teens and said staff assured her that her sexuality would not be an issue when she arrived at Baylor College.

"Big girl, I don't care what you are," Griner said her future coach Kim Mulkey told her.

"You can be black, white, blue, purple, whatever. As long as you come here and do what you need to do and hoop, I don’t care."

But in an excerpt from Griner’s new book In My Skin, she claims the school's attitude changed when she was seen out in public with her girlfriend on Valentine's Day.

Griner says Mulkey told her to keep her relationships private.

"I would love to be an ambassador for Baylor, to show my school pride, but it's hard to do that," Griner writes.

"I've spent too much of my life being made to feel like there's something wrong with me. And no matter how much support I felt as a basketball player at Baylor, it still doesn't erase all the pain I felt there."

Griner says the issue was a source of tension over the final two years at the college.

"I feel like the people who run the school want it both ways: they want to keep the policy, so they can keep selling themselves as a Christian university, but they are more than happy to benefit from the success of their gay athletes," Griner writes.

"That is, as long as those gay athletes don’t talk about being gay."

Last week, former Wallaby Clyde Rathbone claimed professional sport 'remained deeply homophobic' and detailed the story of a former teammate who struggled to hide the secret of his sexuality.

The heads of the major Australian sporting codes last week pledged more action on homophobia, with all codes agreeing to introduce policies in line with the new Anti-Homophobia and Inclusion Framework by the end of August.