Suppose you are 31 years old, in the prime of your life. You have won two gold medals at the Olympics and been a seven-time WNBA All-Star. You’re married to Cherelle, the woman you love and the one you envision a happy future with. The opportunity arises for you to showcase your talent abroad, so you pack your bags and board a plane. But when you land, instead of gaining attention for your on-the-court plays, you’re wrongfully detained in a country that’s just started a war that your home nation is on the other side of.
You’re also a gay woman of color in a less than tolerant society.
Now what?
But let me be very clear. Vladimir Putin is inhumane. He’s inhumane against people of color. He’s inhumane against LGBTQ [people], as we all know.
—REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE
For Brittney Griner, who was freed from Russian imprisonment in December after nearly 10 months of detention, this was an acute reality.
Griner, or BG as she’s affectionately known, has suffered the geopolitical consequences of being a famous Black gay athlete — she played for nearly seven years with the Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg in the Russian Women’s Basketball Premier League, as well as a decade for the Phoenix Mercury.
BG was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony after being arrested at a Moscow airport February 17 for possessing two vape cartridges containing a minute amount of cannabis oil. BG pleaded guilty to what she called an “honest mistake” and was convicted in August, but her appeal of the nine-year sentence a judge handed down was denied in October.
The Federal Customs Service of Russia said Griner was
