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Layshia Clarendon, the WNBA's 1st nonbinary player, announces retirement
"The time has come for my basketball career to end," they said in a social media post.
History-making WNBA player Layshia Clarendon is hanging up her sneakers.
The guard, who most recently played for the Los Angeles Sparks and uses he/she/they pronouns, made history in 2015 when they came out as "non-cisgender" and is credited as the first out trans and nonbinary player in the WNBA.
Clarendon was drafted by the Indiana Fever as the ninth overall pick in the 2013 draft and has also played for Atlanta, Connecticut, New York, Minnesota, and most recently, Los Angeles. Unfortunately, since 2019, much of her career has been marred by injuries.
In 2021 they again made history when they became the first WNBA player to get top surgery. "On January 13th at 10am I hugged my wife in front of my surgery building, walked in and took a deep breath... The day was finally here. The day I got to have Top Surgery!!!!!" they wrote at the time.
Now, they're reflecting on their career in a new social media post, talking about their retirement.
"The lesson I’ve been learning this last year is that everything comes to an end. The time has come for my basketball career to end. I am deeply at peace with this choice as my mind, body, and spirit know unequivocally that it’s time to move on, they wrote. "The saying is that athletes have 2 deaths. Our careers and our true last breaths. I can tell you, I have been deeply in mourning over this loss. I’ve loved this game with every ounce of my being. "
They also thanked their wife, saying without her "I wouldn't have made it this long," and thanked her teammates.
"The sisterhood is what I’ve loved about playing and will miss," they continued. "The silliest things in the mundane moments. The way y’all helped me fill in my mustache, made jokes about my gender, the ways I joked about my gender. The way gender is so damn fluid in our league. The way we fight to make the world better and it always started with us. The 144 (a reference to the number of players in the league)."
After thanking the league, her trainers, all the teams he's played for, fans, and coaches, he put out a message of joy.
"While the grief is heavy the joy remains. I am so looking forward to being celebrated and loved on," they said. "I know I impacted a ton of people (or so I’ve heard, ha) if you will, please share a memory, an interaction we had, or something you loved about the way I played. I respectfully ask you not to say 'you're going to be great in whatever you choose next.' I want to stay in the sweetness of THIS moment. Where my heart is broken and there’s tears rolling down my eyes AND I can also smile, look up and say damn I really did all of that? 🤯"
Clerendon made the All-Star team in 2017 and played in the WNBA finals in 2015. He is married to Jessica Dolan and together, the two have a baby.
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
