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"  The WNBA is making history as the first professional sports league to market specifically to the LGBT community (via the Associated Press). The league is launching an LGBT-aimed website later today, a Pride game next month, national advertising campaigns, and initiatives with all 12 WNBA teams and LGBT groups throughout the season. &amp;quot;For us it&amp;#039;s a celebration of diversity and inclusion and recognition of an audience that has been with us very passionately,&amp;quot; says WNBA President Laurel Richie. When the league started in 1997, executives assumed the same NBA audiences would get into the WNBA, but they quickly figured out that a huge number of their fans were LGBT people who were not into the NBA. &amp;quot;Our league being the first to make that push and bring more attention to it is great,&amp;quot; says Brittney Griner, a WNBA player and one of the first pro athletes to come out as gay. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ll pave the way and show it&amp;#039;s fine and there&amp;#039;s nothing wrong with it. More sports need to do it. It&amp;#039;s 2014, it&amp;#039;s about time.&amp;quot; RELATED:10 Things Not to Say to a Bisexual WomanThe 13 Best Things About Being a Lesbian13 Things Not To Say to Your Lesbian FriendWNBA Star Brittney Griner: I Told the Popular Girls I Wasn&amp;#039;t Gay, But I Was Lying  Follow Frank on Twitter.   Photo credit: WNBA   . "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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