Where we left off..,
National Girls High School Athletic Union Girls' Basketball Tourney
Semifinals
Bankers' Life Fieldhouse
Indianapolis, Indiana
Deerfield Upper High School Lady Chateliers
Final Score:
Cherokee 98 (37-1)
Deerfield 96 (37-1)
National Championship
NRG Stadium
Houston, Texas
Houston High School Lady Comets
Final Score:
Cherokee 98 (38-1)
Houston 85 (39-1) (F/OT)
During Senior Year
Even when during High school, when everyone knew about me getting bullied for being intersex and being a lesbian that would happen at school, new students, occasionally tease, even in the summer also.
But I had been harassed during games also, by opponents, visiting team's fans, and players on the other team, jeered me all the time.
Always every time when I'm next to Amber, my teammate and ex-girlfriend, the other team's crowd would slander our team for me and Amber's relationship.
But when on December 21st, 2012, at LeMars, it got horrible, when LeMars did a chant with homophobic slurs and gay slurs and chop with slurs also. This kept going on even when I was on the court, every team I faced, their fans kept doing the same thing again and again, even when we won the State title.
The worst I've been getting that same exact slurs was during the National Girls High School Athletic Union National Basketball Tournament, Indianapolis versus Deerfield Upper High School Lady Chateliers was fine, it didn't even bother me the most.
But then the National Championship Game in Houston, TX, versus hometown Houston High School Lady Comets, we were 10-point favorite by the Des Moines Register, Sioux City Journal, our own hometown newspaper: Cherokee Chronicle Times, also by The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The LA Times & The Washington Post, but we were instead 20-point underdogs by the Houston Chronicle, but this was not because of our on-the-court success that wasn't the exact reason. The actual reason was all caused by the whole situation of me being intersex, and being a lesbian, so they attacked me verbally, emotionally, and use of cyber bullying, which I saw photoshopped images of me, being stoned (hit with rocks), lynched, burned at the stake and crucified also.
When I arrived in Houston, Texas, once again, the atmosphere was suffocating for me, the sense of constant beratement, slurs, and photoshops of me being burned, crucified, hanged (lynched), and stoned (pummeled with rocks) for the issue at hand and I would be standing next to my teammates.
There was no stopping the attacks or the trolls at me, this wasn't a situation to ignore, but I have to, but it was hard that many would give me the exact stereotype I was being shamed with. I had to go to social media for this because I had to brush off the previous attempts. But I had an interview with my teammates days after we won, that the main topic was just my past, plus the whole situation. I had told all of the previous minor incidents for the last three years, plus the incident that caused this all was at LeMars this season. But I also talked about what happened in Houston, plus in Indianapolis, after I got emotional after reading all of the comments, slurs, photoshops, and attacks, before and after arriving in Houston.
After the interview this also gained national attention, that the issue was a constant debate for this display of total bias and homophobic incompetence across the nation.
