Sports
Transgender Iraq vet competes in new arena
Ortega moves from the battlefield to pro bodybuilding
Sgt. Shane Ortega has served for more than 10 years in the military and is now an accomplished bodybuilder. (Photo courtesy ACLU)
When you first meet Sgt. Shane Ortega, the first things you notice are his muscles and tattoos. They are everywhere and it’s hard not to stare longer than the socially acceptable amount of time. Ortega is in D.C. for a series of briefings at the Pentagon and after multiple days of what he calls verbal ping-pong, he is ready to relax and do some sightseeing.
As he walks along the path next to the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, each person that approaches from the opposite direction takes stock of him as they pass by. The reason they are looking isn’t because he is a trans man, they are looking at him because he has presence.
That presence has served him well during the past six years of quietly advocating for LGBT policy in the military. It began with work on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and progressed into policy for transgender military service members. That advocacy has included meeting with civilians outside of the military chain of command such as politicians, the American Medical Association, SPARTA and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others.
“There is no road map for policy change,” Ortega says. “The timeline has accelerated since DADT and the people in power have refreshed. We are not the boogeyman anymore.”
Ortega just passed his 10-year anniversary in the armed forces and has been deployed twice to Iraq with the Marines as a woman and once to Afghanistan with the Army as a man. He is a Helicopter Flight Engineer in the Army’s 25th Infantry Division stationed at the Garrison base in Oahu, though elevated testosterone levels have relegated him to administrative work for the time being.
Throughout the course of this year, each of the military services has elevated its transgender separation policy outside of the military chain of command to third-party civilians. Just a few days after Ortega finished the last of his briefings, the Pentagon announced plans to lift the ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military. After working in obscurity for years, Ortega is now one of the faces of the trans military movement.
The second thing you notice about Ortega when you meet him is that he is a ball of energy and he really likes to talk. As he treks toward the war memorials on the National Mall, his stories jump from music to scuba diving to his tours of duty to his uncles, all at breakneck speed. He is well spoken, engaging and funny. When he stops to admire the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, he mentions that he loves to sculpt things with clay.
The man knows a thing or two about sculpting other things as well.
Two months ago in Honolulu, he participated in his first physique competition and placed fourth, which qualified him for a spot at junior nationals in March of 2016. Sports and weightlifting had been a part of his regimen for years but it wasn’t until his body started filling out from hormone therapy that he began to think about competing.
Ortega was born in Maryland and moved around a lot growing up, living on bases with his mom or with family members while she was deployed overseas. He began wrestling in elementary school and picked the sport up again in high school along with track and field and soccer. After enlisting in the Marines he played intramural soccer and rugby on the bases.
A constant pursuit from sophomore year of high school on was weightlifting.
His high school wrestling coach started him out with the physiology of working out, which advanced to benching for form and finally lifting for bodybuilding. His heroes were the superstars of the World Wrestling Federation.
“I grew up with posters of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage on my bedroom walls,” says Ortega. “I was into that good ‘ole American hero image.”
The weight training continued throughout his military career and escalated to a point where people were asking him if he was competing. After contacting the event organizers of National Physique Competition, Ikaika and the governing body to receive permission to enter the event, Ortega began serious training to compete in the men’s physique Class A.
Each morning started with physical training with his Army unit, the Hill Climbers, and included calisthenics and 15-25 miles of running per week. After work there were three to four sessions per week of weightlifting, two with a trainer. He says the hardest part of the preparation was starting the diet two months out from the competition and jumping to 300 grams of protein per day.
Shane Ortega (Photo by Kevin Majoros)
“I was really anxious the week before my competition. As the time came for me to compete, I realized how important it was for me as a trans man to compete at that level,” Ortega says. “Everyone was really nice and respectful at the event and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience for my first competition. It was a huge self-confidence boost.”
Ortega’s overall goal for the competition was to finish in the top three and qualify for nationals. He will attempt to accomplish that in his second competition at the Paradise Cup in September. “I believe that you can be anything you want to be in this country,” says Ortega. “If you want to become an elite athlete, find your opportunity and pursue it.”
As the day of sightseeing in D.C. winds down, Ortega begins to explain some of the tattoos on his body. He says they all have meaning to him. There is a woman wearing a gas mask, a grenade, nautical stars, Hindu goddesses and an Army tank.
When asked why the tank, he gets a huge grin on his face and exclaims, “Dude, there is an Army tank on my arm. How cool is that?”
Just like Sgt. Shane Ortega, that is in fact, pretty cool.
Shane Ortega (Photo by Kevin Majoros)
CONTENT WARNING: The following story discusses suicide ideation.
Her first few weeks behind bars in a Russian prison took a terrible toll on Brittney Griner, the lesbian WNBA star who is breaking her silence on the 10 months she was held on drug-related charges.
“I wanted to take my life more than once in the first weeks,” Griner told ABC’s Robin Roberts in a primetime interview Wednesday. “I felt like leaving here so badly.”
The two-time Olympic gold medalist and nine-time WNBA All-Star, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, said she ultimately decided against suicide, partly because she feared Russian authorities would not release her body to her wife, Cherelle Griner.
Griner, 33, was arrested on Feb. 17, 2022, at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Khimki, a suburb of Moscow. Authorities said they found vape cartridges in her luggage containing cannabis oil, which is illegal in the country.
Griner told Roberts that was the result of a “mental lapse” on her part — packing the cannabis oil cartridges in her luggage, Griner said that she had overslept on the morning she was leaving for Russia to play during the WNBA’s off-season, which is how many of the league’s vastly underpaid players earn a living, compared to NBA players.
So, she packed while she was “in panic mode,” Griner said.
“My packing at that moment was just throwing all my stuff in there and zipping it up and saying, ‘OK, I’m ready,’” she told Roberts.
After landing in Russia, Griner realized that she had those two cannabis oil cartridges in her luggage as Russian security officers inspected her bag at the airport. She recalled the moment as a sinking feeling.
“I’m just like, ‘Oh, my God.’ Like, ‘How did I — how did I make this mistake?’” Griner said. “I could just visualize everything I worked so hard for just crumbling and going away.”
Russian authorities immediately arrested Griner, but her trial would not take place for five months. She described the horrible conditions of her imprisonment during that delay, saying that she didn’t always have toilet paper and that the toothpaste they gave her had expired about 15 years ago.
“That toothpaste was expired,” she said. “We used to put it on the black mold to kill the mold on the walls.”
“The mattress had a huge blood stain on it, and they give you these thin two sheets,” she added. “So you’re basically laying on bars.”
On July 7, 2022, Griner pleaded guilty at her trial to drug charges, admitting that she had the vape cartridges containing cannabis oil but stating she put them in her luggage unintentionally. She testified that she had packed the cartridges by accident, and had “no intention” to break Russian law.
Roberts pressed Griner on this point: “You know there are those who say, ‘Come on. How did you not know that you had cartridges in your luggage?’”
“It’s just so easy to have a mental lapse,” Griner replied. “Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn’t take away from how that can happen,” she explained.
Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison on Aug. 4, 2022, and in October 2022, a judge denied the appeal filed by Griner’s attorneys.
The sentence landed Griner in a penal colony in the Russian region of Mordovia.
“It’s a work camp. You go there to work,” said Griner. “There’s no rest.” Her job was cutting fabric for Russian military uniforms.
“What were the conditions like there?” Roberts asked.
“Really cold,” Griner said. So cold that her health was impacted and she decided to chop off her long dreadlocks.
“What was that like losing that part of you, too?” Roberts asked Griner.
“Honestly, it just had to happen. We had spiders above my bed — making nests,” she said. “My dreads started to freeze,” she added. “They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to survive.”
Her arrest came around the same time as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, further increasing tensions between Russia and the U.S. But as the Los Angeles Blade reported on Dec, 8, 2022, Russia agreed to release Griner in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
However, before winning her freedom, Griner revealed authorities forced her to write a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“They made me write this letter. It was in Russian,” she said. “I had to ask for forgiveness and thanks from their so-called great leader. I didn’t want to do it, but at the same time I wanted to come home.”
Griner said her heart sank upon boarding the plane to freedom and finding that Paul Whelan, another American the White House said was “wrongfully detained,” wasn’t leaving Russia with her.
“I walked on and didn’t see him, maybe he’s next. Maybe they will bring him next,” she said. “They closed the door, and I was like, are you serious? You’re not going to let this man come home now.”
Griner recounts on the experience in “Coming Home,” a memoir set to be released on May 7.
988 is the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and is available 24/7 via phone, text or chat to everyone of all ages, orientations and identities. If you are a transgender, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming person considering suicide, Trans Lifeline can be reached at 877-565-8860. LGBTQ+ youth (ages 24 and younger) can reach the Trevor Project Lifeline at 1-866-488-7386. You can still also contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 24 hours a day, and it’s available to people of all ages and identities.
Additional resources:
If you are in a life-threatening situation, please dial 911.
If you are in crisis, please dial 988 or contact Rainbow Youth Project directly at +1 (317) 643-4888
Sports
Bisexual former umpire sues Major League Baseball for sexual harassment
Brandon Cooper claims female colleague sexually harassed him
A fired former umpire is suing Major League Baseball, claiming he was sexually harassed by a female umpire and discriminated against because of his gender and his sexual orientation.
Brandon Cooper worked in the minor league Arizona Complex League last year, and according to the lawsuit he filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, he identifies as bisexual.
“I wanted my umpiring and ability to speak for itself and not to be labeled as ‘Brandon Cooper the bisexual umpire,’” he told Outsports. “I didn’t want to be labeled as something. It has been a passion of mine to simply make it to the Major Leagues.”
But that didn’t happen. Instead of being promoted, he was fired. His suit names MLB and an affiliated entity, PDL Blue, Inc., and alleges he had endured a hostile work environment and wrongful termination and/or retaliation because of gender and sexual orientation under New York State and New York City law.
“Historically the MLB has had a homogenous roster of umpires working in both the minor and major leagues,” Cooper claims in his suit. “Specifically, to date there has never been a woman who has worked in a (regular) season game played in the majors, and most umpires are still Caucasian men. To try to fix its gender and racial diversity issue, defendants have implemented an illegal diversity quota requiring that women be promoted regardless of merit.”
Cooper claims former umpire Ed Rapuano, now an umpire evaluator, and Darren Spagnardi, an umpire development supervisor, told him in January 2023 that MLB had a hiring quota, requiring that at least two women be among 10 new hires.
According to the suit, Cooper was assigned to spring training last year and was notified by the senior manager of umpire administration, Dusty Dellinger, that even though he received a high rating in June from former big league umpire Jim Reynolds, now an umpire supervisor, that women and minority candidates had to be hired first.
Cooper claims that upon learning Cooper was bisexual, fellow umpire Gina Quartararo insulted him and fellow umpire Kevin Bruno by using homophobic slurs and crude remarks. At that time, Quartararo and Cooper worked on the same umpiring crew and being evaluated for possible promotion to the big leagues.
This season, Quartararo is working as an umpire in the Florida State League, one of nine women who are working as minor league umpires.
Cooper said he notified Dellinger, but instead of taking action against Quartararo, he said MLB ordered Cooper to undergo sensitivity training. According to his lawsuit, he was also accused of violating the minor league anti-discrimination and harassment policy.
Cooper’s suit says he met with MLB Senior Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Billy Bean — who the Los Angeles Blade reported in December is battling cancer.
The lawsuit says at that meeting, Bean told the umpire that Quartararo claimed she was the victim, as the only female umpire in the ACL. Cooper said he told Bean Quartararo regularly used homophobic slurs and at one point physically shoved him. He also claims that he has video evidence, texts and emails to prove his claim.
But he said his complaints to Major League Baseball officials were ignored. His lawsuit said MLB passed him over for the playoffs and fired him in October. He said of the 26 umpires hired with Cooper, he was the only one let go.
Through a spokesperson, MLB declined to comment on pending litigation. Quartararo has also not publicly commented on the lawsuit.
Sports
Brittney Griner, wife expecting first child
WNBA star released from Russian gulag in December 2022
One year after returning to the WNBA after her release from a Russian gulag and declaring, “I’m never playing overseas again,” Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner and her wife announced they have something even bigger coming up this summer.
Cherelle, 31, and Brittney, 33, are expecting their first child in July. The couple shared the news with their 715,000 followers on Instagram.
“Can’t believe we’re less than three months away from meeting our favorite human being,” the caption read, with the hashtag, #BabyGrinerComingSoon and #July2024.
Griner returned to the U.S. in December 2022 in a prisoner swap, more than nine months after being arrested in Moscow for possession of vape cartridges containing prescription cannabis.
In April 2023, at her first news conference following her release, the two-time Olympic gold medalist made only one exception to her vow to never play overseas again: To return to the Summer Olympic Games, which will be played in Paris starting in July, the same month “Baby Griner” is due. “The only time I would want to would be to represent the USA,” she said last year.
Given that the unrestricted free agent is on the roster of both Team USA and her WNBA team, it’s not immediately clear where Griner will be when their first child arrives.
The Griners purchased their “forever home” in Phoenix just last year.
“Phoenix is home,” Griner said at the Mercury’s end-of-season media day, according to ESPN. “Me and my wife literally just got a place. This is it.”
As the Los Angeles Blade reported last December, Griner is working with Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts — like Griner, a married lesbian — on an ESPN television documentary as well as a television series for ABC about her life story. Cherelle is executive producer of these projects.
Next month, Griner’s tell-all memoir of her Russian incarceration will be published by Penguin Random House. It’s titled “Coming Home” and the hardcover hits bookstores on May 7.
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