{"id":389501,"date":"2026-01-05T17:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/389501\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T17:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:15:08","slug":"layshia-clarendon-on-life-after-the-wnba-adidas-partnership-supporting-trans-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/389501\/","title":{"rendered":"Layshia Clarendon On Life After The WNBA, Adidas Partnership, & Supporting Trans Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Layshia Clarendon, it was never just about basketball<\/a>. Over the course of a career that has spanned grade school gyms, college arenas, the WNBA, and the international stage of the FIBA World Cup, sport is bigger than any of that. \u201c[Sports have been] everything from a therapist, to a best friend, to a worst enemy,\u201d Clarendon tells Her Campus in an exclusive interview. \u201c[It\u2019s my] security blanket, my identity, and everything in between.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That sense of belonging in sports \u2014 in what\u2019s \u201ca Black space, a really queer space,\u201d as Clarendon says \u2014 has shaped not only how they moved through the WNBA as the league\u2019s first openly nonbinary and trans player<\/a>, but how they continue to show up for others now. \u201cQueer athletes have been around forever and ever and ever, and we\u2019re not going anywhere,\u201d Clarendon says. \u201cNo matter what people try to tell you, no matter what these bills try and tell you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After their final buzzer in the WNBA in 2024, Clarendon is still making an impact. As a point guard, Clarendon controlled the basketball court and served as a leader on their teams. Now, through the Layshia Clarendon Foundation and other game-changing partnerships, they are working to ensure that other trans people of color can experience the same life-changing affirmation they found in sports \u2014 proving that the community basketball gave them is something they\u2019re determined to pass forward.<\/p>\n

For Clarendon, who spent over a decade on five different teams in the WNBA \u2014 plus gold medals with the USA Women\u2019s U19 Team in 2009 and on the senior roster for the FIBA Women\u2019s Basketball World Cup in 2018 \u2014 being a space of belonging is one of the most important things sports can do for people. \u201cA lot of times you interact with folks you probably wouldn\u2019t be friends with normally,\u201d they say. \u201cThere were a lot of people I played with where it was like \u2018I wouldn\u2019t actually be your friend, but we\u2019re teammates, so I\u2019ve gotten to know you more than I would have,\u2019 So, I learned a different side of them and learned how to work together with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through my own experience of having top surgery and just realizing how good it felt, how it literally saved my life to feel good in my body, and [I wanted] other people to have that experience as well.<\/p>\n

Layshia Clarendon<\/p>\n

Working together didn\u2019t just happen on the court. Clarendon notes the variety of support they got during their journey as the first trans player, the first openly nonbinary player, and the first player to undergo top surgery while in the WNBA<\/a>. \u201cOne of my teammates, before I had my little mustache, she helped me fill it in one day for media day with her eyebrow pen,\u201d they say. \u201cShe was like, \u2018Oh, try this!\u2019 So, that was such a sweet, tender moment of a teammate just seeing you and affirming you in the same way someone will be filling in their eyebrows or mascara on their eyelashes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others in the league \u2014 even those Clarendon had never played on the same team as \u2014 showed up for them, too. \u201cI never actually played with Brianna Turner,\u201d Clarendon says of the current forward for the Indiana Fever and advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports<\/a>. \u201cShe\u2019s supported me as just a WNBA colleague.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

From asking questions to educating themselves to continuing to tease in the locker room, Clarendon\u2019s experience with getting gender-affirming care was a critical one: In 2021, it inspired them to start the Layshia Clarendon Foundation<\/a> \u2014 which supports the trans community through education, advocacy, and direct financial assistance. \u201cThrough my own experience of having top surgery and just realizing how good it felt, how it literally saved my life to feel good in my body, and [I wanted] other people to have that experience as well,\u201d Clarendon says.<\/p>\n

When asked about the most rewarding experience since the launch of the Layshia Clarendon Foundation, Clarendon didn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cDefinitely when I got the report [showing] the actual people [the foundation] impacted by giving them access to surgeries,\u201d they say. \u201cWe directly have a surgery fund partnered with the Oakland LGBT Center, and so folks who didn\u2019t have the means, quite literally, to have the thousands of dollars they needed to get their gender affirming surgery, and then they got to have that because of our direct funds to them. That\u2019s the moment I really teared up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Helping people get access to health care is super important, especially with a sweeping number of bills introduced across the U.S. to try to ban it. According to the Trans Legislation Tracker<\/a>, over 1,000 anti-trans bills have been introduced in the United States at the federal and local levels. Over a hundred of those focus on prohibiting trans athletes from participating in sports in line with their gender identity, and over 200 look to restrict or ban access to gender-affirming care.<\/p>\n

But just as Clarendon had a roster of teammates in the WNBA, they have a team at their foundation, and it may be slightly unexpected: Adidas. On Dec. 2, also known as #GivingTuesday<\/a>, Adidas released its limited-edition Community Archives zine<\/a> to honor cultural changemakers partnering with the brand. Featured as part of a multi-page Words of Wisdom spread is Clarendon, who partnered with Adidas to start their foundation.<\/p>\n

The Three Stripes are about more than sneakers and athletic wear. Through an arm called Athletes For Impact<\/a>, Adidas has partnered with hundreds of athletes to help change the world. Clarendon explains that there was never any question about what they wanted their foundation to do. \u201cI directly wanted to impact trans people of color,\u201d Clarendon says. \u201cAdidas was like, \u2018Great, say the word, what are we doing?\u2019 They were just on board from the first moment I said I wanted to start the foundation and get the money directly, so it\u2019s really cool to see [Adidas] putting their money and their ethics and their values where their mouth is. And that\u2019s something Adidas has stood by me from day one through my entire journey.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember your why. Why are you doing it? What\u2019s the point? Why are you stepping out there? Know your anchor and then remember that<\/p>\n

Layshia Clarendon<\/p>\n

When asked what they want young, queer athletes to remember, Clarendon has three pieces of advice. The first? \u201cAlways know: you belong in sports.\u201d Even if you\u2019re the first out, you\u2019re not the first to exist, and you won\u2019t be the last. \u201cThis is a place for you to belong, in sports, and that\u2019s the beauty of sport,\u201d Clarendon says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second reminder is about happiness. \u201cRemember the joy of why you first stepped on the court or the field or the track, and don\u2019t lose sight of enjoying to play,\u201d Clarendon says. \u201cThere are a lot of things that can bog you down in the grand scheme of playing, whether it\u2019s competitiveness, the coaches, the teammates, the parents, all the drama that comes with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They explain, \u201cThat\u2019s what kept me going for over a decade: I enjoyed it, and I always come back to that, even through the hardships: Once I step on the court, whether it\u2019s practice or a game, I have a tremendous amount of joy, just playing the game of basketball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, Clarendon\u2019s last piece of advice: \u201cRemember your why. Why are you doing it? What\u2019s the point? Why are you stepping out there? Know your anchor and then remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Layshia Clarendon, it was never just about basketball. Over the course of a career that has spanned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[112871,690,189178,112870,3026,109437,99,434],"class_list":["post-389501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-chapternational","tag-culture","tag-free-to-be","tag-hc-athletic-club","tag-lgbtq","tag-sponsoredno","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}