September 10, 2013
Michael Jordan's Daughter Comes Out
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
The daughter of one of the most well known basketball players of all time took to social media last month to announce that she is gay, the U.K.'s Pink News reports.
Michael Jordan's only daughter, Jasmine Jordan, posted a photo of herself with her girlfriend Tyson-Thomas on Instagram on Aug. 20 with the caption: "This Little Closet Is Holding Me Back."
When her followers asked her that meant she is gay, she responded and confirmed that she is.
"Until love, trust, honesty, respect, loyalty, commitment, genuine happiness and other characteristics or aspects I want in a relationship is defined by one gender then and only then will I discuss my sexual preference," she wrote before coming out.
Jasmine's girlfriend is a former Syracuse Orange basketball player. Jasmine, 20, is a junior at Syracuse University and majors in sports management.
Michael Jordan and his ex-wife, Juanita, have two sons, Jeffrey Michael, 24, and Marcus James, 22. Bother are basketball players.
In related news, Magic Johnson's son, Earvin "E.J." Johnson III, came out in April, and quickly made headlines when TMZ spotted him walking down the Sunset Strip while holding hands with a man he said was his boyfriend. Though E.J. came out to his family years ago, he said he felt like he was coming out for a second time when he revealed his sexuality to the public.
"I always wanted to come into the spotlight," he said. "I always had dreams and plans of doing my own thing and creating my own image, so it came a little sooner than I thought it would but this is still something I knew I would be going through and would have to experience."
He said he's experienced a range of reactions to coming out, with some people online writing "nasty things about me and what I'm doing."
"It's almost like they're attacking me for being me and so to that I can only say, 'Well, I can only be myself, so I don't know really what you want me to do,'" he told "Gwissues" host and interviewer Howard Bragman, a publicist who recently began representing Johnson.
