People talk. Especially when you’re 6 feet 9 inches tall, have a voice that hits a baritone register, and can dunk a basketball with more force than most guys at the local YMCA. For years, a specific corner of the internet has been obsessed with one claim: Brittney Griner is a guy.
It’s a rumor that just won’t die. No matter how many championships she wins or how many times she shares photos of her childhood, the "gender truther" crowd stays loud. Honestly, it’s kinda wild how much energy goes into debating the biology of a woman who has lived her entire life in the public eye. But if you actually look at the facts—real, documented life events—the "Brittney Griner is a guy" narrative falls apart pretty fast.
Why the Rumors Started in the First Place
Let's be real for a second. We live in a world that has a very narrow view of what a woman is "supposed" to look like. If you don't fit into the petite, soft-featured box, people get confused. Griner is a physical outlier. She wears a men’s size 17 shoe. Her wingspan is 87.5 inches—longer than many NBA players. When she was a freshman at Baylor, people weren't just impressed; they were suspicious.
The speculation usually points to three things: her height, her voice, and her flat-chested physique. It’s basically a checklist of "masculine" traits that some people think are impossible for a woman to have naturally. But nature is diverse. You’ve got women of all shapes, and in the world of elite sports, you’re looking at the 0.1% of human biology.
The Deep Voice Explained
A video recently went viral in late 2025 showing Griner talking courtside, and the comments were predictable. "That's a man's voice," people shouted. But there’s a simple physiological reason for it. Medical experts, including those cited in a 2023 analysis by UltraBB Medical Review, have noted that because she is 6'9", her vocal cords and thoracic cavity are significantly larger than the average woman's.
Think of it like an instrument. A cello is bigger than a violin, so it produces a deeper sound. It’s physics, not a secret identity. Griner herself has talked about this. In her 2024 memoir Coming Home, she admitted she used to hate the way she sounded and even considered vocal coaching to "soften" it before deciding to just embrace who she is.
The Paper Trail: Birth and Childhood
If Brittney Griner were actually a man, she would have had to pull off the greatest long-con in sports history starting in 1990. She was born Brittney Yvette Griner on October 18, 1990, in Houston, Texas. Her parents, Raymond and Sandra Griner, have been open about her childhood for decades.
- She is the youngest of four.
- She has an older brother, DeCarlo, and two sisters, Shkera and Pier.
- Her mother, Sandra, taught her how to sew and crochet as a kid.
There are literal baby photos. There are photos of her as a little girl with her sisters. Raymond Griner, a Vietnam vet and former sheriff, famously told ESPN years ago that his daughter "ain't your ordinary teenage girl," referring to her athleticism and her "rough-and-tumble" nature. She preferred wrestling the dog in the mud to playing with dolls. That doesn't make her a boy; it makes her a tomboy.
The Russian Detention and Gender Checks
One of the weirdest rumors that popped up during her 2022 detention in Russia was that the Russian government wanted to do a DNA test to see which prison—male or female—to put her in. It was a fake story. A total fabrication.
Fact-checkers from PolitiFact and USA Today debunked this years ago. In reality, Griner was held in a female facility. There was a brief "paperwork error" mentioned in her memoir where she was momentarily processed in a male area, but that’s common in chaotic bureaucratic systems and was quickly corrected. Russia, a country not exactly known for being "woke" or protective of LGBTQ+ identities, recognized her as a woman throughout her legal ordeal. If there was a biological "gotcha" to be found, they would have been the first to use it.
The WNBA and Professional Standards
The WNBA is a professional league with strict protocols. You don't just walk onto the court because you feel like it. While the league has been a leader in inclusive hiring and LGBTQ+ rights, the biological requirements for female athletes are heavily vetted, especially for someone who plays for the U.S. Olympic team.
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Griner has three Olympic gold medals. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has historically had some of the most rigorous (and sometimes controversial) gender and hormone testing in the world. She’s passed every single hurdle for over a decade.
Looking at the "Evidence"
A lot of the "proof" you see on TikTok or X (formerly Twitter) consists of grainy photos where someone has circled her neck looking for an Adam's apple or pointed at her "masculine" jawline. It’s "armchair biology" at its worst.
- The Chest: Griner posed for ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue in 2015. She was completely nude. She addressed the "tucking" rumors directly, saying, "I don't know what people think I'm hiding... Let me show that I embrace the flatness!"
- The Build: She practiced with the boys' basketball team in high school to get stronger. She worked with football coaches to build leg strength so she could dunk. Her body is a product of world-class training and unique genetics.
- The Family: She and her wife, Cherelle, welcomed a child in 2024. Griner also has children from a previous marriage with Glory Johnson.
The Toll of the Rumor Mill
It’s easy to joke about these things when you’re behind a keyboard. But for Griner, it’s a constant weight. In a 2025 interview with Good Morning America, she said the way people talk about her voice feels like "a punch in the gut every time."
She’s been kicked out of women's restrooms in both China and the U.S. because people assumed she was a man based on her height. That's a heavy way to live. She’s a woman who has spent her life being told she’s doing "womanhood" wrong just because she’s tall and athletic.
Actionable Insights: How to Handle Misinformation
When you see these claims popping up in your feed, it helps to keep a few things in mind:
- Check the Source: Is the "proof" coming from a medical record or a meme with a red arrow?
- Context Matters: Elite female athletes often have physical traits (low body fat, high muscle density) that differ from the "average" woman.
- Respect the Person: Regardless of what you think about her politics or her 2022 arrest, she is a human being who has consistently identified as a woman since birth.
The bottom line is pretty simple. Brittney Griner is a cisgender woman who happens to be a physical anomaly. She's a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother. The rumors are mostly just a reflection of how uncomfortable people get when a woman doesn't fit a specific aesthetic mold.
Next time you see a "shocking revelation" about her gender, remember that the most shocking thing about Brittney Griner isn't her biology—it's her ability to keep playing at an elite level despite years of public scrutiny. You can verify her history through her own memoirs, In My Skin and Coming Home, which offer the most direct look at her life.