Once she became familiar with a new side of her racial identity, she began to explore her sexual identity. “I pretended to be straight for years – it irritated me so much. I hated it,” she said. She'd had a boyfriend since she was a child, from sixth grade all the way through college, and she'd always appreciated handsome men, but her heart wasn't in it. “I can appreciate men, but all the other things that come with you, I can’t,” she laughed. “And I tried. I really tried.” Although she always found women attractive, it took her about 20 years to consider dating them. “I don’t think I was ready to navigate this space until I felt completely safe,” she said. That eventually happened when she got to the WNBA, where she was surrounded by powerful, outspoken women who were completely unapologetic about who they were. However, for several years she publicly stated that she was bi, not gay. “There's still pressure to market to men and be sexy,” she said. However, by the age of 24, she stopped pretending. When she came out as gay, everything improved, including her skills on the court. “I was like the Hulk who just got superpowers,” she said. “When you hide or suppress parts of yourself, you are not fully yourself. You limit yourself in many ways. If I can't be confident in who I am as a person, how can I be confident in who I am as a player?”
Cloud also thanked her family for giving her a strong emotional and moral foundation. “There are families in this league that use players as cash cows,” she said. “My family never took anything away from me. I truly have the best parents in the world, and even my brothers and sisters who voted for Trump – I'm like, 'Y'all annoy me,' but I know if I ever needed protection, they would.” Cloud also said her conservative family never made her feel judged. “I never even told my dad I was gay. I literally just brought my girlfriend home and he was like, 'Nice to meet you,'” she says.
