WNBA star Natasha Cloud with her professional softball player wife Aleshia Ocasio. (Instagram/ t__cloud9)
WNBA star Natasha Cloud has revealed that she married her softballer girlfriend in a secret wedding, fearing her rights would be taken away.
Cloud and her and professional softball player partner Aleshia Ocasio, who plays for the Chicago Bandits, announced their engagement in 2019.
But in a Women’s Basketball Weekly Clubhouse chat Wednesday (10 March), Cloud revealed that she and Ocasio tied the knot in October last year, rushing the wedding for a heartbreaking reason.
Journalist Greydy Diaz shared on Twitter: “Natasha Cloud revealed she got married in October just in case Donald Trump got re-elected. She feared for her rights.”
.@T_Cloud4 revealed she got married in October just in case Donald Trump got re-elected. She feared for her rights.
— Greydy (@GreydyDiaz) March 10, 2021
Cloud, who recently re-signed with the WNBA’s Mystics with a three-year $565,000 contract, was one of many LGBT+ Americans who rushed to get married last year, fearing Trump’s re-election would pose a threat to marriage equality in the US.
In October, 2020, before Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the US Supreme Court to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, queer couples across the country panicked as they considered the implications for their rights.
Along with the Trump administration’s long history of attacking queer Americans, Barrett’s anti-LGBT+ record, including her membership of the Catholic group People of Praise which kicks members out for having gay sex and her ties to listed anti-LGBT+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, sparked fears of a roll back of marriage equality.
One non-binary, queer, sex-positive pastor in St Louis, Missouri, offered “pop-up elopements” to the local queer community, allowing couples to tie the knot “while [they] still had the chance”.
Pastor Tori Jameson said at the time: “She has made statements against Roe, against immigration. I worry about our rights being rolled back if she gets in… We are going to take care of our own. You can be hateful, but there is an opportunity here to celebrate love and be joyful.”
Luckily, America avoided re-electing Trump, but Cloud and her new wife seem happy with their decision.
Over the festive season, the couple posted photos of themselves snuggling next to a Christmas tree, and signed the post: “The Clouds.”