NBA’s First Female Referee, Violet Palmer, To Wed Longtime Partner
The NBA’s first female referee, Violet Palmer, will wed her longtime partner on Friday. The announcement was the first time Palmer openly announced her sexuality to the public, though she came out to her fellow NBA referees in 2007.
Palmer told The Associated Press in an interview, “This is actually the big formal coming out. We are saying to the world, to everyone, here’s my wife of 20 years. This is the big coming out.”
The NBA referee’s partner is celebrity hair stylist Tanya Stine. The pair will marry in Los Angeles and the ceremony will be officiated by Basketball Wives LA star Tanya Young Williams.
Violet Palmer broke down barriers in the NBA in 1997 when she became the first female referee to officiate a game in the league’s history. Under scrutiny from fans and her fellow refs, Palmer quickly proved she could withstand the grumbling and ref baiting that comes with making a career in a men’s game. Since then, Palmer has officiate postseason games and the 2014 All-Star Game.
The referee noted that she has been open about her sexuality within the league for years. There was never a formal coming out because she didn’t want her sexual preference to overshadow her work on the court. Palmer explained, “I always wanted people to just look at my work. Not look at my personal life, not look at my sexual preference. That doesn’t matter. I just wanted people to say, ‘Wow, she is a pretty damn good referee.’ ”
USA Today notes that Palmer didn’t purposefully keep quiet about her sexuality, but she “never hit it.” She added, “If someone asked me, I would tell them. But am I going around with the gay flag posted on my forehead? I didn’t feel like it was necessary.”
The couple always joked that they would marry if they made it to 20 years together. When same-sex marriage was legalized in California, they realized that their 20-year anniversary was coming up and it was time to follow through on it. They will say their vows in front of about 130 guests.
As for her nerves leading up to the Labor Day event, Palmer stated that she feels the same kind of nerves she steels herself from when working in the NBA. Palmer explained, “It’s a different feeling. This one of kind of making my life and family complete.”
Violet Palmer and Tanya Stine live in the Los Angeles area and raised Stine’s three daughters, from a previous marriage, since their relationship began.
[Image via NBA]
