On February 17, 2022, WNBA superstar Brittney Griner was detained upon her arrival in Moscow. As of April 29, 2022, Griner was officially classified as a Wrongful Detention by the U.S. State Department.
On Wednesday, June 22nd, a diverse coalition of civil and human rights organizations penned a letter to the White House asking officials to secure Brittney’s freedom.
Like many athletes competing in the WNBA, Griner – a two-time Olympic gold medalist – plays abroad during the WNBA off-season for the love of the sport, but also in exchange for substantially bigger contracts, which are not available to women’s basketball players in the U.S. For more than half of the athletes in the WNBA, that means moving abroad for several months of the year.
It is imperative that the U.S. government immediately address this human rights issue and do whatever is necessary to return Brittney home quickly and safely.
Read the full letter here.
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
