Brittney Griner

Although a Russian court ruled that WNBA star Brittney Griner's detention may be extended for six more months, her trial on drug charges begins Friday, ...

A former U.S. Marine, Reed was held for the past three years in Russia on charges stemming from an alleged fight with a Russian police officer. "It was hard," Griner said in an interview. And it was, in my perspective, targeted and purposeful." Her detention was extended another month before a trial. Historically and even now, Black women have been represented as less than normal by White feminine standards, making the value of Black gay women even less. I want to work with kids and bring recognition to the problem, especially with the LGBT community." At 6 feet, 8 inches tall, Griner, 31, stands out in a crowd. In an earlier statement, Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, said Griner received a consular visit on March 23 and was in "good condition" and "doing as well as can be expected under these very difficult circumstances." "Definitely something that I am very passionate about. She faces up to 10 years in prison. Since her arrest on Feb. 17, Griner has been locked up in a Russian prison. Russian state media have reported that the government would free Griner in exchange for convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, also known as "the Merchant of Death." Bout was arrested in Thailand in 2008, extradited to the United States and sentenced to 25 years.

Innocent people will continue to suffer because of the hypocrisy of Guantanamo Bay. Some of them are U.S. citizens detained abroad.

After all, one of the benefits of being a superpower is having the resources to pay for friends and buy influence. It’s been 20 years since we opened Guantanamo Bay as a war prison, and for most of its existence, the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. has been someone who campaigned on promises to close it. Despite the United States’ response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the two nations did manage a prisoner swap that enabled a former Marine, Trevor Reed, to come home in April. But when it comes to freeing individuals we unjustly hold prisoner ourselves, well, let’s just say the president has some pull. Some of those cleared have been waiting to go home for years. But to keep that same prisoner detained months after one of our own federal judges ruled that doing so was unlawful … well, with this kind of mentality here in the U.S., it’s no mystery why some of our friends give us the side eye. I guess our friends noticed when we swapped “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” for “Build the wall.” I am simply pointing out we are not the only ones with a story to tell. In the short term, maybe this slippage in standing doesn’t have many practical effects. And no, I’m not suggesting we are the villains in this story. Just as the Supreme Court was threatening half a century of progress on human rights as it overturned Roe vs. The more those two drift apart, the more interesting observers will find the other stories about who and what we are.