WNBA Superstar Brittney Griner backed out of speaking at the Women Grow Leadership Summit on Monday after she discovered a note in her hotel room that she perceived as a threat.
A piece of duct tape with the ambiguous phrase “Gay Baby Jail,” was discovered by Griner.
There are myriad microcosms of entertainment, from sports to gaming. Perhaps there is some overlap between the fandoms, and perhaps the two shall never meet. In this case, the divide between these legions of fans caused an unfortunate miscommunication that spooked Ms. Griner.
Women Grow CEO Chanda Macias emphatically supported Ms. Griner’s decision to withdraw from the conference and gave an impassioned speech to the audience.
“Brittney’s feelings are valid, and we wish her all the support humanly possible. Anyone who hasn’t spent time in a Russian gulag is in no position to judge her and unfortunately, the LGBTQ community can often be targeted for hate crimes. While we are disappointed we didn’t hear her keynote, her mental and physical well-being, and the well-being of medical cannabis patients everywhere, are our community’s highest priority,” said conference attendee, Jill Reddish, co-founder of Global Cannabis Network Collective (GCNC).
TMZ Sports reported Ms. Griner discovering a piece of duct tape near her entryway that had the words “Gay Baby Jail” written on it, was triggering – for obvious reasons, given the fact that Ms. Griner is a high-profile member of the LGBTQ community, and was famously incarcerated in Russia after a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges allegedly containing cannabis oil. Her journey is detailed in her best-selling book, Coming Home.
The Prince George’s County Police Department (PGCPD) stated on Tuesday that its officers had investigated the incident at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center and determined that the matter appeared to be an unfortunate coincidence due to the gaming parlance. The venue –one of the largest on the East Coast with over 546,000 square feet of meeting space– hosted an anime and gaming convention concurrently with the Women Grow Leadership Summit.
“Detectives have learned the phrase ‘gay baby jail’ is commonly used as a video game reference,” a representative for PGCPD said.
At the time Ms. Griner discovered the tape, “a large convention was taking place at the Gaylord, which attracted thousands of people, many of whom were interested in anime as well as video game enthusiasts. At this time, detectives have uncovered no link to or threat against the guest who located the tape.”
According to Know Your Meme, the origins of the phrase “Gay Baby Jail” stems from a Tumblr post on January 21, 2013, by user Bolto, who has since deleted all of their content. The post, mirrored on the Meme Archives Tumblr, shows the user’s pet bird in a cage inside a shoe box with the words “Gay Baby Jail,” written on the side.
Therefore the phrase, often abbreviated to #GBJ, is meant to be a humorous term or “inside baseball” reference used in gaming to refer to a character or person trapped in a jail cell, penalty box, or other punishment location.
The term evolved when Twitch streamer SimpleFlips and his fandom began using it to refer to a situation in which a game becomes impassible.
While this unfortunate incident caused Women Grow’s attendees to be disheartened for Britney Griner, the community was relieved to hear the incident wasn’t intentional, wasn’t an act of terrorism or a hate crime, and wasn’t meant to be a threat.
Prince George’s County Police Dep’t said they are still investigating which individual, most likely a gamer, left the piece of tape.
