Is jackson gay the rookie
Welcome to my annual Who’s Gay in the WNBA Report! For those of you who are unused, every year I crack down the list of athletes who are openly queer in the league. As a queer person who has played basketball my entire life, the off-court drama is always equally as exciting as the on-court display of skills. Knowing who’s homosexual and who’s dating who only adds to that for me. If you’re more of a pure viewer of the game and prefer only knowing what’s going on while the clock is running, I do regularly craft WNBA TikToks that I like to think are pretty informative!
The league is well known to contain some of the leading pre-game walk-up outfits in all of professional sports, so you’re missing out if you don’t go after at least the @wnba account on Instagram. Here’s a complete list of all out gay players in the league, broken down by team. For my purposes, “Out” means confirmed by the player either in an interview or on their social media. No matter how masculine presenting someone is, I will not be speculating!
Last Updated: 6/27/25
Las Vegas Aces
The Aces are a very pleasant team and as elongated as A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray are both there they’ll always contain a shot at
Sexuality for all the members of The Rookie team because it’s Pride Month:
John Nolan: He is A Straight™ but he is also the biggest ally you can find!
Talia Bishop: also unbent, don't know why but that’s how I see her.
Nyla Harper: Bi, and Crystal is a female homosexual because she said so.
Tim Bradford: Bi. But everyone assumes he's homophobic. He don’t know why they thought that. People are always shocked when they find out he is not.
Lucy Chen: try for years to convince herself she was linear to please her parents, but is bi 100%
Jackson West: GAY, do you even watch the show?
Angela Lopez: Pansexual. I don't understand what but to me something screams pan about her.
Wesley Evers: bi. And also trans battle me!
Feels free to comment or combine more! ;)
Why The Rookie Killed Off Jackson West — and Why the Episode Was So Strange
As promotional material for The Rookie began to appear in the weeks leading up to the series' Season 4 premiere, fans noticed something was amiss. Without an explanation, Officer Jackson West, played by actor and musician Titus Makin Jr., was mysteriously missing. Fans were naturally concerned. Many hypothesized in the off-season that Jackson would die in the premiere, and sure enough, they were right. But why did Titus Makin Jr. leave The Rookie in the first place?
Jackson was unceremoniously shot in the back in the Season 4 premiere, "Life and Death," without even seeing his face. There was much speculation about Jackson's fate following the Season 3 finale, but the fact that Makin Jr. chose to abandon shocked fans, even though it shouldn't have come as a surprise. The actor was unseal about debating his return for Season 3, but he ultimately decided to come back after having a heart-to-heart conversation with showrunner Alexi Hawley. His storyline that season attempted to handle his concerns, specifically about how policing is portrayed in network procedurals like The Rookie. Nevertheless, it wou
The Rookie Fumbled 1 of its Foremost Characters (& The Show Still Hasn't Recovered From That Strange Episode)
The accompanying contains light spoilers for The Rookie Season 7, airing on ABC on Tuesdays and streaming on Hulu the next day.
When The Rookiefirst debuted in 2018, Nathan Fillion's John Nolan was the titular training officer in the LAPD. However, he wasn't the only "boot" on the show. Characters played by Melissa O'Neil and Titus Makin Jr. rounded out the cast. While Lucy Chen remains a fixture on the series, the unceremonious killing of Officer Jackson West is The Rookie's biggest mistake, and the production hasn't fully recovered from it.
When the series began, Nolan was the oldest rookie in the department's history, while Lucy and Jackson were more age-appropriate recruits. They were also his closest confidantes. Jackson eventually moved in with Lucy, and the two developed one of the series' best friendships. The loss of the character was devastating to fans, both for the way it happened and how quickly the characters moved on. Jackson West deserved better, and The Rookie lost something in his absence that the display hasn't gotten back.