By Glennisha Morgan

WNBA star Brittney Griner has recently received a huge honor. The Phoenix Mercury center has been crowned grand marshal of the 2014 Phoenix Pride Parade. The Pride celebration takes place April 5-6 and the parade begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 5.

“Phoenix is my adopted home and I’m so honored by the way the fans and the community have embraced me, not only as an athlete but as a person,” Griner said. “I look forward to attending my first Phoenix Pride, participating in the parade, and meeting more inspiring, proud Phoenicians who care as much as I do about equality and ending the bullying of our youth.”

Griner, who was the number one 2013 WNBA draft pick, was recently nominated for Cartoon Network’s Hall of Game Awards. In 2013, she was also nominated for a BET Award.

The Phoenix Pride Executive Director Justin Owen had great things to say about the award-winning and record-breaking athlete. “Brittney Griner is a true inspiration to the LGBTQ community. She inspires us all by thriving as an openly gay professional athlete and role model for our younger generations,” he said. “Off the court, she advocates aggressively for a more inclusive society and works with many anti-bullying campaigns for today’s youth.”

Glennisha Morgan serves as ELIXHER’s Entertainment Editor. She is the founder of The Fembassy (a blog site that is solely dedicated to women MCs), a multimedia journalist, photographer and filmmaker. During her career she has interviewed people like Russell Simmons, La La Anthony, MC Lyte, Brendon Ayanbadejo, Laverne Cox, and Marsha Ambrosius. In 2010, Glennisha was featured in BET’s first original music documentary, ‘My Mic Sounds Nice.’