Che Flores is the NBA’s first out nonbinary trans referee, making that revelation in a story published by GQ on Monday.
In the article, Flores, who was touted by the league in 2022 as one of the first women to referee NBA games, said being referred to as “she/her always just felt like a little jab in the gut.”
Flores has been an NBA staff referee or nonstaff official for two seasons, working 35 games as a referee last season and 12 games as a nonstaff official during the 2021-22 season.
“One piece I was missing for myself was that no one knew how I identified,” Flores told GQ.
Some NBA executives have known how Flores identifies for several months. Many of Flores’ colleagues learned when they revealed it at preseason meetings last month.
Flores has worked games for about a decade in both the G League and the WNBA and has been previously picked to work some of the biggest events in basketball — the G League Finals, the WNBA Finals and the NCAA women’s national championship game.
“I just think of having younger queer kids look at somebody who’s on a high-profile stage and not using it,” Flores told GQ. “And I’m not using the league to an advantage in any way. This is just to let young kids know that we can exist, we can be successful in all different ways.”
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