When Fran Harris was 16, her mother relented and agreed, at her brother's urgings, to let Harris play basketball as long as her grades didn't suffer. Harris's grades remained high, and she was off on a career that would lead her to the first season of the WNBA, playing basketball for the Houston Comets. The team would go on to win the league's first championship.
Harris played her second season with Utah. She then became a commentator for the WNBA. Her achievements since leaving the basketball court have also included becoming an ordained minister, author and life coach.
Harris's most recent venture is her newest book, Will the Real You Please Stand Up? Health Communications, Inc. will release the book in February, and Windy City Times spoke with Harris over the phone to discuss the book, the WNBA and what else is in store within the upcoming year.
'Will the Real You Please Stand Up? I decided to write this book honestly about seven or eight years ago. I was playing in the WNBA, and was really just going through…it just felt like I was in a whirlwind of discovery about myself and who I was. Why I was here and what I'm to do here. That's how the book came about. I started thinking, why am I in Utah? More importantly, what is my grand purpose? Over the next seven years I continued to ask myself that question, but also to look into the lives of the people who were in my life to see if they felt like they were living their purpose. If they felt like they were on their own path to their own destiny, and what that meant for them,' responded Harris.
Harris said that her decision to finally sit down and write the book came after she went on her own journey of discovery with the question she originally asked herself, 'Am I living my purpose?'
The title of the book serves as an acronym for Harris's key points. Real You stands for retiring your ego, embracing that which is spiritual about you, accepting challenges, letting go of illusions and lies, yearning for righteousness, overcoming fear and unleashing your demons.
'The points basically have to do with becoming more of who you are. Starting to live your life on your own terms. That is clearly relevant, whether you're talking about your personal life, becoming more of the artist you are, the technical person you are. Whatever that means. It's for everybody to identify for themselves what that means, but the main thing is to stop faking your way through life and to truly become not just the fraction of who you were meant to be, but this powerful, passionate person that I believe we were all created to be,' said Harris.
When asked how this book can serve the LGBT community specifically, Harris said, 'Honestly, because I think part of what happens with all of us is that we start to become who other people want us to be. I've heard a lot of people in that market who say this is why I didn't come out, I was living my life because my dad wanted me to do this, my brother wanted me to do that, and that's really kind of faking your way through life. So, I think the book is really relevant for that audience because I'm optimistic that it will give them the courage to see that when you are very invested in what other people think, it's impossible to be all of who you are. When you're invested in the potential reaction of people to who you are or what you do, it's impossible to be the real you.'
Attention on a female athlete's sexuality has always seemed to shadow women's sports. Women have been hearing comments that if you're a female athlete you must be a lesbian for years. Harris believes that it should not matter what an athlete's sexual orientation is, and sees the situation in terms of the historical context of trying to put women down, or even the human condition of trying to put others down.
Harris said, specifically about women coming out as lesbian, 'If they think they can make you feel bad for who you are, if they think they can discourage you from stepping out of your genius and your power, then they will say anything…I think that's why it's on the table, why there's even a dialogue.'
Harris said that she was not shocked when Sheryl Swoopes came out in 2005. Rather, she was refreshingly surprised. Harris believes that there are two categories of athletes when it comes to coming out, 'There are some players across the board in terms of athletes in sports, who really feel like they don't have anything to lose. Whether it's because they're the star and I just don't care, or they feel like I'm not the star and nobody will care.'
'I think Sheryl falls into the first category of I'm an elite player and you know what, whatever.'
Harris says perception is the powerful factor for players coming out or not coming out in the WNBA as well as for the league in general, as far as business decisions go. 'Perception is powerful. When people perceive that they are going to be ridiculed and crucified if they reveal something about themselves, it doesn't matter what it is, then they're going to be less likely to do it.'
Because of this overriding perception, Harris does not believe the league will ever back lesbian players in a vocal and definite way, but rather, they will continue to stay away from any definite in support or against coming out. 'If we thought we were going to offend whoever the advertisers are, that we were going to lose them, again that's the whole paradigm shift of what you perceive you're going to lose. They just think they're going to leave, but lesbian dollars spend just like straight dollars as far as I'm concerned. But, the perception is if we do this…we're not going to come out against it, but we're not going to come across strongly like we support it either.'
This year will be a busy one for Harris. She begins her book tour at the end of February as well as a series of seminars entitled Booming Women, www.boomingwomen.com, which will focus on issues women of the boomer generation are facing.
She is also launching a publication, Collegepreneur. The magazine will begin on-line in February, at www.collegepreneur.com, followed in September by its hard copy premier issue. The magazine is targeted at current and aspiring college entrepreneurs.
Harris is also in the development stage of her own talk show, which she says will be a blend of Oprah and Suze Orman. The talk show is scheduled for the end of 2007, with the final details currently being worked out.
Harris' first work in film production will hit the film festival circuit this spring with her documentary on Nikki Giovanni. The documentary focuses on the life of Giovanni and is in post-production. The project came out of a stage production Harris did a few years ago in Texas on Giovanni's work.
All of Harris's projects are linked by an underlying theme. She believes that we all have the potential to be great, that each one of us is special and can achieve our dreams. Her projects all encompass this message and she hopes will serve as an inspiration for others to do great things.
