Admittedly, he does look pretty fabulous in this picture
“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.” –Jason Collins
I had never heard of Jason Collins before this week. After David Robinson retired from the Spurs, I pretty much stopped paying attention to professional basketball entirely, to the extent I ever gave it much attention. In the few days that I have had to learn about Jason Collins, though, I can say that I have tremendous respect for him. He does not have high stats, and he does not fit the concept of an NBA superstar by any stretch of the imagination. For twelve years, though, he has kept showing up. The Michael Jordans of the world (like I said, I haven’t followed the NBA for a while) could not become superstars if they didn’t have the support of players like Jason Collins. (I’m sure people who know more about basketball could dispute the specifics of this point, but that’s not what I want to talk about.)
The reason I heard about Jason Collins this week is that he is the first active male professional athlete to come out as gay. He is hardly the first professional athlete, as Martina Navratilova has more than three decades on him in this area, but it’s still kind of a big thing. Male professional sports are still rooted in traditional male gender norms, which is part of why I never much cared for them. The idea of an actively-playing athlete in the NBA still seems far-fetched, but here we are. I have no doubt there are others, as well as the NFL, Baseball, and the NHL, but whoever they are, they’re keeping it to themselves (and that’s totally their right, to be sure.) Collins wrote an eloquent, if occasionally egotistical, piece in the forthcoming issue of Sports Illustrated explaining his decision to come out.
The most you can do is stand up for what you believe in. I’m much happier since coming out to my friends and family. Being genuine and honest makes me happy.
I’m glad I can stop hiding and refocus on my 13th NBA season. I’ve been running through the Santa Monica Mountains in a 30-pound vest with Shadow, the German shepherd I got from Mike Miller. In the pros, the older you get, the better shape you must be in. Next season a few more eyeballs are likely to be on me. That only motivates me to work harder.
Some people insist they’ve never met a gay person. But Three Degrees of Jason Collins dictates that no NBA player can claim that anymore. Pro basketball is a family. And pretty much every family I know has a brother, sister or cousin who’s gay. In the brotherhood of the NBA, I just happen to be the one who’s out.
Of course, Collins’ announcement has made some people apoplectic. Much of it is predictable doomsaying, with the recently-added insistence that it is not bigoted to say so, but bigoted of the rest of us to call it bigoted. To that, all I can think to say is “Shhhhh! Grown-ups are talking!”
What struck me are the people who object to calling Collins a “hero.” Ben Shapiro of Breitbart.com took issue with that characterization:
So Jason Collins is a hero because he’s gay? Our standard for heroism has dropped quite a bit since Normandy.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 29, 2013
As did CBS announcer Tim Brando:
I’m hearing Collins is a HERO because he made history! Okas a Sports Commentator if I make a SEX tape is that history?The word matters ok — Tim Brando (@TimBrando) April 29, 2013
They each have more tweets on the subject, but you get the idea.
We don’t know how most people in the NBA will react to this news. They may, by and large, not care, which would be the ideal outcome, because it would mean acceptance of Collins for who he is and for his contributions to the game. Some of them may not react so well, and while they are entitled to whatever opinions they may hold, they have no right to make Collins suffer for them. I certainly hope Collins doesn’t face violence from anyone, but that it a fact of life for many, many LGBTQ people around the world.
That is the real source of Collins heroism, and the reason why people like Shapiro and Brando don’t understand. Collins has voluntarily put himself in front of people who still make it their business to call out LGBTQ people for violating their narrow view of how people should behave. Collins has made himself a target of people like Shapiro and Brando.
Shapiro and Brando don’t understand why we should call Jason Collins a hero, because they do not understand that they are the villains.
Photo credit: By Joshua S. Kelly – USA TODAY Sports [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
