By Odeisel
And so it has finally happened. After far too many whispers, television shows where art projected life, we finally have an active athlete coming out of the closet. Yesterday, courtesy of a Sports Illustrated cover story, Washington Wizards center Jason Collins became the first openly gay player from one of the four major sports. Collins’ admission set off a deluge of coverage across print, radio, television and the internet. That his confession came in the middle of the NBA Playoffs certainly didn’t hurt.
As far as people go, you probably couldn’t have found a better spokesperson for the gay cause than Jason Collins. He lacks many of the stereotypical qualities attached to gay men. He isn’t effeminate or flamboyant; he is well-educated, physically rugged and not prone to attention grabbing displays. He isn’t an All-Star, but he has carved out a nice 12-year career in professional basketball. Rosa Parks wasn’t the first woman to protest being sent to the back of the bus. There was an earlier woman who happened to be a teenaged mother who wasn’t deemed a proper representative for the cause. Collins is so squeaky clean that any objection you would have to him as a person almost makes it your problem, not his.
At first glance it’s peculiar that the first openly gay athlete would come from basketball, an overwhelmingly Black sport. African-American males are often cast as the least accepting group of gays and generally viewed as homophobic because of their usage of epithets like faggot. We’ve expounded on the use of that word in the Black community before (and its reference to masculinity rather than sexual preference) and how that language doesn’t necessarily speak to a dislike of gay men.
The NBA and Commissioner David Stern have gone great lengths towards marketing its brand to everyone and have a zero tolerance for gay slurs, even going so far as to fine Kobe Bryant $100,000 after he was caught on camera during a game calling a referee a faggot after a call Kobe disagreed with. Pro basketball has had the peculiar issue of marketing a very urban product to a very corporate audience and its fans have a closer proximity to the game and the athletes than any other sport. Its players are worldlier than you would believe. They come from cities where gay men are visible and not whispers in the dark. There is no league more suited for this kind of event.
There will be comparisons to Jackie Robinson, but the comparison doesn’t really pass muster. The movies and television shows and the visibility of gays in mass media would suggest that at least in part, society is ready and pushing for this, whereas Robinson’s journey began in a far different and less open America. The objections to Collins would come on a much more personal plane than societal.
But that doesn’t diminish the courage of coming out under such scrutiny. Collins hid his sexuality even from his twin brother and fellow hooper Jarrod. The spotlight burns brightly and after the interviews and the high-fives are over, the real journey begins. The only sad thing about this is that Jason Collins is 12 years into his career and almost certainly on his way out of the league. There is a good chance that he won’t be on an NBA roster. And it won’t be because he’s gay, it will be because his skills have diminished. He’s still 7 feet tall and 250 lbs and can still set a mean screen…but that’s about it at this point in his career.
In any event, it’s good to see someone like Collins leading the charge. With all the down low issues with Black men in the underground community, and a lack of Black participants and voices in the gay movement, Collins will actually be a groundbreaker WITHIN the gay community. Here’s to the hope that with Jason Collins’ courageous act, more Black men will have the confidence to come out of the closet and live their lives in the open without either hiding their sexuality or being mascots.
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