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Early today, news broke that Jason Collins, a 12 year veteran of the NBA, and an active professional player has come out as gay. In a Sports Illustrated article published this morning for the May 6th issue(Sports Illustrated Article), the former Wizards and Celtics center has a lengthy personal expose, discussing topics such as his decision to come out with this timing, and what impact he thinks this revelation will make.
This announcement comes on the heels of a momentous few months for the issue of gay rights. Earlier this year, the controversial California Proposition 8 was affirmed as unconstitutional by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The amendment is slated to be ruled on by the US Supreme Court. Earlier this year as well, Barack Obama became the first US President to support Marriage Equality.
Coming so soon after such developments, the timing seems fortuitous. The reaction from former teammates, coaches, current big name players, and media figures has been overwhelmingly positive.
A sample of the praise for Collin's decision:
@FLOTUS (Michelle Obama) “So proud of you, Jason Collins! This is a huge step forward for our country. We’ve got your back! —mo”
NBA Commissioner David Stern: “Jason has been a widely respected player and teammate throughout his career and we are proud he has assumed the leadership mantle on this very important issue.”
Kobe Bryant tweeted: "Proud of @jasoncollins34. Don't suffocate who u r because of the ignorance of others #courage #support #mambaarmystandup #BYOU"
Some Negative comments(which were much fewer):
Chris Broussard: “I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ. So I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I don’t think the Bible would characterize him as a Christian.”
Miami Dolphins Wide Reciever Mike Wallace: “All these beautiful women in the world and guys wanna mess with other guys.”
At least one article points out that Jason Collins was hardly a superstar, and at 12 years nearing his way out of the NBA(http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/29/17973849-jason-collins-coming-out-could-land-him-contract-cash-new-career-experts?lite), suggesting a more self serving reason for his timing.
What are your opinions? What does this mean for the gay equality movement, if anything? Will other younger players be inspired to come out while actively playing?
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He is far from the first openly gay professional athlete. He is the first active American professional athlete to come out, but seeing as how he is a soon to be free agent 34 year old journeyman center, he may as well be inactive.
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Good for him! There's a lot of burden for openly gay public figures in this day and age due to the absurd amounts of hate they receive. Hopefully this can all change.
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Too bad he's essentially an absolute nobody.
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On April 30 2013 11:47 DannyJ wrote: Too bad he's essentially an absolute nobody.
Yes making it in the NBA isn't like a challenge or anything.
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Yea no kidding, he may not be a star but being able to play in the league for over 10 years says something.
As for his announcement: Good for him! Very brave thing to do being an active athlete in US pro sports. He was even very careful waiting until he wasn't affiliated with a team so he wouldn't be a distraction for them. Good guy and I wish him all the luck!
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I was quite disipointed by this. Jackie Robinson (first black athlete in US sports with white people) was a superstar in the prime of his career when he strove forward race relations in this nation. He was spat on and insulted by every other team and the fans across the nation.
This guy is going to cash in greatly, never have to play another game again in his life, received a phone call from the president, and will be able to push out of the business anyone who says an odd word to him now, all from day 1 of coming out at the end of anything public that he had to do in his life.
But of course they're the same thing for civil rights in america.
Edit: I'm not trying to take anything away from the guy, he obviously made the best decision he could ever have made. Being in the NBA for that long takes a ton of talent, work ethic, and skill. I just don't see the real difference between him and the other retired openly gay professional athletes that have come out over the years when their career was over. The guy simply isn't an active Athlete in a major american sport.
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On April 30 2013 11:51 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:Show nested quote +On April 30 2013 11:47 DannyJ wrote: Too bad he's essentially an absolute nobody. Yes making it in the NBA isn't like a challenge or anything.
Who cares? We know there are gay athletes out there. This guy is basically a nobody to the general population so while this is noteworthy and pretty awesome on his part it's not really going to publicly mean much, which was my point.
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I think he's the first while still playing.
liz carmouche is a UFC fighter and she is openly gay.
More people should come out imo.
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On April 30 2013 11:51 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:Show nested quote +On April 30 2013 11:47 DannyJ wrote: Too bad he's essentially an absolute nobody. Yes making it in the NBA isn't like a challenge or anything. While this is true, the guy was no superstar. He isn't a household name for anything else other than this. There will be positive outcomes for his coming out, but generally sports are considered fairly masculine and it could end very poorly if larger figures that were popular came out against being gay. So far Kobe, who is a huge figure for kids, has said this is good, which is amazing. I'm just afraid that since generally the black population tends to be more conservative on religious values that this could end poorly.
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Yeah I was about to say because we know quite a few athletes who came out, but in terms of active athletes not so sure.
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In Europe, there are a fair amount of active LGBT athletes playing right now.
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He's probably going to get picked up by somebody next year.
Minimum payroll is going to rise from 85% to 90% of the cap. And the cap itself is expected to go from $50 to $60 or so million.
And the way the veteran minimum salaries work... if he signs for 1-yr 1.5 million the team would count only around $900k to the cap.
And I'm far from a NBA cap guru.. but could he be fishing for some kind of Over-36/Mid-level exemption...so a team would sign him for like 2yrs/$10mil... would that be worth the PR for some team?
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What an ignorant statement by Mike Wallace. Stuff like that pisses me off because they have no idea that people are born gay and that they don't choose to be gay. Nothing even religious about his comment (in that, at least there is a reason for hating, as bad as it might be if religion was involved). Then again, apart from religious reasons, I don't know why anyone would care who other people sexually desire. Maybe it was religiously provoked. Idk.
Good for Jason Collins with all the other support he's gotten. Even the call from Michelle Obama. That's pretty nice.
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On April 30 2013 11:51 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:Show nested quote +On April 30 2013 11:47 DannyJ wrote: Too bad he's essentially an absolute nobody. Yes making it in the NBA isn't like a challenge or anything. hes still a nobody among the greats who make it in the NBA, im sure most people didnt even know he was a pro in nba.
that said, I'm glad he did it, its great for the world of sport, known to be a place for hyper-masculinity(patriachal) socialization. and its great for the society, helps acknowledge and accept differences that are still taboo, and strong particularly in the black community.
hmm I think the first openly gay pro was a footballer(soccer), at least i know there was this guy in MTL' impact (MLS team) who came out last year.
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i'm sorry, but as an NBA analyst, i don't think it's chris broussard's job to criticize whether or not someone is a christian. talk about the game, not your views
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On April 30 2013 13:00 Epishade wrote: What an ignorant statement by Mike Wallace. Stuff like that pisses me off because they have no idea that people are born gay and that they don't choose to be gay. Nothing even religious about his comment (in that, at least there is a reason for hating, as bad as it might be if religion was involved). Then again, apart from religious reasons, I don't know why anyone would care who other people sexually desire. Maybe it was religiously provoked. Idk.
Good for Jason Collins with all the other support he's gotten. Even the call from Michelle Obama. That's pretty nice.
Apparently he quickly deleted that tweet and put up an apology saying he didn't mean to offend just to say that he "doesn't understand it". IMO its still dumb as shit to say because of course he doesn't understand because he isn't gay, just like a gay person doesn't understand attraction to the opposite sex because that's just how they are. A very unnecessary comment "Omg everyone is different? No wai! I don't understand that people are different from each other!". Really just make him seem rather dim.
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Still waiting for the day this stuff is irrelevant so I can make my 'so that's why he sucked so much' jokes and not be called a bigot
Good for him and the sports world, stuff like this really is still needed.
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