Occasionally, sports news has a larger cultural significance that’s worth appreciating. The first openly gay player from one of the major professional sports leagues qualifies as a breakthrough.
The NBA’s Jason Collins wrote a lengthy piece for Sports Illustrated, doing what no professional male athlete in team sports has ever done.
I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.
I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, “I’m different.” If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.
Collins’ piece is well worth your time, and he talks in some detail about his career and his motivations. The SI cover story cites, among other thing, the Boston Marathon bombing — “Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully?” — and a recent conversation with Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), Collins’ roommate at Stanford, who marched in Boston’s 2012 Gay Pride Parade. “I was proud of him for participating but angry that as a closeted gay man I couldn’t even cheer my straight friend on as a spectator,” he wrote.
It’s worth emphasizing, of course, that Collins is not the first openly gay American athlete. There have been plenty of successful gay tennis players and Olympians, and the WNBA has had openly gay stars.
But in the United States, the four major male professional leagues — the NFL, NBA, NHL, and major-league baseball — dominate the sports landscape and have never had an openly gay player. It’s what helps make Collins’ announcement a cultural milestone.









