Jason CollinsIn a self-authored Sports Illustrated article released online Monday, NBA player Jason Collins became the first openly gay active player in the history of major American team sports.
Collins, a 7-foot-tall, hard-nosed pro basketball journeyman known for his aggressive defense and tough fouls, breaks every preconceived, narrow-minded notion of what it is to be a gay man — and that’s what makes his announcement so important.
Americans have grown increasingly comfortable with gay men. That is, so long as they’re where we expect them to be. Gay men don’t garner a second glance in the arts or in fashion. Gay actors, singers, authors and newscasters are a dime a dozen, causing alarm for only the most homophobic of Americans.
However, gay men are nearly nonexistent in what, as Americans, we consider the “manly” arenas of professional sports — impossibly so, given that about one out of every 25 males in the U.S. self-identifies as homosexual. There are no openly gay NASCAR drivers, defensive tackles or hockey goalies. Sure, a few NBA and Major League Baseball veterans have come out of the closet years after their playing days ended, but that did nothing to force Americans to consider what it would be like to watch, and root for, a player they knew was gay.
That all changed yesterday.