Blue Mass Group

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Former Celtic Jason Collins Comes Out

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Jason Collins seen with the Nets in 2005 (Flickr’s firebrandal)

In an essay for Sports Illustrated, former Celtics player Jason Collins has become the first major American team sport athlete to come out while an active player, and he’s citing a Massachusetts congressman as inspiration:

I realized I needed to go public when Joe Kennedy, my old roommate at Stanford and now a Massachusetts congressman, told me he had just marched in Boston’s 2012 Gay Pride Parade. I’m seldom jealous of others, but hearing what Joe had done filled me with envy. 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. If I’d been questioned, I would have concocted half truths. What a shame to have to lie at a celebration of pride. I want to do the right thing and not hide anymore. I want to march for tolerance, acceptance and understanding. I want to take a stand and say, “Me, too.”

There’s been talk recently about one or more active NFL players coming out of the closet, but Collins beat them to it.

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Comments

  1. Boston Gay Pride is so much better than the Southie Bigots on Parade. In your face Southie.

  2. In Sports Illustrated online: Doc referred to Jason as “one of the best guys” that Rivers had ever been around in the NBA.
    Doc also said “I’m happy for him.”
    I’m happy for Jason, too, and I’m I’m happy that Doc Rivers is one of ours.

    • Our newest Congressman was his Stanford roommate and helped convince him to come out and invited him to march at our parade, which he will.

  3. my understanding is that he’s a free agent without a contract. He may or may not have played his last game in the NBA.

    Congrats to him, and to the rest of us who benefit from his announcement.

      • just saying what is true. Fact is, it remains to be seen if he’ll play another game in the NBA following his announcement. If he doesn’t then he’s no different than a number of former NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL athletes who’ve come out but never played another game afterwards.

        On a side note, I find it odd that a number of headlines have stated that he’s “first major American team sport athlete to come out while an active player,” or somesuch. In my view, we’re long past that, thanks to the WNBA. But then, I consider the WNBA a major American sports league, others apparently do not.

        • I don’t follow sports at any level. If this is going to be like the Jackie Robinson stuff, I just want to see the haters eat crow for a while. So far, my favorite was the #FtheH8Rs tweet. I forget who coined it.

          • and I don’t mean to diminish Jason Collins’ actions — they are heroic.

            Jackie Robinson was different. That was black and white. I don’t just mean racially, I mean that before Jackie Robinson, there were no blacks in professional baseball. Or basketball. Or football. Or hockey. None. Not even any who hadn’t admitted blackness but people suspected maybe they were. Tennis’ Althea Gibson was a decade away, and the PGA (men’s golf) barred blacks at that time too.

            Jason Collins isn’t the first openly gay active professional athlete, first openly gay male athlete, first openly gay basketball player, first openly gay black basketball player, etc. etc. Jason Collins coming out is like Rhode Island’s legalization of gay marriage. Really freaking important. Moving (or affirming) what we consider normal in society. But it isn’t like Massachusetts’ SJC ruling, and it sure as hell isn’t like Jackie Robinson.

  4. Billie Jean King and Martha Navratilova, whose respective coming out in 1981 was a bit more stormy and difficult were both very generous in their comments about Jason.

    Billie Jean King ‏@BillieJKing 29 Apr
    I am thrilled @JasonCollins34 was able to come out on his own terms and, as he put it, is ready to continue (cont) http://tl.gd/n_1rk1h3b

    Martina Navratilova

    “I didn’t get a phone call from Ronald Reagan,” joked the 56-year-old native of Czechoslovakia, referencing the fact that Collins has heard from Barack Obama, who applauded the player’s courage. “Times were much different then. I didn’t really feel it that badly playing matches. But, still, a lot of crowds were sitting on their hands. They weren’t clapping when I came on the court or they were booing or jeering. The press was roasting me. It was not a pretty sight. I’d say it was about 95 percent against, and maybe I’d get five percent of support. Now, for Jason, it’s much different. It’s, I think, the other way around. It’s 95 percent for, maybe five percent against. It’s fantastic.”

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