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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Coming Out

In today's column, Shank discusses Jason Collins, former Boston Celtic, who announced yesterday that he is gay.
The big deal about this . . . is that it’s not a big deal.

Veteran NBA center Jason Collins came out of the closet Monday. In a first-person article for Sports Illustrated, Collins told the world that he is gay. He became the first active player in a major American sport to acknowledge his homosexuality.

And it is not a big deal. It is not Jackie Robinson in 1947. Collins has come out at a time when few will challenge his right to his own sexual identity. There no doubt are folks who wish Collins kept this to himself, but woe is the ballplayer or commentator who will question anything about Collins’s sexual orientation.

We have evolved. There are gay men and women in just about every workplace. There have been gay ballplayers for more than a century. We just didn’t know about it.

1 comment:

mike said...

What a dope. Of course this is big. It's not that homosexuals haven't played sports. But this is the first time someone in a major US sport acknowledged to being gay while active. If it weren't such a big deal, how come no one came out while playing before now?

Shank's knee-jerk contrarianism is on display, again.