NBA: Jason Collins Becomes First Openly Gay Active Player In Major Sports

is the first openly gay active athlete in any of the major North American sports. (Photo Credit: NBA.com)

Jason Collins, center for the NBA’s Washington Wizards, has become the first openly gay active player in the four major men’s North American sports. It’s a terrific day for equal rights, but the work has only just begun and has been in motion for decades. We must celebrate Collins, but understand (and hope) that this is just the first of many.

Collins has had a long basketball career, playing four years at Stanford University before being drafted No. 18 overall in the 2001 NBA Draft  by the Houston Rockets. He was subsequently traded to the New Jersey Nets and played for the Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics before landing in Washington.

Through his 12 seasons in the NBA, you have to believe Collins has encountered other gay athletes. But for reasons only known by them, none have had the courage to be the first to come out while still active.

That means for 12 years (and countless more as an adolescent), Collins has had to put on a show. When the guys in the locker room made crude comments about women, Collins had to go along with it. When it was “boys’ night” and Collins was expected to act like one of them, he had to continue the show.

Imagine having to live someone else’s life, for fear of having your teammates, friends and colleagues disown you. That’s the plight of these closeted gay athletes. Where they should be proud, society has told them in the past they shouldn’t be.

Collins had to live under someone else’s rules. He had to live up to other’s expectations, all the while knowing it wasn’t who he truly was. He had to live a lie in order to protect himself.

Former player John Amaechi was the first NBA player to come out, albeit after he was retired. That was back in 2007. Former NFL defensive tackle Esera Tuaolo praised Amaechi for his decision to come out, as Tuaolo had in 2002:

"“What John did is amazing. He does not know how many lives he’s saved by speaking the truth. Living with all that stress and depression, all you deal with as a closeted person, when you come out you truly free yourself. When I came out, it felt like I was getting out of prison.”"

It’s amazing to me that of the roughly 2,500 active players in professional sports, Collins is the first to come out while still an active player. This comes just weeks after Brittney Griner, now a member of the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, came out shortly after being drafted.

The LGBT community has been pining for an active professional male athlete to come out for decades. We all know they exist, but the stigmas and remarkably difficult road for a gay athlete have kept them in the shadows.

We must have faith that this is just the beginning of something special. We must believe that this is the beginning of  a movement of gay athletes around the world who aren’t afraid of announcing (and openly being) who they are.

You can be sure the gay athletes who have not come out will be watching Collins’ every move and how the world reacts to him. Will there be detractors? Of course there will be. Remember the nightmare that Magic Johnson endured when he announced he was HIV-positive?

The ignorant people will remain ignorant. There will be players who speak up about the fear of a gay player “hitting on them.” It’s unfortunate, but this is too often the mindset of the ignorant. This is the incorrect depiction of the so-called “dangers” of having a gay athlete on the team.

A major boon for Collins would be for his teammates to stand by him the whole way. A player like John Wall (star of the Wizards) could do so much by simply supporting Collins and debunking any myths about the situation.

For those who think it shouldn’t matter what someone’s sexual orientation is, you’re only partially right. In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter. But, we don’t live in that perfect world. We live in a world where young men and women are committing suicide because they can’t live with the pressures that society puts on them.

I’m not expecting the world to change overnight. I wouldn’t expect another active player to come out in the near future, but this is an important step in the right direction. Jason, we salute you, we support you and we hope the other closeted gay athletes follow your lead.