PDA

View Full Version : NBA player Jason Collins comes out as gay



redred
04-29-2013, 06:11 PM
http://i.imgur.com/Pz23RMU.jpg

US basketball player Jason Collins has come out as gay, the first active male athlete in a major American professional team sport to do so.

He declared his sexuality in an article for Sports Illustrated which began: "I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay."

Collins said he had struggled with his sexuality for years.

Former NBA player John Amaechi came out as gay in 2007, but he had already retired.

Former US President Bill Clinton was among those who sent messages of support to Collins on Monday.

Symbolic shirt number
NBA Commissioner David Stern said in a statement: "Jason has been a widely respected player and teammate throughout his career and we are proud he has assumed the leadership mantle on this very important issue."

Sports label Nike, which has endorsed Collins, also supported his decision.

"Jason is a Nike athlete," its statement said. "We are a company committed to diversity and inclusion."

In the Sports Illustrated article, Collins, who has most recently played for the Washington Wizards and the Boston Celtics, said: "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."

He added that this month's bombings at the Boston marathon had reinforced the conviction that he should talk publicly about his sexuality.

"Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully?" Collins wrote.

Collins, who is professionally a free agent, having played 11 seasons in the NBA with six teams, said he had tried to suppress his feelings through relationships with women.

"When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged," he said. "I thought I had to live a certain way.

"I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue."

Collins said he decided he should go public after his former roommate at California's Stanford University, Congressman Joe Kennedy, scion of the Kennedy political dynasty, marched in a Boston gay parade.

Collins explained that in 2012 he changed his uniform number to 98 - a number with significance for the gay community in the US - as a gesture of solidarity.

In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally killed in what has been cited as one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in the US.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22341153

Hugh_Janus
04-29-2013, 06:23 PM
I wonder if he'll get the same treatment as gareth thomas when he played his first game after coming out. Everyone in the stands were wolf whistling, it was funny as fuck.... even he was laughing :lol:

can't see thast happening though :lol:

deebakes
04-29-2013, 08:48 PM
US basketball player Jason Collins has come out as gay, the first active male athlete in a major American professional team sport to do so.

so? :shrug:

Muddy
04-29-2013, 08:50 PM
:fag:

deebakes
04-29-2013, 08:53 PM
so? :idk:

Muddy
04-29-2013, 08:53 PM
Could care less really.. Just wanted to comment.

deebakes
04-29-2013, 09:37 PM
to me, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal... it doesn't suddenly make him lebron :shrug:

RBP
04-29-2013, 11:34 PM
to me, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal... it doesn't suddenly make him lebron :shrug:

Lebron's gay?

DemonGeminiX
04-29-2013, 11:57 PM
to me, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal... it doesn't suddenly make him lebron :shrug:

It just means that everybody knows that he sucks in more than one way.

RBP
05-02-2013, 04:15 AM
http://i.imgur.com/UFGoJZN.jpg