The WNBA’s Sheryl Swoopes. Former 49er Kwame Harris. Columbus Crew winger and forward Robbie Rogers. Retired NBA player John Amaechi.
This list offers just a few of the American professional athletes that have come out of the closet in the last decade, but none of them remained professional while identifying as homosexual.
This, of course, was before the Washington Wizard’s Jason Collins came out two weeks ago in the May issue of Sports Illustrated, sending shock waves throughout the professional sports community.
Across the board, a theme of retirement is seen when addressing openly-gay pro athletes in the United States, especially when looking at the “Big 4” leagues: the NBA, the NFL, the MLB and the NHL.
Those male athletes who have come out of the closet either retire before making their decision, such as David Kopay, who retired from the Green Bay Packers in 1972 and came out in 1975, or come out and immediately terminate their contracts, like the aforementioned MLS player Robbie Rogers.
On the other hand, Collins, the 34-year-old California native, has yet to announce his retirement from the NBA. This makes him the first gay and active pro ball player in American history, though he is admittedly a free agent at the present time.
A gay ball player in the National Basketball Association? When I was growing up, the idea of a gay public figure — besides maybe Elton John, but he doesn’t count — was a stretch.
Lately, gay and lesbian politicians are being elected in local, state and national government.
Even hip-hop and R&B, which are notoriously homophobic genres, are starting to open up with Macklemore’s successful “Same Love” video and Frank Ocean’s disclosure of his sexuality. So a gay pro athlete is just the next logical step. This isn’t such a big deal, right?
Wrong. As progressive as our society seems to have become in the last few years in terms of gay recognition and rights, the world of sports has been particularly reluctant, especially men’s sports.
In the testosterone-heavy environment of athletics, retired, gay athletes regularly talk about how there would be little-to-no support of the homosexual lifestyle in the bullpen.
So I’m sure, when Collins outed himself in Sports Illustrated this month and immediately became national news, that he was nervous about what his fellow athletes would have to say.
“We are proud [Collins] assumed a leadership mantle on this very important issue,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern in a statement on April 30.
Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant tweeted, “proud of @jasoncollins34. Don’t suffocate who u r [sic] because of the ignorance of others.” Fellow Laker Steve Nash said, “The time has come. Maximum respect.”
As for his teammates? Two Wizards players have provided their support for Collins, also via Twitter.
“Much respect to my teammate,” said Garrett Temple. And Bradley Beal said, “Great teammate, mentor and better person.”
Of course, as one could expect, not everything has come out smelling like roses.
A church which had scheduled Leroy Butler, a former Green Bay Packer and motivational Christian speaker, terminated their speaking engagement after Butler tweeted his support for Collins.
“They said, ‘If you ask for forgiveness and remove the tweet and you say something to the effect that you don’t congratulate Collins, then we’ll let you do the engagement and get the speaker’s fee,’ and I said I’m not doing that,” Butler told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
I, personally, am very proud of the surprising turn of support the world of sports has taken these past several weeks.
Whether or not you support gay rights, or are a sports fan, or whatever, this moment will go down in pro sports history.
“Jason Collins has forever changed the face of sports,” said the Human Rights Campaign.
There is some postulating that Collins will retire from the game soon, regardless of the support of the league and his teammates.
But the buzzer’s gone off.Overtime’s just begun, and I, for one, am looking forward to who comes out the victor.
