NBA center Jason Colls on Monday announced that he's gay a story for Sports Illtrated, beg the first active player one of the four major Amerin profsnal team sports to announce that he is gay.
Contents:
- A NVERSATN WH T.J. CALLAN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF GAY BLACK MEN G OUT SPORTS
- JASON COLLS SAYS HE'S GAY
- JASON COLLS ME OUT 10 YEARS AGO, HERG A PERD OF CREASG GAY VISIBILY MEN’S SPORTS
- SPORTS STARS WHO BATTLED GAY RUMORS
- JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
- JASON COLLS, FIRST OPENLY GAY ATHLETE TO PLAY NBA, MAK U.S. SPORTS HISTORY
A NVERSATN WH T.J. CALLAN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF GAY BLACK MEN G OUT SPORTS
* collins gay football player *
Callan has long regnized the tersectnaly of beg a gay man, a black man and a gay black man. Callan, 22, left the Miami program after experiencg what he scribed as a hostile environment, where gay people were spoken of rogatory terms, ultimately keepg him the closet.
JASON COLLS SAYS HE'S GAY
Outsports recently spoke wh Callan about how the history of black athlet g out, and specifilly black gay men, has been particularly meangful to him. Two proment exampl whose g out announcements had an impact beyond sports are Jason Colls, the first NBA player to e out 2013, and Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted the NFL 2014.
Derrick Gordon was the first active Divisn I men’s basketball player to e out as gay 2014. ”A person of lor has to al wh not only beg gay, but beg black, and then beg black and gay, ” Callan said.
In addn, Callan says gay black men often al wh what he lls the hypermasculy black culture. Further, Callan says that as a black man the larger gay culture “you do experience racism wh the gay muny.
JASON COLLS ME OUT 10 YEARS AGO, HERG A PERD OF CREASG GAY VISIBILY MEN’S SPORTS
As an example of the latter, he relled meetg one whe gay man who told Callan, “‘I thought you were gonna be ghetto, you’re not, ’ and I’m like, ‘What are you talkg about? And you would thk that a lot of gay men would unrstand and empathize wh the fact that you are a part of multiple margalized muni, but a lot of s, there is a lack of unrstandg. Michael Sam ma history 2014 as the first openly gay player drafted the NFL.
He also appreciated as a football player that someone like Sam uld e out what is nsired a hypermascule sport bee challenged the ia and stereotyp lkg beg gay to “beg weak.
“I felt very secure about [beg gay] and I feel like maybe they picked up on bee I didn’t want to speak about . Sce g out, Callan says he has received nothg but posive ments and support, and says his only regret durg his llege years was not havg other active gay football players he uld reach out to. Jason Colls says he's news servicApr 29, 2013, 11:46 AM ETNBA center Jason Colls on Monday announced that he's gay a story for Sports Illtrated, beg the first active player one of the four major Amerin profsnal team sports to announce that he is gay.
SPORTS STARS WHO BATTLED GAY RUMORS
"I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playg a major Amerin team sport. Me personally gay men the locked room would make me unfortable.
As Amerins grow more acceptg of gay rights and same-sex marriage. Last year, durg his re-electn mpaign, Print Barack Obama announced his support for gay after Colls disclosed his sexualy, Obama reached out by phone, exprsg his support and tellg Colls he was imprsed by his urage, the Whe Hoe Print Bill Clton, whose dghter Chelsea attend Stanford wh Colls, also appld Colls' announcement.
"Jason's announcement today is an important moment for profsnal sports and the history of the LGBT [lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr] muny, " he said a statement. "He said the first relative he told he was gay was his nt Teri, who is a superr urt judge San Francis.
JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
He said she told him, "I've known you were gay for years, " which ma him "fortable my own sk. "Colls said he realized he need to make his sexual orientatn public when his former roommate at Stanford, Massachetts ngrsman Joe Kennedy, who is straight, marched Boston's Gay Pri Para last Boston Marathon bombgs earlier this month then rerced to him "that I shouldn't wa for the circumstanc of my g out to be perfect.
JASON COLLS, FIRST OPENLY GAY ATHLETE TO PLAY NBA, MAK U.S. SPORTS HISTORY
"When I told Joe a few weeks ago that I was gay, he was grateful that I tsted him. Colls says he quietly ma a statement for gay rights even while keepg his sexual orientatn a secret.
98 wh the Celtics and Wizards -- 1998 was the year that Matthew Shepard, a gay llege stunt Wyomg, was killed, and the Trevor Project, a suici preventn anizatn, was found. "When I was playg, I had never had nversatns around what meant to be gay.