Jason Colls, first openly gay athlete to play NBA, mak U.S. sports history

Contents:

• COLLEGE & PROFSNAL ATHLET WHO ARE OPENLY GAY
• ‘I’M SENTIALLY STARTG A NEW LIFE,’ SAYS ISAAC HUMPHRI AS HE BE THE ONLY OPENLY GAY MAN PLAYG TOP-FLIGHT BASKETBALL
• NORTH AMERI’S FOUR BIGGT PRO SPORTS LEAGU HAVE BEEN AROUND A BED 398 YEARS. THEY’VE HAD TWO OPENLY GAY ACTIVE PLAYERS
• JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR MEN'S PRO SPORTS TO INTIFY AS GAY
• JASON COLLS, FIRST OPENLY GAY ATHLETE TO PLAY NBA, MAK U.S. SPORTS HISTORY
• JASON COLLS SAYS HE'S GAY
• UMASS' DERRICK GORDON SAYS HE'S GAY
• OPENLY GAY MEN'S LLEGE BASKETBALL PLAYER ON G OUT
• OPENLY GAY COLLEGE COACH MAK A LOW-PROFILE ROLE MOL
• OPENLY GAY ATHLET
• WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS

COLLEGE & PROFSNAL ATHLET WHO ARE OPENLY GAY

LGBTQ+ CelebriLists of lbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and all other kds of celebs workg the entertament dtry and the public of openly gay athlet volved both profsnal and llege sports. This list clus athlet who have "e out" durg their active play and athlet who have e out as gay after of the people on this list probably aren't too faiar sce few, if any, are active athlet.

From openly gay soccer players to famo gay sports stars, some of the people on this list aren't hoeholds nam, but they are fely makg history.

Check out this list of all the openly gay athlet the Wikimedia Commons / CC-BYBirthplace: Seattle, WashgtonGraham Samuel Ackerman (born July 14, 1983) is an Amerin gymnast. “Forever, I thought that beg a profsnal basketball player and gay were mutually exclive and that I had to hi that si of my life and wasn’t allowed to be who I tly am, ” Humphri exclively tells CNN Sport’s Amanda Davi.

‘I’M SENTIALLY STARTG A NEW LIFE,’ SAYS ISAAC HUMPHRI AS HE BE THE ONLY OPENLY GAY MAN PLAYG TOP-FLIGHT BASKETBALL

“I’m makg the cisn to e out … bee I believe that I n be who I am my environment, and I n change the trajectory of how we view beg gay sport. In 2013, former NBA player Jason Colls beme the first openly gay athlete one of the four major North Amerin sports leagu when he me out late his reer.

More recently, Josh Cavallo, who plays for Alai Uned Atralia’s A League, beme the only current openly gay top-flight male soccer player when he me out last year.

“My self-hate, my self-homophobia – everythg that realm was very, very real wh my bra and got so dark that I absolutely thought about exg this world, ” he adds. While he says his Melbourne Uned team is “so acceptg” and that he feels “honored and privileged” to play basketball, the six-foot, 11-ch center pots to the locker-room atmosphere as one of the barriers to feelg fortable as a gay man the sport.

NORTH AMERI’S FOUR BIGGT PRO SPORTS LEAGU HAVE BEEN AROUND A BED 398 YEARS. THEY’VE HAD TWO OPENLY GAY ACTIVE PLAYERS

The LGBT movement emerged as early as the 1870s, but homosexual rights groups didn't appear until after World War II September 1945. His fay reportedly had mixed emotns towards the announcement, but he still changed the game, beg the first Divisn I men's basketball player to e out as gay and play gam.

JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR MEN'S PRO SPORTS TO INTIFY AS GAY

When then-Phoenix Suns print and CEO Rick Welts me out as gay May 2011, former NBA pot guard Steve Nash pledged his support favor of the LGBT muny. Nash said the vio, "A growg number of profsnal athlet are speakg out support of gay and lbian upl gettg married, I'm proud to be one of them.

Asi om his open support for gay rights, he also ns the Steve Nash Foundatn, which helps children who are affected by poverty, illns, abe or neglect, and creat opportuny for tn, play, and empowerment, Phoenix, Arizona, and Brish Columbia, Canada. In his hman year at Villanova, he first me out as gay to his teammate and roommate Mike Villa before nfsg to his parents three months later. Last year, the NBA moved s 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, North Carola, due to the state's law that lims anti-discrimatn protectns for lbian, gay and transgenr people.

The Las Vegas Rairs fensive end is now jt one of two openly gay active players the history of the four biggt North Amerin sports leagu (the Natnal Football League, Natnal Basketball Associatn, Major League Baseball and the Natnal Hockey League). Homophobic language is still a regular feature of playg on a boys’ sports team the US and abroad, Denison’s rearch shows – one of his studi found that more than half of the ice hockey and gby players he terviewed said they’d ed slurs.

JASON COLLS, FIRST OPENLY GAY ATHLETE TO PLAY NBA, MAK U.S. SPORTS HISTORY

Regular exposure to slurs or stereotyp eventually rerc among players that their succs as an athlete is tied to an ia of masculy that exclus gay men, he said.

Denison scribed what he lls a “cycle of excln” that begs when a boy hears ach or olr players e homophobic language and observ a “posive rponse” to that behavr – maybe they lgh at each other, or the ach don’t challenge them, he said. That sends the msage that homophobic language is harmls and OK to e – and cements the assumptn that all members of the team are heterosexual. “We often fd that male ach ntue to e homophobic language and teach nformy to this tough mascule athlete inty that don’t really exist, ” he said.

As a child, before Davis unrstood what meant to be LGBTQ, he was already absorbg the norms beg set around him durg practice – that “beg gay those walls was unsafe, that [he] would be danger.

JASON COLLS SAYS HE'S GAY

Quali players necsary for succs football – domance, aggrsn and, ocsnally, vlence – are often associated wh homophobia and sexism, too. Almost 50 years earlier, there was Glenn Burke, a buddg Los Angel Dodgers star whose reer was cut short by homophobia the 1970s, argu Andrew Maraniss, an thor and special projects ordator wh Vanrbilt Universy Athletics, his book on Burke.

The next season, Burke was trad to the Oakland A’s, where a ach lled him a homophobic slur and said he would “ntamate” the team, Maraniss wrote. “He was a phenomenal athlete at the time when majory of straight sports fans the untry assumed that there’s no way there uld even be a gay player the game, let alone the most popular player on his team, ” Maraniss said.

UMASS' DERRICK GORDON SAYS HE'S GAY

Denison said that progrs mt start at the youth level by curbg the e of gay slurs by ach and players and emphasizg a narrow fn of masculy. On Febary 23, 2014, Brooklyn Nets center Jason Colls be the first openly gay athlete to play a game the Uned Stat’ four major profsnal leagu.

The 35-year-old journeyman plays 10 srels mut, rerdg two rebounds and five fouls the Nets’ 108-102 victory over the Los Angel May 2013, Colls revealed he is gay a first-person say  Sports Illtrated. 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. 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.

OPENLY GAY MEN'S LLEGE BASKETBALL PLAYER ON G OUT

"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. 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.

"Sayg 'I'm gay' sets a new standard of honty, openns and teamwork that will posively affect athlet and fans at every level of sports. Multiple female ach the NFL — cludg 49ers assistant Katie Sowers, who beme the league’s first openly gay ach 2017 — have e out recent years.

In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer.

OPENLY GAY COLLEGE COACH MAK A LOW-PROFILE ROLE MOL

“Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh. The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.

“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”. For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch.

OPENLY GAY ATHLET

Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN. “There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said. Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space.

UMass' Derrick Gordon s 17playGordon Nets 17 In Massachetts W (2:05)Derrick Gordon beme the first openly gay Divisn I men's basketball player to pete a llegiate game, srg 17 pots Massachetts' 95-87 w over Siena. -- Derrick Gordon beme the first openly gay Divisn I men's basketball player to pete a llegiate game Friday night, startg at shootg guard and helpg Massachetts feat Siena 95-87 at the Mulls 22-year-old, of Plafield, N. "In April, the UMass junr acknowledged an terview wh ESPN that he is gay, makg him the first Divisn I men's basketball player to e out publicly.

WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS

Derrick Gordon Announc He Is Gay (8:31)UMass guard Derrick Gordon ss down wh Kate Fagan to announce that he is gay, beg the first openly gay athlete Divisn I men's basketball.