Jason Collins comes out as gay NBA player
-
AllOut.org Thank you to Jason Collins : hXXp://www.allout.org/thank-you-jason
11,064 people support this campaign. Help us get to 15,000
It's happened: Jason Collins, of the Washington Wizards, is the first-ever pro athlete in the US to come out as a gay man.
If thousands of us sign a massive thank you card today, we can show other famous athletes that if they want to join Jason, we've got their back.
The more famous athletes who come out, the better it's going to get for young people who love sports but are too frightened to come out to their friends and family.
Sign the thank you card to Jason Collins now – we'll deliver it to him with every signature.
-
Westboro Baptist Church Vows NBA Playoff Protest In Wake Of Jason Collins' Coming Out
Jason Collins has never played for the Houston Rockets or the Oklahoma City Thunder, but that won't stop the Westboro Baptist Church from vowing to protest at those respective basketball teams' matchup in the wake of the NBA veteran's coming out earlier this week.
Fan site Ultimate Rockets reports that members of the church, which is known for its extremely anti-gay views, will picket outside Oklahoma City's Chesapeake Energy Arena, where the Rockets will face off against Thunder in a first-round playoff matchup on May 1.
Claiming that Westboro members have "picketed [the NBA's] basketball games for years," a news release indicates that both the Chesapeake Energy Arena game and a Chicago Bulls vs. Brooklyn Nets game at Chicago's United Center on May 2.
"Now has-been pervert Jason Collins has 'come out' admitting he's a proud fag," officials write in the release. "Lift up your voice against this awful sin; use the platform God gave you to warn your fellow man to flee destruction."
Other tweets visible on the Westboro's news release Twitter handle include:
What's better @HoustonChron than to have #TruthofGod >#FagNBA & #GodH8sFags seen by those going to NBA Playoff Game 5 pic.twitter.com/TchZKfjW5h
This is where they posted 2 hate mongering posters that I will leave out of this post.
Of course, whether or not Westboro Baptist Church members will actually follow up on their proposal is questionable. Last month, officials vowed to protest at the Chicago funeral of movie critic Roger Ebert, whom they deemed a "fag enabler." But as The Chicago Sun-Times' Stefano Esposito reported, members were no-shows at the actual funeral.
Similarly, Westboro members failed to turn up at the 2012 funeral of Whitney Houston despite previous vows. Instead, they tweeted a digitally altered image which appeared to show them at the late pop diva's memorial in New Jersey.
hXXp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/westboro-baptist-church-jason-collins-_n_3195034.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
-
Oh dear, they're at it again.
Perhaps I will look out my copies of the Louis Theroux programmes about this Topeka 'Christian' family. I don't think I've posted them here.
Thanks for all the news updates
Ah well, I did try to post the two BBC2 documentaries about the Westboro Church but they are not allowed here
-
Why is Jason Collins coming out a bigger deal than Brittney Griner?
By Emily Shire |Some critics blame sexism
With the nation's attention fixated for much of the last week on Jason Collins becoming the first active male athlete in a major team sport to come out as gay, you might be forgiven for forgetting — if you ever knew — that the number one WNBA draft pick, Brittney Griner, came out a few weeks ago. Or that Sheryl Swoopes did in 2005. Or that Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King did in the 1980s (the latter was outed).
How do we explain the difference in media fanfare between Griner's announcement and Collins'? Why is Collins heralded over and over as a Jackie Robinson-type figure, while Griner gets a shrug from much of the press?
As many commentators have noted, one obvious difference between Collins and Griner is that one is a man, and one is a woman. Billie Jean King, for one, blames sexism for the vastly differing levels of press coverage:
Brittney Griner came out and nobody even talked about it. I don't think I even heard anything. Because we are girls we don't get the attention. Annika Sorenstam played in a PGA tournament and the reason she got so much attention is she was playing with the men. When you are in a men's arena you get attention, and that is all you have to remember. [Via New York]
Another part of this, says Henry Abbott at ESPN, is that "heterosexual men have long acted scared of gay men, and particularly of being sexually assaulted by them." And as we all know, "fear and hatred have always walked hand in hand." In that sense, Collins had to overcome a tougher — or at least a different — kind of hurdle than Griner faced, which helps explain the differing media coverage.Of course, not everyone is buying that this heterosexual male fear of and discomfort with homosexuality explains the differing receptions for Griner and Collins. At New York, Ann Friedman chalks up the disparity in attention to the disconnect in the way we view gay men and lesbians — and male and female athletes. "We almost expect women athletes not to be classically beautiful or feminine, and therefore we're not surprised to learn their gay," writes Friedman. On the other hand, "male professional athletes are thought to be our most masculine specimens. So when they come out as gay, it seems they're playing against type." In this view, Griner's story wasn't a shock because all along there was a "perceived lack of femininity." Griner is 6' 8" and is so good that one opposing coach actually said "I think she's one of a kind. I think she's like a guy playing with women." Collins, though, meets all of our machismo expectations, so when he comes out as gay, "we sit up and take notice."
Sadly, Friedman continues, our notions of sexuality and gender roles are still deeply linked." And even though Collins has taken a big step, "it'll take more than a gay NBA player — or, say, a lesbian Miss America or prima ballerina — for us to fully learn this lesson." But at least this is the start of the "long process of decoupling heterosexuality and masculinity." One day, maybe we'll get to the same place "women and notions of feminity, too."
-
Howard Kurtz: 'I Am Truly Sorry' For Jason Collins Piece (VIDEO)
Howard Kurtz addressed his notorious error about Jason Collins, which led to his firing from the Daily Beast, on his CNN show "Reliable Sources" on Sunday.
Kurtz was fired from the Beast after he penned an erroneous column that claimed that NBA center Collins — who recently came out as gay — was not forthcoming about his former engagement to a woman.
He apologized for the column on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," saying:
On Monday, I read the Sports Illustrated article by Jason Collins, the first pro-male team athlete to come out as publicly gay. I read it too fast and carelesly missed that Jason Collins said he was engaged previously to a woman and then wrote and commented that he was wrong to keep that from readers, when I was in fact the one who was wrong. My logic about what happened between Jason Collins and his former fiancee and what was and wasn't disclosed, in hindsight, well I was wrong to even raise that issue. Also, I didn't give him a chance to respond to my account before I wrote it and in addition my first correction was not as complete and as full as it should have been. In a video where I discussed the issue, I wrongly jokingly referred to something I shouldn't have joked about. I apologize to readers and viewers and most importantly to Jason Collins and to his ex-fiancee. I hope this very candid response will earn your trust back over time. It is something that I am committed to doing.
Kurtz was further grilled by NPR's David Folkenflik and Politico's Dylan Byers about the error, why he should keep his role as CNN's media critic, and his role at Daily Download.
"This is not a ritual for me, where you just come on camera and say you're sorry and you hope to move on," Kurtz later added. I am truly sorry about what happened… and I am determined to learn from this episode and and minimize the chances of anything like this happening again."
Collins spoke about dating women and almost marrying his ex-fiancee in the Sports Illustrated article announcing his coming out and in a television interview with George Stephanopoulos the next day. Sources have described Kurtz's Collins piece as merely one reason among several for his firing. Staffers, sources told The Huffington Post's Michael Calderone, had also been wondering about Kurtz's role in the website Daily Download.
CNN said on Friday that Kurtz would continue his role as the host of "Reliable Sources."
Video @ hXXp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/05/howard-kurtz-fired-cnn-reliable-sources_n_3219008.html
-
Jason Collins, Gay NBA Player, Marches In 2013 Boston Pride Parade With Joe Kennedy
Jason Collins' big year continues to get bigger and bigger.
The NBA player, who made history in April as the first male U.S. athlete in a major professional sport to come out as gay, marched in the 2013 Boston Pride Parade on Saturday alongside his former Stanford University roommate, Congressman Joe Kennedy (D-Mass).
After the parade, Kennedy tweeted a photo of himself with Collins, a former Boston Celtics player, and noted it was a day he'd "never forget":
@joekennedy
Joe Kennedy
a day i'll never forget. could not have had more fun marching in @bostonpride with my friend @jasoncollins34. hXXp://t.co/42lCIlgO2X
June 8, 2013 9:35 pm via TweetDeckWatch a report from WCVB TV, which notes that the parade had a record number of attendees : hXXp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/09/jason-collins-2013-boston-pride-parade_n_3411891.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices
-
I already called shotgun on Jason Collins
-
don't understand the fuzz every time a famous comes out.
-
-
Fantastic news. Absolutely courageous and awesome to see a proud openly gay, black man in the NBA. :cheesy2:
-
He's retired now but had a good career and was a well respected player around the league it seems.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login