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Monday, Apr 29, 2013 4:36 PM UTC

NBA player Jason Collins comes out, Twitter reacts

He made history today as the first openly gay male professional athlete, Twitter cheered

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Topics: Gay Rights, lgbt sports, lgbt athletes, Editor's Picks, Sports, , , ,

NBA player Jason Collins comes out, Twitter reacts (Credit: Kwaku Alston/SI)

NBA free agent Jason Collins is the first active male athlete to come out as gay in the history of professional sports. Many on Twitter viewed this very big news as, appropriately enough, very big news.

A sampling of the cheers for Collins and questions about what’s next for gay athletes in professional sports:

But not everyone was impressed with Collins’ historic announcement. Particularly Breitbart editor-at-large and expert Twitter troll Ben Shapiro, who doesn’t feel Collins is a very good ball player and so really doesn’t care much that he made the league-altering decision to come out:

Katie McDonough is an assistant editor for Salon, focusing on lifestyle. Follow her on Twitter @kmcdonovgh or email her at kmcdonough@salon.com. More Katie Mcdonough.

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