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Here’s the most ignorant Jason Collins column ever

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:52:00 +0000

Brian Nielsen is the sports editor of the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier in Mattoon, Ill.

Earlier today the paper posted this column he wrote about Jason Collins becoming the first active gay player in the NBA -- and it might well be the most foul, ignorant and reprehensible piece of journalism written on Collins.

Here are the essential claims Nielsen makes, followed by the direct quotes from his piece:

Collins is making a lifestyle choice, and it's comparable to the lifestyle choice to have many children with many different mothers:

"Years ago Jackie Robinson fought a courageous, pioneering battle — a battle that was unfair for a man to have to fight just because he was born with a certain color of skin.

To compare the plight of Collins with his own lifestyle choice to Robinson’s should really insult Jackie’s family today. It even bothers me.

Still we have people calling Collins a pioneer.

I never heard that, and rightfully so, when NBA player Shawn Kemp had fathered several illegitimate children with different women."

Howard Kurtz and the Daily Beast “part ways” after Jason Collins error

Thu, 02 May 2013 19:34:00 +0000

Howard Kurtz, until today the Washington bureau chief for the Daily Beast, is leaving the company, editor Tina Brown announced via Twitter.

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The tweet is a blunt method of getting the point across. It comes after an even more sharply worded retraction of a Kurtz column that claimed newly out-of-the-closet NBA athlete Jason Collins never mentioned his fiancée in his Sports Illustrated confessional essay. (Collins did mention the fiancée.) Kurtz went on to attempt to clarify his misreading in a manner that only muddied the waters, claiming Collins "downplayed" his past relationships with women and had misled readers about his relationship -- something fairly beyond the scope of the Collins article, and untrue besides.

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Chris Broussard doesn’t matter

Thu, 02 May 2013 16:55:00 +0000

Earlier today, Jim Cavan made the case that Chris Broussard's (very unpopular) opinion on Jason Collins' decision to come out as gay does, in fact, matter. This is a mostly ad hominem (towards Broussard, not Cavan) counterpoint to that.

Brendan Flynn: Everyone's all mad at Chris Broussard. Evidently unwilling to Embrace Debate.

David Roth: And Tim Brando! No one wants to hear his truth because he's white and old and successful, and that's not worth a damn thing these days. I've always thought the big issue with regard to how gay athletes was how it made random television guys feel. Are they proud? Are they angry? We need to know about this, it's the most important thing.

Brendan: Really interesting to hear Broussard's thoughts on adultery and children out of wedlock as it relates to gays. Really looking forward to his #TruthToPower moment on all the other sinners he's covered.

Howard Kurtz comes out as illiterate

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:01:00 +0000

Update, 1:00 pm ET: The Daily Beast announced it is retracting Kurtz's column.

Original post:
Howard Kurtz had a bad day yesterday. He wrote this whole column calling out Jason Collins, the NBA player who this week came out as gay, breaking a major American sports barrier and quickly becoming a widely celebrated and admired figure, for not telling readers of his Sports Illustrated piece that he once had a (female) fiancée. Except, one little problem with the entire concept of the piece: Collins explicitly wrote that he'd once been engaged in his Sports Illustrated piece. It took a few minutes for the Internet to point out this titanic error. Then, the the column was altered, without a correction, to say that Collins "downplayed one detail" instead of "left one little part out." Finally, a proper correction was appended.

Wisconsin church bans NFL star over tweet supporting Jason Collins

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:58:00 +0000

Former Green Bay Packer Leroy Butler is reporting that he had a speaking appearance at a Wisconsin church canceled over his tweet in support of openly gay NBA player Jason Collins.

The offending tweet? (Get ready to be scandalized): "Congrats to Jason Collins."

Butler says he was contacted by a member of the church and told that he was in violation of his contract's "moral clause," and was no longer welcome to speak at the church. But, Butler went on to say, the member told him he would be welcomed back to speak if he would delete his pro-Collins tweet and "ask God for forgiveness." An offer that Butler, thankfully, declined.

More here:

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h/t Raw Story

Matthew Shepard’s family responds to Jason Collins’ moving tribute

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:31:00 +0000

On Monday, Jason Collins made history as the first openly gay, active male athlete on a major sports team. In his coming-out piece for Sports Illustrated, Collins acknowledged that he wore the number 98 while playing for the Boston Celtics as a tribute to Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who was murdered for being gay in October 1998.

In an interview with Fox Sports, Shepard's parents, Dennis and Judy, revealed that they were moved to tears by the news of Collins' tribute:

“It made me cry,” Judy Shepard told FOXSports.com during an interview Monday afternoon. “It was really quite a tribute, and I was very honored. And I know Matt would be thrilled..."

"I would really love to speak to him, because I know Judy and I would just like to thank him,” Dennis Shepard said. “Because, No. 1, he had the courage to come out, period, and No. 2 that he wore 98 in honor of Matt, the year that he died.

“(Collins) couldn’t have been that old (when it happened), so it must have had a tremendous impact on him, the story behind Matt, for him to want to do that. And then to wear it all this time without telling people why until today, that’s incredible.”

Jason Collins’ ex-fiancé: I didn’t know he was gay

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:12:00 +0000

Jason Collins made sports history this week, in a splashy cover for Sports Illustrated, when he became the first openly gay male professional athlete, drawing praise from fellow athletes, journalists and politicians, including President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

But for years, Collins, who came out with the simple line “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay,” was so guarded about his sexual orientation that he even kept it hidden from his ex-fiancée, former WNBA player Carolyn Moos.

I cried when Jason Collins came out

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:45:00 +0000

I'm not afraid to admit it: I cried Monday. A couple times.

It's not that the coming out of Jason Collins is somehow the answer to all of our prayers or that those who continue to perpetuate homophobia in sports will now silence their quieting roar. I just kept getting emotional thinking about how far we'd come -- those of us who've been fighting this battle for so many years -- to now see something that many thought was impossible.

I thought about Dave Kopay. The former NFL player was the first former professional athlete to come out publicly when he shared his story in 1975. At the time, he expected a wave of athletes to follow, yet he hasn't even seen a trickle of men take his lead.

I thought about Pat Griffin and Helen Carroll and Sue Rankin and all the women who have pushed the sports world for so many years, long before I even came out, to accept them for who they are.

Jason Collins: Out of the NBA?

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:32:00 +0000

Yesterday, NBA journeyman Jason Collins became the first active American athlete in a major team sport to come out. There have been gay athletes before, whether active in individual sports, like Martina Navratilova; or retired from their league, like basketball player John Amaechi. But at the risk of reducing one man’s major life-decision to a sociology experiment, Collins is the test case everyone has been waiting for.

With his self-penned Sports Illustrated cover story, Collins forces a discussion about all the hypotheticals that have been bandied about for the last few years: How will players deal with a gay teammate in the locker room? How will fans feel about rooting for him? Will the insertion of an out athlete into the American sports mainstream change the discourse around gay rights in this country?

Luckily, Collins, in a sense, is the ideal candidate. And the NBA is the perfect choice for the first league to enter into this uncharted territory.

Why Jason Collins isn’t a Jackie Robinson figure — and that’s a good thing

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:13:00 +0000

In the 25 or so hours since NBA center Jason Collins came out on the cover of Sports Illustrated, he's been praised by everyone from Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant to Presidents Bill Clinton (turns out Collins and Chelsea Clinton attended Stanford concurrently) and Barack Obama.

And yet there's an audience Collins may have to work to win over -- gay writers, who have been taking him to task since he came out.

Bloomberg View's Josh Barro, for instance, implies that Collins, who is in the twilight of his career at 34, has been dragging his feet and shirking "an obligation to lead" for years:

Jason Collins calls coming out “mind-boggling” experience

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:48:00 +0000

With the Monday announcement that he is gay, NBA free agent Jason Collins broke a historic barrier in men's professional sports. And the experience of being the first active out player in major team sports has been "mind-boggling," he told George Stephanopoulos on ABC News.

"That's kind of mind-boggling. I think I talk about that. That, you know, I never set out to be the first," he said.

"You're sort of waiting around for somebody else to … raise their hand," Collins went on to explain. "I'm ready to raise my hand but, you know, you still look around like, 'OK, come on, guys.' It's time for someone else in the room to raise their hand and say, 'You know what? Yeah, so big deal. I can still play basketball. I can still help the team win, and that's what's most important.'"

Jason Collins: Black — and gay — like me

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I’d never heard of Jason Collins when I saw a friend's Facebook status earlier today announcing the news that he was gay. (I prefer college basketball over the NBA.) As I googled his name to find out more, one thought kept running through my mind: "Please be black."

I wanted Jason Collins to be black, because I knew what it would mean to black gay youth in this country. I wanted him to be black because I’m hyper-aware that the list of influential LGBT celebrities like Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper and Neil Patrick Harris is very white. Most important, I wanted Jason Collins to be black because I know exactly what it's like to be a gay teenager with dark brown skin who comes out but cannot find anyone gay who looks like you on television. Or in magazines. Or on the news. These days, when I lecture about LGBT issues on college campuses and various other events, people often tell me I’m the only black person they’ve ever seen speak out for gay rights. The pride I feel is mixed with uneasiness because I wish that weren't the case.

ESPN sportswriter Chris Broussard: Jason Collins is “walking in open rebellion to God”

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:37:00 +0000

During a Monday segment on ESPN's "Outside the Lines," sportswriter Chris Broussard denounced Jason Collins, the first openly gay male athlete in the history of major team sports, for "living in unrepentant sin."

Broussard went on to accuse Collins of not being Christian and "walking in open rebellion to God":

Personally, I don’t believe that you can live an openly homosexual lifestyle or an openly, like premarital sex between heterosexuals. If you’re openly living that type of lifestyle, then the Bible says you know them by their fruits. It says that, you know, that’s a sin. If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, whatever it maybe, I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ. So I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I don’t think the bible would characterize them as a Christian.

Jason Collins becomes first openly gay male professional athlete

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:45:00 +0000

Jason Collins, NBA center and league free agent, came out as gay on the cover of the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated. He is the first active male professional athlete to do so, making this pretty big news.

In the piece, which begins "I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay," Collins goes on to explain that he used downtime during the 2011 player lockout to "confront who I really am and what I really want." He reflected on his family, his teammates and what role he could play in advancing equality for others before finally making the decision to come out, he writes: