Collins Uncloseted

When African American baseball player Jackie Robinson signed onto the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946, he shattered the color barrier that had segregated Major League Baseball for over 60 years. Even before the civil rights movement, Robinson’s courage enabled African American baseball players to play alongside whites. In the 1940s, American sports led the cultural charge that ultimately ended segregation and extended African Americans full legal equality. And last week, when Jason Collins came out as the first openly gay player in the NBA, professional sports have once again shown the potential to have a positive impact on American cultural values.

Collins may not be the first American athlete to come out, but he is the first to do so while competing on a professional team. Nearly 20 years before Collins, five-time Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis came out and announced that he had been diagnosed with HIV. Last year, former NFL defensive back Wade Davis came out, noting that he waited until retirement because he wanted to be known as an NFL player—not as a gay person. And just last month, former Baylor University basketball star and number one WNBA draft pick Brittney Griner publicly discussed her sexuality. Clearly it is not the case that there are no gay athletes in American professional sports; rather, stigmatization deters these athletes from speaking openly about their sexuality while continuing to compete professionally.

The effect of professional athletes coming out is certain to make it easier for all athletes—aspiring, current, and retired—who have been deterred from speaking about their sexuality. But in America—where support for same-sex marriage has grown rapidly over the past decade and where 3.4 percent of people self-identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender—it is shocking that it has taken this long for American sports to embrace an openly gay athlete. Indeed, given the overwhelmingly positive response to Collins’ announcement, it is apparent that the American sports world has lagged behind the American public in creating a culture of acceptance for gay Americans.

But in 2013, as in 1946, American sports have been given the opportunity to make a positive impact on American cultural values. We applaud the bravery of Jason Collins to speak openly about his sexuality, and moving forward, we hope to see this positive discourse continue and spark a trend of openness and acceptance both in professional sports and in American culture as a whole. It took only one man’s courage to open up the MLB to African Americans in 1946; we hope that it will only take one man’s courage to open up all sports to gay athletes in 2013.