The Jason Collins Thing

I sometimes wish Piers Morgan would go back to England and stay there. (If One Direction could go with him, that'd be great.  Especially after finding one of these in the Mall of America.)  To be honest, he's kind of obnoxious most of the time but occasionally, just occasionally, he finds himself in a relatively interesting discussion.  One of last night's guests was Conservative Something or Other Ben Shapiro (I think he might be an Editor over at Breitbart but I'm not really sure) and they were doing their dance over the story of the week- NBA Player Jason Collins' announcement that he was gay.

First of all-  turns out Collins wasn't the first gay male athlete in a major American sport.

Second of all- Shapiro was on Morgan because of some 'controversial' Tweets he made in reaction to the Collins announcement.  First up:

So Jason Collins is a hero because he's gay?  Our standard for heroism has dropped quite a bit since Normandy.

This one seems like kind of a dick move to me.  Athletes are role models for a lot of young people out there and while coming out of the closet probably isn't as risky as it was say, ten years ago, it's still a risk and I'd imagine it still takes a certain amount of courage.   It might not be 'storming the beaches' heroism but if Collins' announcement helps give someone the courage to be comfortable with themselves then I think it's a good thing.  Heroism might be too strong of a word- driven more by media hyperbole than anything else.  Inspirational could be far closer to the mark.  Either way, it's a deal.  Perhaps not a titanic, earth-shifting deal but it's a decent sized deal.

Second up:

What kind of America does the left think we live in?  This is not 1947 with racism.  This is not 1997 with Ellen.  Bravery requires risk.

The cynic in me thinks this one is a lot closer to the mark.   Collins is a 13 year veteran of the NBA who is closer to the end of his career than the beginning and, as a free agent, he's in the market for a team and 2013 is not 1997.  (And if you wanted to be really jaded about this, you could argue that the timing of this announcement will undoubtedly land Collins a new contract and I'm sure an endorsement or two.)  For every reaction hailing this as a major, major, landmark moment for American sports, there have been reactions from many that can be summed up as a combination of shrugging and saying 'do you want a cookie or something?'

I think I tend to fall into the somewhere between the two extremes.  I'll be honest, kids: when I first saw this news and read the story my first reaction was 'Who is Jason Collins?' My second reaction was 'Well, good for him.'  And then, then, kids, I carried on with the rest of my day.  Whatever your sexual preference, it's a fundamental part of who you are and it's going to be a really good day in America when news like this falls into the category of 'meh.  Who cares?'

(An interesting side note to all of this:  Why are gay male athletes a bigger deal to people?  The WNBA has had it's fair share of LGBT athletes-  Britney Griner pretty much just shrugged it away just weeks ago and Martina Navratilova has been open about her sexuality since 1981- before I was born for crying out loud.  That'd be a discussion worth having.)