Posted on 05/02/2013 4:25:39 AM PDT by Kaslin
Compared to the hell Jackie Robinson went through, Jason Collins is getting a ticker tape parade.
Collins, a 12-year National Basketball Association player, recently wrote a column in which he announced that he is gay: "I didn't set out to be the first openly gay (male) athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation."
When comedian Ellen DeGeneres came out in 1997, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine with the earth-shattering headline, 'Yep, I'm Gay.' With a general population that surveys put at about 4 percent homosexual (although estimates run as high as 5 to 10 percent), is anyone surprised that, in a country of 10,000 or so pro athletes, gay male athletes exist? After all, the WNBA, the NBA's sister league, features several openly gay players. When the league's top draft pick, Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner, recently "came out," the media and fans said "ho-hum." But when Collins came out, he became front-page news as the first male to do so.
At one time, gay athletes like Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova lost fans and endorsements. In Collins' case, one of the few discordant notes came from a professional football player who tweeted: "All these beautiful women in the world and guys wanna mess with other guys. SMH (shaking my head)." Four minutes later, he sent an apologetic tweet and got publicly slammed by his employer, the Miami Dolphins.
Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama praised Collins for his courage. Obama even called the athlete to offer his support.
Open arms. Not exactly how baseball greeted Robinson.
About racism in America, John O. Sullivan, the editor of the conservative magazine "National Review," once said: "White racism exists. But its social power is weak; the social power against it overwhelming." Similarly, hostility toward gays certainly exists, but its social power is growing weaker and on the decline.
Will fans, as happened during Jackie Robinson's playing days, shout out slurs with no fear of getting thrown out of the arena or getting beaten up by outraged fans?
Will Collins' teammates, as in Robinson's case, pass around a petition signed by a number of teammates, stating they refuse to play with him?
Will arenas require gay fans to sit apart from non-gay fans the way many stadiums, during Robinson's era, segregated black fans from white fans?
Will they tell gay reporters, as they did black reporters during Robinson's day, to sit in the stands, typewriter on the lap, rather than in the press booth with the other reporters?
Tolerance cuts both ways.
What happens to a player who says, "I think homosexuality is a sin," or, "Got no problem playing with or against him, but I don't approve of his lifestyle"? Or a player who asks: "What's all this business about 'bravery'? What Collins does behind closed doors is his business. Why do I need to know about it?"
In 2007, sportswriter Chris Broussard of ESPN wrote about an openly gay colleague: "I've played in several rec leagues with LZ Granderson, who is an openly gay writer at ESPN The Magazine. ... I don't shower with LZ after games like NBA teammates do, and I'll admit that if I had to, it might be a little uncomfortable at first. But if a gay player just goes about his business in the shower, showing that he has no sexual interest in his teammates and that he's not 'checking them out,' I think the awkwardness would wear off fairly quickly. LZ and I know where each other stand, and we respect each other's right to believe as he does. I know he's gay, and he knows I believe that's a sin. I know he thinks I get my moral standards from an outdated, mistranslated book, and he knows I believe he needs to change his lifestyle."
About Collins' coming out, Broussard said: "Personally, I don't believe that you can live an openly homosexual lifestyle or (engage in) openly 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's a sin. If you're openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, adultery, fornication, premarital sex between heterosexuals -- whatever it may be, I believe that's walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ. I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I do not think the Bible would characterize them as a Christian." The Washington Post wrote that ESPN stood by Broussard despite his "controversial" comments.
Want political incorrectly controversy? How about an athlete or Hollywood star "coming out" as an Iraq War-supporting, tax-cutting, ObamaCare-opposing ... conservative! With Collins coming out, the NBA has exactly one more openly gay player than it has who is openly Republican.
Dr. Ben Carson, the neurologist and ObamaCare critic, accepted an invitation to speak at Johns Hopkins' commencement. But after Carson stated his opposition to gay marriage, students and faculty protested. Carson withdrew.
Jason Collins could teach Johns Hopkins a lesson in tolerance.
Bingo.
We have to stop using their preferred terms and call them what they are. Not with hatred, but for clarity.
HOMOSEXUAL, because there’s nothing GAY about it.
Excellent point, and I agree
Notice the ‘extra narrowly definitions people use to work homosexuality into acceptance. My brother is gay BUT....My uncle is gay BUT... My teacher is gay BUT...They think just like I do!!
No they don’t. But instead of doing what is right and recognizing it for what it is, they each legitimize it in a small way that adds up across the board...and we come to today.
It has to do with polls, and some imagine the polls to be really good, with master minds behind them who are really smart, and certainly a small group of gays couldn't distort the results.
So, thinking there are all those gays, they want to win elections so they solicit gay approval.
Romney did that ~ he lost ~ just like his gay fanbase didn't even exist too!
That's due to a problem I outline in post #26.
So, yes, we have Conservatives trying to bring in the gays, but they are misled by systemic polling that over-responds to gay thought. And no, being gay is not a Conservative position ~ at best we would think tab a into slot b considerations would be private matters and at worst we just want them to go away with their constant chronic litany of all the slings and arrows their sex organ receive when displayed in public for all to see.
They ultimately out themselves anyway ~ just like Billy James Hargis ~ a fellow who was more Conservative than not, but who had more than his fair share of problems ~ about which he did nothing useful!
Conservatism has always prospered when we push the logic of our positions, not when we counsel our logic with polls!
Very well said.
The way those center fielders bend over with their hands on their knees?
He called the Washington Post to place an ad ~ he told them "Room for Rent. Student wanted."
The postie then ran the ad ~ abbreviated as "Room for rnt; stud wanted"
He had to get his phone number changed ~ thousands of calls.
If Collins is not just scamming the press for more coverage to augment his career, by now he's had to get an entirely new set of phone numbers AND move out of his home!
We'll see if he's really gay eh! (bwahahahahaha)
Forty-Five posts and nobody realizes that photo isn’t Jason
Collins.
Thank you.
Yea I think he’ll regret this after his 15 are up and the dems no longer find him useful. Perhaps a certain wordsmith could ease his sorrows...
Which proves that homosexuality is in the genes is nothing but lies
I know that the Kinsey Report was 10%, done mainly with inmates who probably fit that percentage, and that 10% crap was then spouted as if it represented society . . . and the media have, in many cases, glommed on to it.
But the poofters are going to demand tighter and tighter thongs and lower and lower rides!
All they gotta' do is answer the phone and they get what they want.
One morning, a few weeks ago, Mrs WBill mentioned in passing that gay friend 'A' has a new therapist (the psych kind). Friend thinks the therapist is pretty cute. I said 'Uh-huh', with about as much thought and acknowledgment as a husband gives a wife on a point of trivial nonsense at 7 am.
Some time later, she mentioned in passing that gay friend 'B' can't attend some get-together because it conflicts with a therapy (the psych kind) appointment. "mmm-hmmm", I replied, didn't give it 5 sec of consideration.
Last week, she mentioned that gay friend 'C' has a new therapist (the psych kind) too. "Yeah - wait a minute.", I said, "Didn't you tell me that 'A' and 'B' have new therapists, too? Are all these guys in some sort of group thing, or something?"
"No, no, no.", she replied, " 'A' is in New York. 'B' is in South Carolina. 'C' is in Atlanta."
"Hunh.", I replied. "Are All of your gay friends in therapy?"
She thought about it. "Yeah, pretty much."
If that's not indicative of something being wrong with a lifestyle, I dunno what is.
Well at least they are conservative.... s/
Yup. That is mostly the case. People don’t like making that connection though. think about all the lib propaganda about bullied gay kids. They need therapy!!
The unspoken thing is that the therapy isnt needed because someone called them a fag. It’s needed because they don’y ‘naturally’ LIKE being a fag and thus the problems follow.
Self loathing is at the core of most homosexuality. Look at the suicide rates and ‘bug chasers’.
But no. We must help them hurt themselves and accept them for it. That too is conservative I guess. Some here without a sense of irony seem to think so.
I was messing with your head Norm - on purpose - to show you how deleting a few letters, let alone words, DOES CHANGE CONTEXT. I was being dishonest to illustrate your intellectual dishonesty vis a vis Gen Blather.
BONUS POINTS: And as I predicted, you were too thick to get it. So yes, have everybody read the thread, and they’ll see I was just toying with you and even predicted how you would fall hook, line and sinker for it.
I point you to that great philosopher Detective Harry Callahan: “Man’s gotta know his limitations.”
You are WAY too ez.
CW, you really are easy to bait. And just as I said in my follow up email to you...everyone say it.
Now about answering the question...
Oh and lest anyone think I jest, here is the text of that email to you....
“Actually lib I did see it. And understand it But guess what? So did everyone else. Guess what? You will be quoted. Often. Because you are not nearly as smart as you think you are. And now you’ll have to not only explain why you did it, but why you ignored several clear questions TO DO IT.”
So yes...You got rolled.
a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition.
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