* I guess that means he can’t be a Boy Scout leader no matter how good a man he is.
* How long until some kid in a gym tells another kid “You play good…for a straight guy”?
* So the NBA has caught up with the military. Now gays can openly shoot in both places.
* * *
In his interview with Sports Illustrated, Collins described why he came out: so he could be true to himself, stop lying to everyone, and live more authentically. That’s what practically every gay person says when she/he comes out.
And that’s what almost every straight person says when she/he comes out—as someone who’s into S/M, or watches porn, or has been faking orgasms, or goes to strip clubs, or would like a finger in their butt during sex, or whatever. Bisexual people say it when they come out, too.
Gays and lesbians aren’t the only people who come out. In a society so ambivalent about sex as ours, virtually everyone needs to come out. In America, just knowing what you want in bed is radical. Every year, a huge number of people ask my advice about “how do I tell my partner what I want sexually?” No one ever asks, “how do I tell my partner how I like my eggs cooked?”or “How do I tell my partner what kind of music I like?”
* So Jason Collins is the first pro to come out in a major sport. We’ll probably hear about the first in baseball, football, and hockey. Will we hear about the second? The third? How many gay athletes will have to come out before it’s no longer newsworthy?
* Yo, Religious Right: at least gays aren’t having abortions.
* Some people now have several reasons they can hate the guy—because he’s Black or because he’s gay. It’s great to be pro-choice, isn’t it?
* Of course, there’s no affirmative action on the athletic field, court, or diamond. If the guy doesn’t rebound or defend, he’ll get benched. Which, of course, is as it should be.
* Let’s see, gay characters on TV, gays getting married, gay politicians, gay ballplayers…it’s getting so that an American has to stay in their house just to avoid contact with the real world. Ah, that helps explain people home-schooling their kids.
* Almost every guy in the NBA has or has had a gay teammate. Soon everyone will know exactly who those teammates are. The real progress will be when people forget who those teammates are.
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The day the Religious Right fears is coming ever closer: When sexual choices are considered private, not public. And when people are no longer judged on those private choices, but rather on their public behavior. Soon enough, religious fundamentalists will be the only ones who obsess about sexual categories. The rest of us won’t be gay, or straight, or kinky, or asexual. We’ll just be people.