Collins opens doors for others

Last Modified: Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 12:22 a.m.

I am a native of Davidson County, born and raised. I love it here. Not much happens, very few murders, very little violent crime. That's good.

I know a lot of people; it is rare for me to go somewhere and not run into someone I know. Part of that comes with the job of covering local sports, but part of that comes from growing up in a small town.

But there are parts of our local culture that I've had to learn to overcome. There is a racial divide here; I'm not naive enough to believe racial prejudices don't exist in New York or California. But I do believe those prejudices are much more scarce.

People are also much less tolerant of homosexuals here. That's not acceptable in the Southern culture. Up until about 10 years ago, I thought homosexuality was a choice, and I was strongly opposed to it.

But as I've grown older, I've gained a little better understanding of people. Deep down, we're all the same. There's good in all people — white, black, Hispanic, Japanese, whatever. And there are some people of all races and ethnic backgrounds that aren't worth a hoot, that are lazy, and simply want to take advantage of the system as much as they can.

And I have done a complete 180 on homosexuality. I would have argued tooth and nail 10 years ago that it was not natural, that it was a lifestyle choice. Not now. There is a child in our neighborhood, a young boy, who simply isn't like all the other boys. While they're playing football, he's standing on the side cheerleading. They're jumping on the trampoline, and he's working on gymnastics. His movements, his demeanor, everything about him, is a little different.

But, you know what? He's a good kid. Doesn't bother a soul, kind to everyone, never gets in trouble for doing things he shouldn't do. Do I want one of my sons in a room with him with the door closed? Absolutely not. But that is probably my simplemindedness affecting my mentality.

Earlier this week, NBA center Jason Collins revealed he is gay. He has been in the league for over a decade, and plans to play one more season before retiring.

All of his former teammates, and his former fiancee, all said they were stunned. They never knew there was anything different about him.

My question is, what's the big deal? What does it matter whether an athlete is gay or not? If he can shoot, or play defense, or rebound, and do it at a high level, then there should be no problem with him being in a locker room.

He will be received differently, I don't think there's any doubt about that. But I'm proud of him for being strong enough to come out of the closet; he is the first active member of one of the four major sports to reveal he is homosexual.

I went with my family to watch '42' over the weekend, the movie about Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. It was a struggle, no doubt. The difference for Robinson, of course, was that everyone could tell by looking at him that he was different. Plenty of his Brooklyn Dodgers teammates didn't even want to share the field with him. But, he overcame. He fought through it, by not fighting back when he was under attack.

Collins could have played the rest of his career without revealing his sexuality. According to most of his teammates' reactions to his revelations, no one would have ever suspected anything. But I'm glad he was brave enough to tell the world he is not what they think of when they think of professional athletes.

I hope, one day, this won't be that big of a deal; that, like Robinson opening doors for all black baseball players in 1947, Collins has opened new doors for those who are considered different now.



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