STONEWALL 50/ WORLDPRIDE
Jason Collins, Gus Kenworthy on Gay Life in Sports
Out athletes discuss their journeys, path forward for others
BY MATT TRACY
Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy and
former NBA player Jason Collins
talked about their experiences as
out gay athletes during a June 27
event in the days leading up to WorldPride.
The pair, sitting together on a couch at an
Advocates for Youth WorldPride event in Manhattan,
refl ected on their coming out stories,
dished on the current climate for LGBTQ athletes,
and addressed the controversy over the
corporatization of Pride.
Collins said he initially came out to some of
his friends and family members in 2012 when
he was playing with the Boston Celtics, but
otherwise remained closeted.
“It was rumored that four NFL football players
were going to come out and make a big
group joint statement and I was waiting for
that to happen,” said Collins, who played 13
seasons in the NBA before retiring in 2014.
Those players never did come out.
The notion of being the “fi rst” to come out
weighed on his mind — as he watched the
fi lm “Moneyball,” which was about how the
Oakland Athletics revolutionized the art of
building a baseball team in the early 2000s
by utilizing analytics and sabermetrics to fi nd
effective players on a small budget instead
of splashing big money on mega contracts.
During that fi lm, it was mentioned that any
player who is the “fi rst” at anything often gets
bloody.
“I remember seeing that and thinking, ‘I
don’t really want to be bloody,’” Collins said.
“I wanted somebody else to do it and then I’d
come out and make my announcement and
hopefully start a wave.”
Still, nobody came out — and Collins was
subsequently traded from the Celtics to the
Washington Wizards. A new team, of course,
meant acquainting himself with a new group
of players — and he said he would often lie
to teammates about his personal life, telling
them that he had a girlfriend.
Kenworthy, 27, endured the same kind of
experience — in a completely different sport.
He said he was lying about his love life during
TV interviews and that ultimately became
one of the driving factors in prompting him to
come out on ESPN in 2015.
Collins’ coming out two years earlier helped
pave the way for Kenworthy. The now 40-yearold
former NBA player had roughly a decade
in the league before he came out, but waited
until after the 2013 season concluded to make
his announcement. The fi nal straw that led
him to do so was when the Defense of Marriage
Out gay athletes Jason Collins and Gus Kenworthy discuss life as a gay athlete at an Advocates for Youth WorldPride event in Manhattan
on June 27, with Ashland Johnson moderating.
Act and Proposition 8 were both wiped
out in June of that year.
“I came out to Sports Illustrated and my
life just took off,” Collins said. “I didn’t know
what the reaction was going to be because the
playbook for that was to wait until after you
retire.”
Meanwhile, Kenworthy described that he
reached the “lowest of the lows” at a time when
he was fl ourishing as an athlete and hitting
the pinnacle of his sport on the Olympic stage.
He felt ashamed of who he was — and he had
enough of it.
“I came out really publicly and it was the
best decision of my life,” Kenworthy said of his
decision to tell ESPN in October of 2015 that
he is gay.
Both athletes agreed that the climate for
LGBTQ athletes would improve if other athletes
come out. Collins added that the support
of allies is a necessary component in creating
a safe atmosphere for LGBTQ athletes. He cited
advances in recent years with the NBA participating
in Pride celebrations. Among players
to join the NBA at Pride festivities include
Reggie Bullock, a straight ally who has been
an advocate for queer rights since the death
of his transgender sister, Mia Henderson, who
was murdered in 2014.
The audience had an opportunity to chime in
and ask the athletes questions. During a Q&A
session at the end of the event, one audience
member asked the pair of athletes about the
growing concerns surrounding corporations
overshadowing the true meaning of Pride.
“It’s diffi cult because you need corporate
support and you want corporate support,”
Kenworthy answered. “And at all these corporations,
they have LGBTQ employees and it’s
important to let these employees know that
they are safe and they are welcome. Also, it’s
important to support LGBTQ Pride and support
our communities. But I think that there
are a lot of layers to that, and you have to see
whether they’re continuing that support year
round and how they are to their communities
outside of Pride Month.”
Collins echoed Kenworthy’s sentiments on
that issue, and both athletes recommended
that folks research where corporations are
spending their money. The former NBA player
also noted that any anti-LGBTQ corporation
should be mindful of the purchasing power of
LGBTQ community.
➤ OUT ATHLETES, continued on p.21
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