Jason Collins Coming Out May Be Bigger Than DADT, Dan Savage Says

The admission of NBA player Jason Collins this week that he is gay (and black) made headlines, given the overall lack of out and open prominent athletes historically and currently — for a multitude of reasons.

After Jason Collins came out, inevitable backlash ensued. One bit of criticism came from Miami Dolphins wide receiver Mike Wallace, who tweeted about the news in a later-removed post deemed by many to be homophobic.

Interestingly, it seemed, we were rapidly approaching a cultural moment where it became more transgressive to be openly critical of gay people than to be gay, which feels like a first.

Sex columnist Dan Savage, who is gay, went on MSNBC last night to discuss Collins’ coming out and the effects and implications of the first openly gay NBA player’s decision.

Savage himself started out with a column called “Hey, F*****,” meant to humorously advise straight people from a gay perspective. His column has since evolved to be called “Savage Love,” and his advice about love and sex has gained him a prominent position among advice columnists in America — unconventional as it may be sometimes. (Savage coined the term “monogamish” for relationships that are not open, but permissive, for instance.)

Speaking as a gay man and an individual who counsels people weekly on sexuality, Savage believes that Collins’ admission is somewhat of a watershed moment for gay rights — perhaps bigger than relatively recent advances against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policies of the American military.

Savage said while speaking with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes:

“What this debate comes down to ultimately is not who gay people are and where gay people are. We are who we are and we are everywhere. If there’s no openly gay people in whatever environment you’re in or whatever environment you’re talking about that doesn’t mean there are no gay people. There’s no openly gay people.”

He continued:

“I think ultimately what this comes down to is who straight people are. This isn’t about whether Jason Collins or other athletes who happen to be gay are pansies. It’s about whether heterosexual men and heterosexual athletes in locker rooms are pansies.”

Savage concludes:

“If they’re afraid of gay men, if they’re jumping up on chairs and shrieking and too afraid to shower in the same conditions that marines, and sailors, and airmen shower in … Are straight people better than they’ve been built? Are straight people less bigoted than they’ve convinced themselves they are? I think they are less bigoted as we saw in the military after the ‘DADT’ repeal and a lot of LGBT soldiers came out and it was a non-issue and they were accepted.”

Do you, like Dan Savage, believe that Jason Collins’ coming out represents more than it would seem on first glance for gay acceptance?

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