As a straight male, I don't even pretend to know what someone like Jason Collins must have been going through, living a secret life as a gay man while an active player in the NBA.
This isn't like grief. It's not a few quiet moments at a funeral home, when someone goes up to a relative of the deceased and offers some trite comments of "Hey, I've been there," just because that person has also experienced the death of a loved one. Those feelings aren't totally congruent, either, by the way.
No one who is straight can purport to place themselves in Collins' Nikes.
Collins, the longtime (and still active) NBA center who came out as gay in this week's edition of Sports Illustrated, has mainly gotten support (at least publicly) for his self-outing. Lord knows the missives he's received privately likely aren't all warm and fuzzy. Again, never been there.
Maybe Hank Aaron could comment; the letters of vitriol sent to Hank as he pursued Babe Ruth's all-time home run record remain a black eye on our society.
It didn't take me long, once I heard of Collins' outing, for me to reach out to someone who I know has an inkling of Collin ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Greg Eno
Former MLB Umpire Dave Pallone All Too Familiar with Jason Collins’ Secret Life
April 30th, 2013 by Greg Eno Leave a reply »
Advertisement