Jason Collins, Jackie Robinson and gay politics

Jason Collins is a 12-year journeyman who, at age 34, is near the end of an undistinguished career in the National Basketball Association. He seems a handsome, personable, and articulate individual, and would probably fit in well with ESPN as a color commentator or analyst.

The problem is that his name was unknown to all but the most dedicated of basketball fans; and the kind of athlete who lands a job of that sort, like Terry Bradshaw or Charles Barkley, has usually been a star performer. But Collins did have one advantage he figured out how to exploit: He is gay.

It's statistically inevitable that gays should play in the NBA as well as other professional sports. The sexual orientation of Bill Tilden and Martina Navratilova wasn't exactly a secret. Those two tennis champions enjoyed a certain celebrity, and so, as with movie stars, their private lives attracted some interest. Tilden, given the mores of his heyday (the 1920s and "'30s) had to be discreet about his sexual orientation. Navratilova, playing in the '70s and '80s, shrugged about her own rumors, properly taking the position that her private life was nobody else's business.

Obama's "'evolution'

Nowadays, being gay has been promoted into some kind of public virtue, and consequently Jason Collins attracted national attention when he decided to come out. National figures praised his courage. President Obama gave him a congratulatory phone call, of the sort usually reserved for World Series winners or Medal of Honor recipients.

President Obama, who "evolved" with glacial slowness toward accepting gay marriage until his pollsters discovered the benefits, certainly appreciates political savvy. One cynic met another in mutual brotherhood, and I can fully understand that. Happens all the time.

I draw the line, though, in comparing Jason Collins to Jackie Robinson.

What Jackie Robinson did in integrating Major League baseball was, socially if not legally, the most consequential act in American race relations since the passage of the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery in 1865. To stand alone on a field of white athletes before crowds of hostile and threatening white fans in ballpark after ballpark, and to perform with grace and excellence at the highest level of a demanding sport, represented a level of heroism that's difficult to imagine and impossible to replicate today.

Jackie's aggressive style

Nor did Robinson merely try to fit in quietly. He played with flair. To watch Jackie on the bases, rattling a pitcher, distracting an opposition defense, was to see an entirely new and aggressive style of baseball. He forced attention on himself, as if not only demanding his rightful place on the diamond but everywhere else as well.

Every black man and woman in America knew what Jackie Robinson was doing, and for whom. And only they could fully reckon the cost.

But what has it cost Jason Collins to disclose something about himself that's of no relevance to the sport he played and little risk to himself? He may get that nice, cushy commentator's job he was angling for. Good for him: Americans always admire a guy who knows how to work an angle.

Unfinished business

I'm fully aware that gays still face discrimination of many kinds, that fear and hatred of gays is still out there, and that tremendous institutional resistance to gay equality still exists in some quarters. We have a long way to go before gay sexuality is properly accepted as a matter of moral neutrality, subject only to the same kinds of restraint we impose on heterosexual activity: prohibition of rape, abuse of minors, and so forth.

But the goal is acceptance, not glorification. There is nothing inherently praiseworthy or blameworthy about homosexuality.

I couldn't care less whether you describe homosexuality as a biologically coded preference or a lifestyle choice. It is, or should be, nobody's business but your own. You shouldn't need to hide it and you shouldn't need to flaunt it (although if the latter is your thing, that's fine with me).

Barney Frank's courage

There was a time when publicly coming out was indeed an act of courage, and when it took on social as well as personal significance. It meant something when Ellen DeGeneres or Congressman Barney Frank declared themselves gay.

But we have passed that turn, and the response to Jason Collins indicates that a certain glamour now attaches to coming out, as if being gay were meritorious in itself and deserving of congratulation. That simply means that it has become, for the moment, an emblem of political correctness.

Perhaps this, too, is a stage we must pass through on the way to full acceptance. I'm OK with that, too. Just don't compare Jason Collins to Jackie Robinson.♦


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To read a response by Alana Mabaso, click here.