{"id":989,"date":"2013-05-27T08:16:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T12:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=989"},"modified":"2013-05-28T13:47:23","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T17:47:23","slug":"important-ramifications-nba-pro-basketball-player-jason-collins-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/important-ramifications-nba-pro-basketball-player-jason-collins-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Important Ramifications of NBA Pro Basketball Player Jason Collins\u2019 Coming Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

… And also I recognize Women\u2019s Basketball super-star Brittany Griner below.<\/p>\n

Major LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) news was made last month when Jason Collins became the first

\"Jason<\/a>

Jason Collins became the first active athlete among the four major US pro sports to come out as gay via a recent online Sports Illustrated article<\/p><\/div> active (non-retired) professional among the major four American Men\u2019s pro sports (Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey) to come out publically as a gay man. Link to the Sports Illustrated online article.<\/strong><\/a> There was a major media flurry, and like always I like to wait for a month for the hoopla to die down so I can offer an additional thoughtful analysis. Here are my five hopeful long term ramifications of Jason\u2019s coming out:<\/p>\n

1.\tThis sends the strong message to our LGBT youth that they can become anything they want and have the talent to do. LGBT youth do not need to be \u201cpigeon holed\u201d into careers stereotypically attributed to gay men and lesbians, but instead can pursue any career they want, including pro sports. And perhaps some day we will have a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender President of the United States!<\/p>\n

2.\tThis could help curb gay bullying and gay bashing. Bullies should think twice about picking on an LGBT person; perhaps their gay 7 foot tall, 240 pound muscular friend will come to their bullied victim\u2019s defense. Not all gay guys are 120 pound slim guys. See link to my most recent blog on bullying<\/strong><\/a> which contains additional links to blogs and resources.<\/p>\n

3.\tThis will help pro sports become much more open to full acceptance of LGBT diversity, and perhaps significantly decrease homophobia in pro sports. The younger generation can aspire to play in pro leagues and also be out and true to their LGBT selves.
\n

\"This<\/a>

This year’s first WNBA’s draft pick Brittney Griner recently came out as a lesbian. Here she is cutting down the nets after leading Baylor to their 2012 championship<\/p><\/div>
\n4.\tSince Jason Collins is African-American, it helps dispel the myth that homosexuality is a \u201cwhite person\u2019s thing.\u201d LGBT people are found across all segments of humanity. See also my last month\u2019s blog on 5 Common Misconceptions about Gay People.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

5.\tFinally, this breaks the gay male stereotype of all gay men being feminine and small. The LGBT community is extremely diverse with a wide range of gender expressions, shapes and sizes.<\/p>\n

I would like to close this article with a call out to a female basketball star who recently came out as a lesbian; Brittany Griner, who led Baylor to the 2012 Women\u2019s NCAA championship and was this year\u2019s first draft pick in the WNBA draft. Link to the article about Brittany.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… And also I recognize Women\u2019s Basketball super-star Brittany Griner below. Major LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) news was made last month when Jason Collins became the first active (non-retired) professional among the major four American Men\u2019s pro sports (Baseball, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[380,229,382,20,383,379,356,381,378,385,384],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-info","tag-brittany-griner","tag-coming-out","tag-gay-bashing","tag-gay-bullying","tag-gay-male-stereotype","tag-jason-collins","tag-lgbt-community","tag-lgbt-youth","tag-nba-pro-basketball","tag-wnba-draft","tag-womens-ncaa-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}