Jarron Collins Pulls Off Greatest Prank in Twin History

That guy came out several years after his retirement.

This guy seems like he was out-ish? Apparently his teammates knew but the general public did not and there was no "I'm out" discussion.

 

I really don't know what to tell you. If you think his motivation in this was financial, you're either the most cynical person in the world or you know something about his finances that I don't.


But imagine, for a second, that you're not an adult straight male. Imagine that you're a 15 year old gay basketball player, and that you have to deal with the insistent, insidious homophobia that still exists not only in the country but especially in high school locker rooms. Your teammates call each other (and you) faggots. Basically every couple you see on television or in movies looks nothing like the love you'd like to have some day. Elected goddamn politicians describe your life as an affront to God.

It absolutely matters that a public person, a professional athlete in a big time sport says that he's just like you. So what if he isn't that good? It's someone. Anyone.

Maybe you don't know what it's like not to see public figures like yourself. It matters.

 

I read somewhere that Amaechi was upset that he couldn't use his original title, The Lucky Pierre.

 

I don't think his motivation is strictly money. Personally, the whole idea of making personal decisions into widely publicized press junkets, regardless of their content, is what I'm really against.

Perhaps this is the disconnect I'm having with the whole story. I don't look at public figures in that way. Even when I was growing up, I was "myself" when pretending to win the Stanley Cup in my driveway hockey games. I don't look at public figures as anything but people who happen to be in a job who get camera time. I admire talented people, but I don't ever transpose myself onto them.


This question may sound horribly ignorant, but since we are talking about it, perhaps someone can share some insight.
Do you think more people would be accepting of homosexuals if they were more open and honest with themselves about who they are? The reason I ask is that almost every story that hits the media like this follows the same basic line. "I've been gay my whole life but thought it was a dirty secret so I decided to deceive everyone around me until some random point in time I gave up the ruse and now I realize no one really is affected at all by my lifestyle."

 

Popped Cherries and Hoosiermess.

What you're not getting is that gay people, especially the younger ones, are minorities. I say that to say they don't just come out right out the gate because of language use as the minimum "That's gay" "don't be a faggot" showing them that what they are in wrong. At the maximum gay kids don't get picked for sports, invited to sleepovers, and included into the larger population. So no these guys weren't going to be flying their flags at the beginning because they're taught/learn early that what they are isn't going to be celebrated. Guys in the locker room in sports get, high fived cheered for fucking groupies and banging cheerleaders. They don't get cheered for blowing or getting blown by a bunch of dudes by their teammates.

Now we're all coming around to this happy, accepting time, but the guy is 34 years old. When he was coming up and this was dawning on him, there sure as fuck wasn't any "It Gets Better" Campaigns and people talking about how bad the Westboro Baptist Church was. All this "accept the gays" talk is really fucking new and progressive. In the last 8 years we've made a LOT of fucking progress. We're only a few years removed from believing they're the source of aids and they're trying to infect the holy straights. Its still hard for some of these older guys to come out. My 33 year old friend just came out this year, and he's just a normal dude.

People are still scared about their family not talking to them, friends not talking to them, and even their jobs fucking with them. In Wisconsin they can fire you for being gay. Check it. The entire country isn't showing up to gay pride parades cheering. So yes it was a big deal for this guy to come out, because all the attention he is getting now is mainly for the gay people waiting to come out so we CAN finally go to that point where it isn't a big deal.

 

To be fair, wouldn't you leave this on the alter too?

Spoiler

Here's the article

 

Put in the perspective of time I get that they would have felt, may still feel, like it wasn't acceptable. I didn't look at it that way. 5 years ago I would have been less accepting myself where now I truly don't care one way or the other. I must have figured since I don't care and hadn't heard of any real backlash it wasn't a big deal (and it shouldn't be). I still think people are trying to make this a bigger story than what it is though. If it goes over without much of a splash why stir it up? <-- That was my thinking.

 

It's not a matter of transposing yourself onto somebody, it's a matter of the implicit acceptance with seeing somebody like yourself succeed. It's a much less pressing concern for (most) straight white guys, because they have many successful famous people to look at, like Macklemore and Charlie Sheen.

Maybe you should talk to some gay college students who are scrambling around to complete their education because they've been cut off financially by parents who are too rich for them to qualify for financial aid.

 

What, they don't have a "Because I was truthful about myself" answer option under the question "Why are you applying for financial aid?"

 

Or I could just ask myself. My parents sent my sister to college fully paid for because she was "more mature" than I was. She really was just more Christian than I was and therefore got a full education while I had to pay for my own schooling.
It's no reason to not be accepting of the fact that you don't really believe in Jesus.

 

Oh for fuck's sake. Part of the reason I've put off college for so many years is that putting either parent on my FAFSA limits me to federal loans. I don't get any slack because mom and dad are too busy doing nothing to help their offspring, how the hell is it any different for a gay kid disowned by his family? Because he's gay? If a white girl refuses to blow me because I'm skinny, and refuses to blow Jose Whatshisnuts because he's Mexicano, does that magically make girls not giving blowjobs to Mexicans a nationwide issue?

I'm not denying the existence of anti-gay prejudice in the US. It's widespread in our citizenry as well as our government and I expect it will best-case-scenario, like racism, end up being another closeted prejudice that's only displayed when the cowards who harbor such backwards mentality are safe among like-minded idiots. I see your point about role models and I hope Collins' choice will embolden young fans to accept homosexuality, whether theirs or that of someone they know, hastening what I mentioned above, but this guy isn't exactly Rosa Parks.

 

Did you just spend a paragraph rambling furiously at me only to agree exactly?

 

Maybe one is more of an issue because it's a wide-spread, pervasive social phenomenon, and the other is an idiosyncratic personal dynamic. Just maybe. There's a huge difference between our prejudicial treatment of entire blocs of people, and "one time someone was mean to me."

And when did the standard become "Rosa Parks or GTFO!"?

 

I don't think he knows what he said.

Point is, any progress is progress. Someone had to go first, to take that small step first. It doesn't have to be a leap, though certainly it would be great it it were. But just the fact that it's a step has to count for something.

In the perfect world, there wouldn't be "minorities" and "majorities," there would just be "people." And we would all be treated equal. But this dude is a minority in his field right now, and he just took a profound step to hopefully allowing everyone to just be viewed as "people." Gotta commend him for that. That's where the respect comes from.

In other news, here's a really good article with John Amaechi:

 

I don't think of it as "Rosa Parks or GTFO". At the same time, as I said earlier, this isn't something that warrants a personal phone call from the president congratulating the fact that you are able to tell people you like men instead of women.

 

I'm not going to apologize for liking a particular kind of erotica, Cowbell.

 

I'm happy for him, I hope he's able to live a fuller life now, and I think it speaks well of humanity that most reactions have been either "cool" or "cool but what's the big deal".

Also, best thread title ever. How the fuck did his brother not know? Not only are they twins, they went to college together and everything. Talk about oblivious.

 

The WDT should have some interesting spoiler'd picture results this week!

In all seriousness, I'm glad the guy is able to tell people he's gay. It must be shitty hiding that from people for so long.
With that said, the standard shouldn't be that once a "celebrity" does it, it becomes okay for the rest of us normal citizens. There have been many people who have come before him who have been persecuted for being gay, some even killed. A pro basketball player announcing he's gay shouldn't be any more meaningful in the big picture of gay rights or gay acceptance than if I were to come out tomorrow.

 

I've reread your post three times and I can only assume I'm failing to grasp something.

And no one said "Rosa Parks or GTFO"