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3Qs: Jason Collins and the role of identity

Carole Bell


Last week, 12-​​year NBA vet­eran Jason Collins announced in a first-​​person article in Sports Illus­trated that he was gay—becoming the league’s first openly gay player. Carole Bell is an assis­tant pro­fessor of com­mu­ni­ca­tion studies in the Col­lege of Arts, Media and Design whose research looks at the rela­tion­ship between non­tra­di­tional news sources like enter­tain­ment media and public opinion and sociopo­lit­ical atti­tudes. Here, we asked Bell to ana­lyze the impact of Collins’ announce­ment in a variety of ways.

1. Collins’ announcement began “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.” How does Collins’ identifying statement factor into how the news has been received?

The concept of identity is a significant element in Collins’ story. At the moment of coming out, the speaker gets to frame his own image, publicly declaring the elements that he considers essential to his sense of self. For Collins, that meant saying, “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.” Similarly, when former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey came out, he said, “I am a gay American.” Though the two men came out under vastly different circumstances, they chose to frame their identity in similar ways by placing their sexuality in context with the other primary aspects of their identity. McGreevey’s statement, which sounded awkward to some, emphasized his Americanness above all. Collins highlights his status as a professional athlete first, then his blackness and, finally, his identification as a gay man.

Collins’ declaration affirms the compatibility of these aspects of his identity: elite athlete, black and gay. It also asserts all three are important and can harmoniously coexist. Perhaps for this reason, gay black men in particular publicly celebrated Collins’ statement and framed it in relation to its significance for black youth. On Salon.com, Rob Smith disclosed that when he first heard an NBA player had come out his reaction was very personal: “I wanted Jason Collins to be black, because I knew what it would mean to black gay youth in this country… I wanted Jason Collins to be black because I know exactly what it’s like to be a gay teenager with dark brown skin who comes out but cannot find anyone gay who looks like you on television. Or in magazines.“ On Buzzfeed.com, Saeed Jones simply wrote, “Black gay kids need heroes too.”




3. Collins is the first male pro athlete in the four major American sports to come out. How does that fit into the nation’s evolving public and political acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans?




This interview was originally posted in news@Northeastern