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In first, NBA player comes out as gay

Outpouring of support as Jason Collins breaks barrier

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Gay News, Washington Blade, Sports Illustrated, Jason Collins
Jason Collins, Washington Wizards, NBA, gay news, Washington Blade, Sports Illustrated

Traded to Washington D.C. from Boston in February, with this week’s Sports Illustrated piece, the Wizards’ center Jason Collins becomes the first active openly gay player in history in the four most-followed American professional sports leagues. (Image courtesy of Sports Illustrated)

An NBA center has become the first male athlete who actively plays in a major American professional sports league to come out as gay.

“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center,” Jason Collins wrote in a Sports Illustrated op-ed that will appear in the magazine’s May 6 issue. “I’m black. And I’m gay.”

Collins, a free agent whom the Boston Celtics traded to the Washington Wizards in February, has also played for the Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves and New Jersey Nets. He and his twin brother Jarron were also teammates at Stanford University.

Collins said the first relative to whom he came out was his aunt, who is a judge in San Francisco. He wrote he told his brother last summer; but he “realized he needed to go public” about his sexual orientation after Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy, with whom he lived at Stanford, told him he had marched in last year’s Boston Pride parade.

The southern California native, who said he chose to wear the number 98 with the Celtics and the Wizards in solidarity with Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who two men beat to death in 1998, added the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15 “reinforced the notion that I shouldn’t wait for the circumstances of my coming out to be perfect.” He said he plans to march with Kennedy in Boston’s Pride parade on June 8.

“I’ve endured years of misery and gone to enormous lengths to live a lie,” Collins wrote. “I was certain that my world would fall apart if anyone knew. And yet when I acknowledged my sexuality I felt whole for the first time. I still had the same sense of humor, I still had the same mannerisms and my friends still had my back.”

NBA Commissioner David Stern praised Collins in a statement.

“Jason has been a widely respected player and teammate throughout his career and we are proud he has assumed the leadership mantle on this very important issue,” he said.

“We are extremely proud of Jason and support his decision to live his life proudly and openly,” Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld added. “He has been a leader on and off the court and an outstanding teammate throughout his NBA career. Those qualities will continue to serve him both as a player and as a positive role model for others of all sexual orientation.”

Retired tennis champion Martina Navratilova, who came out in 1981, is among those who applauded Collins.

“Well done Jason Collins,” she said in a tweet. “You are a brave man.”

The Boston Red Sox, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, Ricky Martin, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the White House also praised the NBA center.

“Kudos to you for taking a stand that will help untold numbers of kids and allies,” D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said on his Twitter account. “As a longtime LGBT ally, I salute you.”

LGBT athletes continue to gain visibility

While he is the first active male member of a major U.S. professional sports league to come out, Collins is not the first athlete to publicly disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Former NFL players David Kopay, Roy Simmons, Esera Tuaolo and Wade Davis all came out after they left the league.

Former NBA center John Amaechi, former tennis player Billie Jean King, former Olympic diver Greg Louganis and figure skater Johnny Weir are among those who have publicly declared their homosexuality.

Former George Washington University basketball player Kye Allums came out as transgender in a 2010 interview with Outsports.com, an LGBT-themed sports website. Gay Puerto Rican boxer Orlando “Fenómeno” Cruz acknowledged his homosexuality for the first time last October. Baylor University basketball player Brittney Griner came out as a lesbian during a Sports Illustrated interview earlier this month after the Phoenix Mercury picked her during the WNBA draft.

Professional soccer player Robbie Rogers in February came out as gay on the same day he announced his retirement from the sport.

Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo and Chris Kluwe of the Minnesota Vikings remain outspoken LGBT allies as they continue to speak out in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples and other LGBT-specific issues.

Cyd Zeigler, Jr., co-founder of Outsports.com, referenced Kopay, who publicly disclosed his homosexuality in 1975 after his retirement from the NFL, when he discussed Collins’ coming out.

“We knew this day would come,” he told the Washington Blade. “We didn’t know if it would be this week or next year. It’s a brave thing he’s done, and I get the feeling that, unlike David Kopay 40 years ago, this may open the door to many more in the near future when everyone sees this work out great.”

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin agreed.

“With his brave and honest announcement today, Jason Collins has forever changed the face of sports,” he said. “No longer will prejudice and fear force gay athletes to remain silent about a fundamental part of their lives. By coming out and living openly while still an active NBA player, Collins has courageously shown the world that one’s sexual orientation is no longer an impediment to achieving one’s goals, even at the highest levels of professional sports.”

Jason Collins Washington Wizards screenshot via YouTube

Traded to Washington D.C. from Boston in February, with this week’s Sports Illustrated piece, the Wizards’ center Jason Collins becomes the first active openly gay player in history in the four most-followed American professional sports leagues. (Screenshot via YouTube)

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New York

Men convicted of murdering two men in NYC gay bar drugging scheme sentenced

One of the victims, John Umberger, was D.C. political consultant

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(Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

A New York judge on Wednesday sentenced three men convicted of killing a D.C. political consultant and another man who they targeted at gay bars in Manhattan.

NBC New York notes a jury in February convicted Jayqwan Hamilton, Jacob Barroso, and Robert DeMaio of murder, robbery, and conspiracy in relation to druggings and robberies that targeted gay bars in Manhattan from March 2021 to June 2022.

John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant from D.C., and Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, died. Prosecutors said Hamilton, Barroso, and DeMaio targeted three other men at gay bars.

The jury convicted Hamilton and DeMaio of murdering Umberger. State Supreme Court Judge Felicia Mennin sentenced Hamilton and DeMaio to 40 years to life in prison.

Barroso, who was convicted of killing Ramirez, received a 20 years to life sentence.

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National

Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information

Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources

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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Nine private medical and public health advocacy organizations, including two from D.C., filed a lawsuit on May 20 in federal court in Seattle challenging what it calls the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s illegal deletion of dozens or more of its webpages containing health related information, including HIV information.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, names as defendants Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS itself, and several agencies operating under HHS and its directors, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration.

“This action challenges the widespread deletion of public health resources from federal agencies,” the lawsuit states. “Dozens (if not more) of taxpayer-funded webpages, databases, and other crucial resources have vanished since January 20, 2025, leaving doctors, nurses, researchers, and the public scrambling for information,” it says.

 “These actions have undermined the longstanding, congressionally mandated regime; irreparably harmed Plaintiffs and others who rely on these federal resources; and put the nation’s public health infrastructure in unnecessary jeopardy,” the lawsuit continues.

It adds, “The removal of public health resources was apparently prompted by two recent executive orders – one focused on ‘gender ideology’ and the other targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) programs. Defendants implemented these executive orders in a haphazard manner that resulted in the deletion (inadvertent or otherwise) of health-related websites and databases, including information related to pregnancy risks, public health datasets, information about opioid-use disorder, and many other valuable resources.”

 The lawsuit does not mention that it was President Donald Trump who issued the two executive orders in question. 

A White House spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit. 

While not mentioning Trump by name, the lawsuit names as defendants in addition to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Matthew Buzzelli, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health; Martin Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Thomas Engels, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration; and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. 

The 44-page lawsuit complaint includes an addendum with a chart showing the titles or descriptions of 49 “affected resource” website pages that it says were deleted because of the executive orders. The chart shows that just four of the sites were restored after initially being deleted.

 Of the 49 sites, 15 addressed LGBTQ-related health issues and six others addressed HIV issues, according to the chart.   

“The unannounced and unprecedented deletion of these federal webpages and datasets came as a shock to the medical and scientific communities, which had come to rely on them to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, assist physicians and other clinicians in daily care, and inform the public about a wide range of healthcare issues,” the lawsuit states.

 “Health professionals, nonprofit organizations, and state and local authorities used the websites and datasets daily in care for their patients, to provide resources to their communities, and promote public health,” it says. 

Jose Zuniga, president and CEO of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), one of the organizations that signed on as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the deleted information from the HHS websites “includes essential information about LGBTQ+ health, gender and reproductive rights, clinical trial data, Mpox and other vaccine guidance and HIV prevention resources.”

 Zuniga added, “IAPAC champions evidence-based, data-informed HIV responses and we reject ideologically driven efforts that undermine public health and erase marginalized communities.”

Lisa Amore, a spokesperson for Whitman-Walker Health, D.C.’s largest LGBTQ supportive health services provider, also expressed concern about the potential impact of the HHS website deletions.

 “As the region’s leader in HIV care and prevention, Whitman-Walker Health relies on scientific data to help us drive our resources and measure our successes,” Amore said in response to a request for comment from  the Washington Blade. 

“The District of Columbia has made great strides in the fight against HIV,” Amore said. “But the removal of public facing information from the HHS website makes our collective work much harder and will set HIV care and prevention backward,” she said. 

The lawsuit calls on the court to issue a declaratory judgement that the “deletion of public health webpages and resources is unlawful and invalid” and to issue a preliminary or permanent injunction ordering government officials named as defendants in the lawsuit “to restore the public health webpages and resources that have been deleted and to maintain their web domains in accordance with their statutory duties.”

It also calls on the court to require defendant government officials to “file a status report with the Court within twenty-four hours of entry of a preliminary injunction, and at regular intervals, thereafter, confirming compliance with these orders.”

The health organizations that joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs include the Washington State Medical Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Academy Health, Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Fast-Track Cities Institute, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, National LGBT Cancer Network, and Vermont Medical Society. 

The Fast-Track Cities Institute and International Association of Providers of AIDS Care are based in D.C.

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U.S. Federal Courts

Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections

Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent

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Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Screen capture: YouTube)

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has struck down guidelines by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission designed to protect against workplace harassment based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

The EEOC in April 2024 updated its guidelines to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which determined that discrimination against transgender people constituted sex-based discrimination as proscribed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

To ensure compliance with the law, the agency recommended that employers honor their employees’ preferred pronouns while granting them access to bathrooms and allowing them to wear dress code-compliant clothing that aligns with their gender identities.

While the the guidelines are not legally binding, Kacsmaryk ruled that their issuance created “mandatory standards” exceeding the EEOC’s statutory authority that were “inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of Title VII and recent Supreme Court precedent.”

“Title VII does not require employers or courts to blind themselves to the biological differences between men and women,” he wrote in the opinion.

The case, which was brought by the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, presents the greatest setback for LGBTQ inclusive workplace protections since President Donald Trump’s issuance of an executive order on the first day of his second term directing U.S. federal agencies to recognize only two genders as determined by birth sex.

Last month, top Democrats from both chambers of Congress reintroduced the Equality Act, which would codify LGBTQ-inclusive protections against discrimination into federal law, covering employment as well as areas like housing and jury service.

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