Born this way

"I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, 'I'm different.' If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand."

And with that, NBA journeyman Jason Collins - late of the Celtics and Wizards - overnight became the most talked about player in basketball. Not for his twelve seasons at six different teams or his 3.6 points per game average, but for coming out as the first openly gay athlete in US professional team sports..

Now, Your Correspondent has been watching NBA for a lot more than 12 seasons, yet I wouldn't know Jason Collins from Jerry Collins (unless the latter was carrying). But that's hardly the point. The World of Bollocks would like to add to the chorus of FUCKEN BRAVO SON GOOD ONYA YA FUCKEN LEGEND (or near offer) which has echoed through the NBA, the sports world and general public discourse since. With the exception of one lousy little fucktard.

This one.

As a self-styled 'NBA Insider', Chris Broussard is a key member of ESPN's basketball coverage, reporting sideline from games and filing reports for Sportscenter and ESPN.com. He's also a fundamentalist Christian fucktard. On ESPN's sports current affairs show Outside The Lines he somehow decided it was appropriate to respond to Collins' decloseting with this: 

“If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, (but) adultery, fornication, premarital sex between heterosexuals... I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ.” 

Oh. For. Fuck's. Sake.

Now, let's get the fine print out of the way: I don't believe in god. Any gods. My view is they are a brittle human construct invented by primitives as fumbling explanation of why we are here and what we are here for as the apparently only self-aware beings on a rock hurtling through a largely empty cosmos. If you believe in god(s), and you feel that makes your life better to be in, that's your deal, and good luck to you. However, if as a result of your belief in god(s) you believe in abject crap easily disproven by scientific observation, you're an idiot. If you try to make my children learn your abject crap in schools, imma get militant. And if you use your religion as an excuse to hate, you're a fucktard. Chris Broussard, come on down.

Of course, all this faff about 'unrepentant sin' is nonsense if you don't believe in the entire premise of sin and/or repentance in a Biblical sense, so I doubt it bothers Collins terribly much. And I'd have thought that any god(s), had they been concerned with the sin(s) of individual humans (as distinct with busying themselves running the fucking universe), would have been less concerned with stuff like who's fucking who and more focused on more heinous sins against humanity, like shooting backwards from the D, or hanging the toilet roll underhand. And, as a commenter on Deadspin pointed out, if he's uncomfortable around people who practice adultery, pre-marital sex, and other sins of the flesh in open rebellion to God, then Chris Broussard picked the wrong line of work.

Broussard was hardly popular in the league before this, and there's already a groundswell of public pressure mounting on ESPN for him to be punished or suspended for his bigotry - but that doesn't seem quite right. Aside from that peculiarly Septic obsession with First Amendment rights, it'd just feed the fundie fucktards that also believe the nonsense that being gay is a choice and teh homosex is a SIN for which YOU will BURN in HELLFIRE for ALL ETERNITY. And besides, these things are self-correcting. To be an effective or credible 'NBA Insider', Broussard needs the trust and confidence of NBA players, coaching staff and officials. Given their overwhelmingly positive endorsement of Collins' position, one wonders if the likes of Kobe Bryant or Steve Nash (who tweeted strong support for Collins) are going to give the little prick anything anymore, or just let him wither on the vine.

Collins is the first openly gay athlete in US team sports, but Australia was of course generations ahead in that, thanks to the trailblazing efforts of Totally Ian Roberts in the NSW Rugby League in the 1980s and 90s. Roberts was a terrifying prospect on the field, and gay as the day is young off it. I'm not going to pretend Roberts was never the target of bigotry after he offically came out in 1995, but by and large he was supported by the league and by fans, and he was accepted for what he was: a fucking good football player. Who he was fucking in his spare time hardly entered into it (ahem). As a Souths fan, I'm as proud that he represented our colours as I am in rugby league and Australia for supporting him. And if he was hated - which he was - it wasn't because he was gay. It was because he played for Manly. For, as all sensible, well-informed people know, being gay is just being who you are. Playing for Manly is a choice.

The Doctor is OUT.