If Disney still owns ESPN, I would not be at all surprised.
In Australia, we had a League player come out at least 10 years ago. Ian Roberts. He was a top player, good enough to represent Australia in International matches. I’m fairly sure he was representing Australia after coming out as gay.
And if people were looking to confirm their prejudices re homosexual people, Ian Roberts was one of the biggest, toughest, hardest SOB to ever play the game. 6’5", 250 lbs. His job in the Rugby League team was to smash into the opposition big guys.
No kidding. I was watching a match on ESPN2 and saw him crushing his opponents. It was painful to watch. I’d love him to be in a bar when some homophobe spouts off something about limp-wristed fairies. 
It does, but Disney’s corporate policies are not notably gay-friendly. They started offering same-sex partner benefits in the nineties, but it was because everyone in Hollywood did. They don’t officially sanction Gay Days, and their policy is to disclaim any involvement when anti-gay people complain.
What amazes me is how good an ambassador Collins is for the gay community (as was John Amaechi before him). Hardly any US athletes are capable of coherent speech, but Collins doesn’t speak in cliches and actually answers questions he’s asked. It’s almost like he was picked by the shadowy cabal behind the Gay Agenda (:D) to make sure the first out active male team athlete didn’t embarrass them.
ETA: Amaechi is doing the rounds of the local sports talk stations, being best known as the Magic player who didn’t fuck off to the Lakers, and is drawing all sorts of “well, I never thought about it that way” calls from listeners. So clearly, Collins has already done some good.
He only played 38 games last year and averaged 1.1 a game. I think before this announcement his chances were 50/50 of playing in the nba next year. I think his chances are better now. He’ll be on the bench somewhere next year if he’s healthy.
One week ago, Jason Collins was an unknown, over-the-hill, unproductive, unemployed former bench warmer. Now he’s being hailed as a hero in virtually every media outlet in America.
He’s guaranteed himself lucrative employment next year, either with an NBA team that will have local reporters DEMANDING that they sign him, or with a media outlet that will pat itself on the back for its progressiveness in hiring him.
He’s never been a scorer, though. His value is as a guy who can defend the other team’s center. And he played in about 3/4s of his games with the Celtics, so they found a use for him. He didn’t play very much after his trade to the Wizards. I think he was included in that trade for salary cap purposes and maybe to be a mentor for other players, but like I was saying earlier, a young team isn’t going to have much use for him.
There’s a large helping of baloney in this statement.
interesting that Rugby has had two very high profile gay active players.
Ian Roberts noted above and from the union code we had Wales and Lions captain Gareth Thomascoming out in 2009.
In both cases I can’t say I recall anything but support and good wishes for the guys, particularly from their team mates.
Restores ones faith in human nature and bolsters my opinion that we do actually live in the 21st century.
Now we have basketball players…next the real quantum leap, professional soccer.
I am nothing of a basketball fan, but I get the feeling that whether or not Collins will be in the NBA next year will depend on whether or not a team thinks he will be useful as a player. And that’s a good thing. If he is more - or less - likely to be playing because he is gay, that is not a good thing. IMO.
I doubt he will pick up any endorsements as a result of coming out, but I don’t think he will lose many either, if for no other reason than he isn’t a prominent enough player.
Regards,
Shodan
He’s of an age where he won’t be player for too much longer. But I think he has impressed as an on air personality the last few days. He may have helped his post-nba job prospects.
If the drugs problems, crimes and other assorted problems athletes have had proves one thing, it’s that if a team exec thinks you can help them you’ll have a job. I don’t think homosexuality will be any different.
He might even get his own shower stall in the locker room. 
Now see, I’ve never quite got that. I’m straight and I wouldn’t have an issue with nudity alongside a gay man in a non-sexual context. I’ve done so with females on numerous occasions.
It may be wrong of me but people who do have a major issue with that set off rather loud alarm bells with me. Suppression? denial? confusion? uncertainty? ignorance? I’m not sure but quite possibly something is going on.
I don’t know, I think I’m a pretty progressive guy, but having open showers with women would still make me quite uncomfortable. Hell, my freshmen year dorm had co-ed bathrooms and I got pretty used to that, but showers are a whole different ballgame.
I think it’s a much bigger issue with the people who are attracted to the others, than vice versa. If I was attracted to men, I’d be uncomfortable showering with them because I’d be self-conscious (which is the reason I’d be uncomfortable showering with random women). If you’re not attracted to them, it shouldn’t be a big deal, as there’s nothing at stake and there’s no danger of getting ‘excited’.
There’s a saying in sports:
“If you’ve played on a team, you’ve showered with a gay dude.”
I’ve rowed with dozens of gay dudes that I knew about, and I’m sure dozens that I didn’t. But at the end of practice, I just want to get cleaned up and go to work, just like every dude in that locker room, regardless of what shape of person he’d rather go home to.
It’s a joke. There are a number of posters who said in Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell threads that they agreed with the policy because they would be uncomfortable showering with gay men. Chessic Sense was one, as I recall.
Nudity is only as sexualized as we make it. For most straight Americans, nudity and sexuality are linked because we segregate genders in almost every setting that involves nudity except sexual settings. Gay Americans, though, grow up in that same context, so same-sex nudity is associated with locker rooms as much as with sex. For a gay man, especially an athlete, showering in a group setting with other men doesn’t have to be anything more than a shower, because it’s something he’s done for years.
Very astute observation.
Apparently, the first openly gay male athlete in a major sport was Glenn Burke, in 1976:
Good point. I have no experience being with naked women my age in a non-sexual context, but gay people do it all the time, so I guess it’s just socialized.