'It Got Better' Project Videos: Openly Gay NBA Veteran Jason Collins Opens Up in New Video
Jason Collins is offering a postscript to the "It Gets Better" campaign.
The openly gay NBA veteran was featured in a new "It Got Better" video as part of a new effort to showcase the lives of gay individuals who are eager to share details about how things have improved for them since coming out. You can find the video down below.
Collins, who made history this season by becoming the first active, openly gay male athlete to play in one of the four major professional American sports, came out in the April 2013 edition of Sports Illustrated.
Before coming out, however, he said he spent a dozen years as a closeted NBA player and finally "got tired of it."
"In sports culture, being gay can be so stressful," he said during the video. "You stick to the script and hope that no one figures out that you're gay."
Collins was 32 when he said he started thinking about the rest of his life. Before he knew it, he saw a trainer in an "It Gets Better" video and he decided to reach out to him.
"There were so many times in his story when I heard parts of my story in his story. I sent him an email and told him in the email that I was gay and that I needed someone to talk to."
After he finally came out, Collins quickly settled in comfortably and waited for his name to be called. He was eventually signed by his former team, the Nets, and the hometown fans gave him a warm welcome by chanting his name when he entered the game late in the fourth quarter on March 3. He wears number 98 as a special tribute to Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was beaten to death in 1998.
The "It Gets Better" project was launched in 2010 as part of a collaborative anti-bullying and anti-suicide effort between Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller. Tens of thousands of different videos are featured on the campaign's website.
Check it out for yourself here or find additional videos posted on YouTube.
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com