D.C. Dem: Jason Collins' Courage Just Like Jackie Robinson

D.C. delegate to Congress compared NBA player Jason Collins’ coming out yesterday to the first African-American to play Major League Baseball.

“I have just read Jason Collins’ account of his decision to come out.  I can only thank Jason for bringing the guts he has shown here on the basketball court to the much more difficult task of writing in the first person as the first active gay athlete in a major American team sport,” Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said this morning.

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“I saw the movie 42 on Saturday. Today, I saw Jason Collins in the Jackie Robinson tradition – causes and generations apart – yet cut from similar cloth,” she continued. “I hope my fellow African Americans, some of whom are coming haltingly to LGBT equality, will see the kinship.”

Collins, a center with the Washington Wizards, has played with six teams since 2001 and will be a free agent in July.

At yesterday’s White House press briefing, spokesman Jay Carney gave comment for the whole of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

“I can certainly tell you that here at the White House we view that as another example of the progress that has been made and the evolution that has been taking place in this country, and commend him for his courage, and support him in his — in this effort and hope that his fans and his team support him going forward,” Carney said.

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