In becoming the first active professional athlete in a major American sport to publicly state he is gay, Jason Collins may spur others to do so, says Duke's Orin Starn.
"This is a major milestone in the changing landscape of American sex, sports and society," says Starn, chair of Duke's cultural anthropology department. "Sports has long been a bastion of machismo and the values of old-school American male heterosexuality. Several other gay NBA, NFL and MLB players have spoken openly about their identity, but only dared to do so after retiring. Jason Collins is the first active player in any of the major American male professional sports to come out of the closet."
Starn often studies the intersection of sports and popular culture. His most recent book, "The Passion of Tiger Woods," examines the cultural reaction to golf star Tiger Woods and his fall from grace following a sex scandal.
Starn believes Collins' announcement is a "striking barometer of rapidly changing American attitudes."
"Sports has been behind the rest of America in its lack of tolerance for gays and lesbians in the workplace," he says. "The announcement today may well foreshadow a cultural shift in the sports world, with other prominent athletes now feeling freer to acknowledge their identity."