There were many reactions to the admission from current NBA player Jason Collins that he is gay, mostly positive, some disturbingly negative. But perhaps strangest of all was Howard Kurtz
in the Daily Beast:
One of the reasons that Jason Collins’ coming out packed such an emotional punch is that he appeared to be telling all. ... Except that he left one little part out. He was engaged. To be married. To a woman.
In a video discussing his column, he
argued:
"If you leave out the fact that you dated this woman for eight years and that you were engaged to be married, then you have not told the whole story and I think this really muddies the whole plotline."
The reality, from Collins' co-authored
piece in
Sports Illustrated:
When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged.
Kurtz eventually edited his piece to whine that Collins had "downplayed" his engagement (without disclosing that edit) before the Daily Beast finally
retracted it.
But let's assume that Collins hadn't mentioned his engagement, how would that change anything? How could that possibly be relevant to anything? Was Kurtz implying that Collins was making up the part about being gay? Or was Kurtz so upset at Collins' admission that he was just trying really hard to find something, anything, to rain on that parade?
Society marches forward, and we as a nation are becoming increasingly tolerant. And the best part of watershed moments like this one? We get to find out who the assholes are.
Update: And that's that:
But don't worry! The Washington Post continues to employ this idiot.