Latest news with #BrunsonGreen
National Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- National Post
NBA's first openly gay player marries longtime partner
Jason Collins, the NBA's first openly gay player, married his partner of more than a decade in an outdoor ceremony last month. Article content Collins, who came out in an essay written for Sports Illustrated in 2013, tied the knot with Hollywood producer Brunson Green over Memorial Day weekend in a ceremony in Austin, Tex. Article content 'When I was younger, I dated women,' Collins wrote in the essay. 'I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue.' Article content Collins, a 13-year NBA veteran who retired in 2014, and Green, best known for his work on The Help, had been together since 2014. Article content Article content View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jason Collins (@jasoncollins_98) Article content 'I was dating another guy at the time. I didn't see Brunson again until we ran into each other at a party three months later. By that point, I was single again,' Collins told the outlet. 'Brunson left for Europe the following day and, while he was overseas, I asked everyone I knew in L.A., 'Have you heard of this guy?'' Article content According to reports, the wedding ceremony was a star-studded affair with many of Collins' former teammates, including Richard Jefferson, in attendance along with some Hollywood stars and, of course close family and friends of the couple. Article content Octavia Spencer, who won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her role in The Help, posted a picture on Instagram from the day featuring Collins and Green walking down the aisle. Article content
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
NBA's first openly gay player Jason Collins marries partner Brunson Green
Former NBA star Jason Collins has married partner Brunson Green. Collins became the NBA's first openly gay player when he came out in 2013 in an open letter published by Sports Illustrated. The 46-year-old's basketball career spanned 13 seasons and six teams and included two trips to the NBA finals with the New Jersey Nets in 2002 and 2003. Green, 57, is a Hollywood movie producer and earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination for the movie 'The Help'. The couple even had one of the stars at their wedding. Octavia Spencer posted a picture of the happy couple walking down the aisle, captioning it: 'Welcome to the family @jasoncollins_98. You've chosen well, and so has he! Love you, B!'. Her co-star, Viola Davis, added: 'Aaaaahh!!!! Congratulations' with a series of love heart emojis. Collins and Green have been together since 2014, not long after he announced his retirement from the NBA. They reportedly got engaged in 2023 at the Los Angeles Lakers Pride Night. When Collins first came out, he also became the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. 'When I was younger, I dated women,' he wrote at the time. 'I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. 'I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue.' As well as playing for the Nets, Collins represented the Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Granderson: Will the pendulum on queer rights swing toward sense or nonsense?
Retired NBA center Jason Collins, the first out gay man to play in one of the four major North American leagues, is finally married. His ceremony was in late May, a few yards away from the Lake Austin shore in Texas. He and film producer Brunson Green have basically been together since Collins made history back in 2014. However, now that the two of them are legal, married folks like me will finally stop asking them 'Why aren't you married?' 'You know, we're getting older,' the 46-year-old Collins told me after the wedding, 'and there are advantages. When you're a married couple — especially in the case, God forbid, something happens in a medical emergency or when we're traveling — there are just all of these protections of being married. And if there's a Supreme Court decision that reverses gay marriage and it's up to the states … we wanted to be able get married where we live first. There are a lot of factors that went into it but simply … we chose to get married on our terms.' It's been nearly a decade — June 26, 2015 — since the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guaranteed the right to same-sex marriage across the land. If that feels like bedrock, it shouldn't. Remember, that was way back when a 50-year-old Supreme Court ruling guaranteed the right to an abortion across the land. That was back when Elon Musk — with an estimated net worth of $13.2 billion — was barely among the top 100 richest people in the world. That was back when few inside the Washington Beltway took the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency seriously. Now we have members of Congress comparing him to Jesus. Needless to say, a lot can change over a decade. However, what has not changed is Collins' unique place in NBA history. The former All-American from Stanford, who went on to be the starting center in the NBA Finals twice, remains the only person to have been an active player while out. 'There are other NBA players who I am aware of that are members of the LGBTQ+ community but don't identify fully,' Collins told me. 'There are those that l've had conversations with, but they are not ready to step forward for whatever reason in 2025. Is there something keeping them from coming out? You know everyone's on their own schedule. … I don't have a simple answer there, but I definitely know that l'm not the only one.' The fact that we still have closeted professional athletes should come as no surprise given the political and cultural touchstones that sexual orientation and gender identity remain in our society. As much as we want to rush to a 'who cares' response when a person of note comes out of the closet, the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bills today and in recent years across this country tells you that a lot of people care. That's why we all — like Collins and his husband — should remember that marriage is a fragile and hard-won right. The justices' ruling in June 2015 did not end prejudice against same-sex couples any more than Loving vs. Virginia made interracial relationships a moot point in June 1967. As Carl Jung famously said, 'The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.' Lawmakers in at least nine states have recently introduced measures to undermine same-sex marriage. That would include my home state of Michigan, where my husband and I were married. In fact, we celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary the same week as Collins' wedding. Whether our legal marriage makes it a decade has nothing to do with the love we have for each other. That's the tragic reality of having your humanity used for political theater and your rights up for grabs each election cycle. When Collins entered the NBA in 2001, nearly 60% of Americans opposed same-sex marriage, according to Pew Research. Today, more than 60% support it — including 44% of Republicans. Even though marriage equality has been the law of the land for nearly a decade, it has constantly been under assault because it's red meat on the campaign trail. This conversation isn't about right or wrong. As Jung said, this is between sense and nonsense. Marrying your longtime love, as Collins did, makes all the sense in the world. Marrying out of fear of losing that right — in America in 2025 — is understandable … and yet makes no sense at all. @LZGranderson If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
