By Ben Shapiro
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
On Monday, former Washington Wizards center Jason Collins
revealed to the world that he is gay, prompting a complete media meltdown.
Collins appeared on Good Morning America; he made the cover of Sports
Illustrated; he became the lead on Huffington Post. The president of the United
States congratulated him at a press conference, and the former president of the
United States congratulated him via Twitter. So did the first lady, the
commissioner of the National Basketball Association and a bevy of pundits and
athletes across the spectrum.
Which leaves one question: What's the big deal?
Tennis star Martina Navratilova, the best player of her
era, came out in 1981. Ellen Degeneres came out on national television in 1997.
The president and CEO of the Golden State Warriors, Rick Welts, is openly gay.
Top politicians, rock stars, athletes, movie and television stars and business
moguls are gay. Gay Americans have been announcing their sexual orientation for
decades. Why the hubbub?
The media announced that Collins was a hero because he
had provided hope to millions of gay male teens. There is some credibility to
that argument. But there is another, more powerful aftertaste from the media's
champagne party for Collins: The bitter feeling that America is a nasty place,
so nasty that we require overwhelming shows of support for people who just want
to live their lives. When the media labels Collins another Jackie Robinson, that
not only does massive injustice to Robinson, it implies that America of 2013 is
to sexuality what America of 1947 was to race. That is not only ignorant. It is
tremendously harmful.
The hubbub from the media assumes that America is a
massively homophobic place -- a place where people like Collins must regularly
fear for their lives, are forced not to participate in the private sexual
activities they choose and face routine discrimination. There is certainly
discrimination against gays in American society, but it is by far the exception
rather than the rule. On average, gay couples earn significantly more money per
year than straight couples do ($94,000 versus $86,000). Gay couples are more
educated than straight couples (46 percent of gay couples have both gone to
college, compared with less than one third of straight couples). Unemployment
is lower among gays than straights. There is no law in any state in America
that gays cannot live together or engage in consensual activity of any sort.
There is no law in any state in America preventing contractual provisions for
inheritance, hospital visitation and the like.
As far as violence against gays, while it is still sadly
far-too-prevalent, it is nowhere near the epidemic the media suggests.
Approximately 1,300 hate crimes based on "sexual orientation bias"
were reported by the FBI in 2011.
There are approximately 9 million gays, lesbians and
bisexuals in the United States, according to a UCLA study. That would mean that
about one of every 7,100 LGBT people in the United States became a hate crime
victim in 2011. That same year, there were some 935 Jewish victims of hate
crimes according to the FBI. There are approximately 5.5 million Jews in the
United States. That means that one out of every 5,900 Jews became a hate crime
victim in 2011. Yet no one suggests that America remains a massively
anti-Semitic country, requiring massive media coverage every time a Jewish
person reaches a position of power or influence.
Jason Collins has every right to announce his sexual
orientation. If announcing it makes him a happier person, more power to him.
But the media's overwrought coverage of Collins demonstrates their deeply
dangerous view that America is a disgusting place filled with budding Aaron
McKinneys and Russell Hendersons looking for their Matthew Shepards to murder.
The media's treatment of Collins as a full-fledged hero assumes that America is
filled with full-fledged villains. It is not -- and the media coverage of
Collins shows that. The media coverage also does young gays and lesbians a
massive disservice. There is no surer way to keep young gays and lesbians
living in fear than tacitly telling them that those who surround them despise
them.
No comments:
Post a Comment