Basketball fans or not, New Yorkers have responded warmly to the signing by the Brooklyn Nets of Jason Collins, the first openly gay player in a major American sport.
Good for him. Good for the team. Good for all.
Collins’ easy acceptance is a measure of how greatly American attitudes about homosexuality are changing for the better — while also standing in stark contrast to the horrifying backwardness that is abroad in the world.
In Russia, homeland of Nets’ owner Mikhail Prokhorov, a new law bans “gay propaganda,” criminalizing not only any advocacy for equal rights but even any suggestion that gay relationships are equal to those of straight couples.
Even worse, 38 African countries impose severe criminal penalties on homosexuality. Uganda has just enacted a law with a 14-year sentence for first-time “offenders,” and life for “aggravated homosexuality.”
The barbarity is appalling.
