NBA player Jason Collins says he knew
he was gay at 16 but didn't say it out loud until he was 32.
In a nearly 8-minute video titled It
Got Better Featuring Jason Collins for the It Gets Better
Project, Collins discusses coming out.
“Around 16 I kind of knew I had
different kind of feelings,” Collins said.
“In sports culture being gay can be
so stressful. So, you just make a conscious decision to describe it
as you have a CIA cover story and you just believe. You stick to the
script and hope that no one figures out that you're gay.”
In 2011, Collins said he reached out to
a trainer who had made an It Gets Better video.
“We sat on a bench and it was
actually the first time I said the words out loud, 'I'm gay,'”
Collins said. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)