I grew up making gay jokes.

I’m not exactly ashamed to admit that; it’s a stupid part of the culture in which I was raised. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school when I reeled in my use of derisive anti-gay slurs around my friends. 

I don’t make gay jokes anymore. Of that, I’m proud. It shows I learned to empathize.

Do you tell gay jokes anymore? 

Have you learned?

It’s been a huge week in sports news, but it will be remembered as the week the levee broke, and a gay male athlete in a major American professional sport came out.

That may seem like a lot of qualifiers — male, American, playing a major sport — but it’s everything. The NBA, NFL and MLB mean so much to America. Everything else is everything else.

Jason Collins’ announcement in the form of a personal essay — which was absolutely the right format for this momentous declaration — broke a barrier we knew to be false. Because of the brave step he took, and the support he was shown in light of it, a new era of athletic inclusivity can begin.

It’s not that there were no gays in sports before; it’s that the aggressively straight culture of sports has indicated that gay athletes aren’t welcome. They would damage the sanctity of sports by deviating from accepted sexual norms. 

Do gay athletes damage sports? I think we realize that, no, they do not. They may damage sports culture’s self-concept of what it is to be “macho,” but the sooner that goes to hell, I think, the better off we all are.

We’ve changed. Our ideas, they’re different. We’re not so afraid, so “homophobic.” We’re ready for this. Our culture, our new generation’s culture, is ready to handle the removal of this pseudo-barrier. Twitter gave Collins an outpouring of support, and bashed on the few who publicly dissented instead of the one who stayed in the closet for his first 12 years in the NBA, afraid.

It’s our generation. We supported him. Our culture. Our college. Our state. Our team. Our athletes.

So who here is gay?

The NBA has a gay player. Does Illinois? Don’t confuse the question with a witch hunt. We haven’t brought pitchforks and torches.

There are large student organizations at this university dedicated to the LGBT community. How many student-athletes partake?

Athletes often take pride in religious faith. Sexual orientation is as important. In the end, sexual orientation can determine how you pass on your lineage. It determines, therefore, how your family is composed. It determines with whom you incline to live, and pertains strongly to your private life, which matters most of all, whether you know it or not.

No one should be forced to come out if they aren’t ready. It’s a personal choice and is still scary. But if they do, this university — the students who comprise it — will support them. That I know.

But it should go beyond the students. There are 19 varsity sports teams here. That’s a lot of head coaches whose job it is to promote a certain culture.

Is it an inclusive culture? I’m not sure.

We shouldn’t be looking to the adult world of professional sports for someone to leap into the public sphere and show us a gay athlete. This idea — that you can be gay and dunk a basketball at the same time — should be forwarded by our generation. The idea is ours to promote.

I’d love to hear about an Illinois coach supporting inclusivity of gay athletes; it doesn’t have to be a marriage issue, just say, “Hey, you can play. Don’t be scared of who you are.”

I’d love to hear about a student-athlete joining an LGBT organization on campus. It doesn’t have to be a public move or even a coming out. It can just say either, “Hey, this is who I am,” or, “Hey, I support this.”

Sports have a sexual subtext. There’s a longstanding association between male athletes and being very straight. Hell, we refer to them by the special kind of underwear they use. Athletes keep their bodies in good shape, they compete to be stronger, smarter and more accurate. It’s Darwinism on a playing field. The strong survive, reproductively as well as athletically.

For an athlete in college, who gives so much of their identity to being a member of that team, to have to repress such a critical part of themselves is unjust. 

The players and coaches here at Illinois have stayed mum on the issue. They don’t have to. 

The levee is broken, thanks to Jason Collins. Let the waters of freedom gush forth.

Eliot is a junior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @EliotTweet.