NBA Player Jason Collins Receives Online Death Threats after Coming Out // Think Before You Tweet

I haven't written much of anything outside of a couple somewhat related comments on a bulletin board discussion about NBA basketball player Jason Collins coming out as a gay man. I'm not a basketball fan (professional or otherwise) and I don't know anything about Jason Collins. Everyone else was writing about him. So I decided to stay out of the conversation.

But yesterday, my friend Stuffed Animal sent me a link to a TMZ article talking about Twitter-based death threats that Collins has been receiving since coming out. Check this out:

It's not all love for the first major (active) pro athlete to come out of the closet ... NBA player Jason Collins has also been the target of online death threats since announcing he's gay.

The homophobic threats began appearing on Twitter right after Jason's big coming-out interview with Sports Illustrated. Among the venom ...

-- "Yous a dead f****t talkn on tv Boy."
-- "Listening to Jason Collins describe his gayness as 'beautiful' makes me wanna puke. And kill him."
-- "Jason collins comes out the closet! Kill that biiitttchhhh!!!"
-- "First jason collins say he gay.. Now he on espn w lipgloss on kill him now !!!"
-- "Jason Collins should get the death penalty lol how u a 7 foot gay dude lol the west is crazy smh"

I understand that some people don't approve of homosexuality. And I understand that some people like to keep their sports and their homosexuals separate. But people really need to think before they send those initial reactions out over the Internet. There is no excuse for online death wishes and threats. I don't care if we're talking about Jason Collins or any other athlete or actor or politician or co-worker or fellow student or whomever. People need to use their brains and think before they post online.