TwitterJason Collins has talked the talk. And now he's walking the walk.
A month after the NBA star became the first active athlete in a major-team sport to come out as a gay man, the pro baller made good on his vow to stand proudly behind his sexuality: On Saturday, Collins marched at Boston's gay pride parade.
The 34-year-old NBA center walked alongside Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy—his former college roommate—and wore a black Nike T-shirt emblazoned with the hashtag "#BETRUE."
The parade holds a special significance to Collins: In the celebrated coming-out essay he penned for Sports Illustrated, the NBA star revealed that the Boston pride march played a key role in his decision to be open about his sexuality.
"I realized I needed to go public when Joe Kennedy, my old roommate at Stanford and now a Massachusetts congressman, told me he had just marched in Boston's 2012 Gay Pride Parade," Collins wrote.
"I'm seldom jealous of others, but hearing what Joe had done filled me with envy," he added. "I was proud of him for participating but angry that as a closeted gay man I couldn't even cheer my straight friend on as a spectator."
For his part, Kennedy was thrilled to finally be able to march alongside his friend. The politician posted a twitpic of him applauding Collins as the two walked side by side.
"A day i'll never forget," Kennedy captioned the pic, adding that he "could not have had more fun marching in @bostonpride with my friend @jasoncollins34."
And, no doubt, it was a day Collins won't soon forget, either.