As someone around then, though admittedly young, I think people didn’t take Rodman serious. He said and did so many outlandish things that no one knew when he was doing things just for media attention or because that’s who he really was.

Rodman said and did all kinds of shit for pure shock value. Maybe he actually was, people glossed over because they thought its just Rodman being Rodman if anything

Rodman was “eccentric.” He married Carmen Electra. He dated Madonna. He dressed in drag and stuff but those felt like stunts at the time.

He was also banging Carmen Electra and Madonna

Because most people don’t know he was bisexual.

I’m still not even sure he actually was–has he ever actually been romantically linked to a man?

People don’t “ care ” if you’re bi if you’re smashing fine shit.

It was ignored because he’s never “ appeared ” as a gay or bi man to the media.

They see him as “ eccentric “

But you’re probably right.

After calling himself bisexual, he immediately said that he was going to marry himself and has said multiple times that he was absolutely heterosexual.

If Rodman openly and consistently identified as queer or bisexual? I’d buy it. 100%. But, that’s not how he labels himself so that’s not how I’m going to label him.

Rodman wasn’t saying he was openly bisexual or gay, and that wasn’t the intention of the way he dressed and presented himself. He associated with those communities and is a big advocate, but wasn’t identifying himself as bi or gay. He discusses it at length in his books.

He never said he was bi or gay or queer, in fact, in 2005 he said if he was he would’ve been out and proud.

https://www.basketballnetwork.net/off-the-court/dennis-rodman-said-he-wouldve-been-out-and-proud-if-he-were-gay

Rodman was never bisexual, he cross dressed for shock value and attention.

Because he was in the NWO

He certainly flouted gender norms but Rodman did not identify as bi, at least not publicly during his playing career

That idea came form when he “married himself” as publicity for his book. When asked about it later he either played coy or clarified that he was hetero.

Larry Johnson was doing drag before Dennis and getting paid for it.

Cause he wore tube socks when it happened!

Jason Collins didn’t get with Carmen Electra and Madonna.

Gay or not, it’s not a resume most want to go toe to toe with on masculinity. 

He hasn’t been known to be gay just weird/different.

Dude was wearing drag and makeup and openly saying he’s Bisexual but it’s being totally glossed over as a milestone of acceptance for queer folk, or am I missing context from the time it was going on?

Yes, you are missing context. He said he was bisexual while doing a press thing promoting his autobiography, wearing a wedding dress, and saying he was marrying himself. Like, he wasn’t even saying he was in love with another man. He was saying he was in love with himself.

Rodman has never been known to be with a man, it’s actually well known that he spent a ton of time at gay clubs but he has said he basically just liked the vibe better, he has denied being interested in any of the men there.

People looked at that as Rodman being Rodman. Doing it for attention

Because he made love to many, many women, often outdoors. It’s possible a man slipped in, there’d be no way of knowing.

He did an interview with Dwight Howard maybe a couple of weeks ago. He’s not gay, he never had any sexual relationship with a man. He made that very clear in the interview.

Nobody believed anything he said or did was real. He still sounds like a massive liar. Wheres the boyfriend? Wheres the drag outside of that one period?

Because he wasn’t

Do people in this thread not know what bisexual means

Idk why isn’t Bugs Bunny considered the first openly queer cartoon character? I think both had their queer elements chalked up to hijinks.

Drag is not the same as gay.

Because he is full of shit and just said all of
That and did all of that for attention.

Rodman is like Prince.

Not queer. Straight pussy slayers.

Rodman did a lot of stuff solely for attention that is now considered totally normal today. Nobody would bat an eye at Rodman today.

He was linked with several of the most attractive females of the time period and I can’t ever recall him being linked romantically with a male despite whatever he said. I am sure if he was that male would have been all over the tabloids, just as everything Rodman did was.

He was the first openly Dennis Rodman player

Sorry if this is a longer response than you wanted but I have always been fascinated by this topic and it’s something that helped me navigate my own sexuality as a young man.

You’re not necessarily wrong for thinking this in a vacuum, but you’re missing quite a bit of context from both Rodman and Collins and the public relationships with those players as well as the public relationship with queerness in men.

While Rodman may or may not have been bisexual, the public did have an understanding of him as extremely flamboyant, attention seeking, and controversial for things far beyond sexual preferences. When he announced he was bisexual, it was part of a larger promotion for his book in which he wore a wedding dress to marry himself, and in later interviews he recanted those claims. While he frequented gay clubs and was comfortable openly associating with the LGBT community (no small feat for a public figure in 1996), all of his public relationships were with women. It’s important to note that Rodman doesn’t owe anybody any proof about his queerness. If he says he was interested in men, but just so happened to only publically date women, then that’s his choice. We can also chalk up the recanting as a person who is openly navigating their own understanding of their sexuality.

But your question isn’t really about who was first. It’s about why Collins is a milestone of acceptance and Rodman isn’t. Because if it was about first, it was John Amaechi, who was more or less, an open secret. No one should have to feel like they need to publically perform their sexuality to be believed. At the same time, that’s an inherent part of being a milestone of acceptance, the public recognition of it.

What makes Jason Collins unique and culturally significant was three things: the decision to come out while also trying to maintain a professional career, the specific time he did it, and the public perception of him. He made a conscious choice to come out towards the end of his career, expecting that his coming out would end it. While his career was likely ending regardless, he did still play a game while being openly gay man, a milestone which has still not been replicated, over a decade later.

2013 was very different than 2026. While the public was more accepting of gay men than they were in 1996, but you have to understand that this was only two years after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed, and still two years before Obergfell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage nationwide. While he was lauded for his bravery, he faced plenty of criticism. Chris Broussard openly said live on ESPN “I’m a Christian. I don’t agree with homosexuality. I think it’s a sin, as I think all sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is…. If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be … that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ.” about Collins, who very much still considered himself a Christian. And while Broussard faced some heat for it, he didn’t get anywhere near what he would get for saying that now on ESPN.

And the final point about the importance of Collins is related to the previous point about his Christianity and how we viewed him as a player. The remarkable thing about Collins was how unremarkable he was. That’s not meant to be pejorative. He had an incredibly respectable journeyman career as a generally serviceable center. He was known to be professional and hardworking and stuck around for 12 years for a reason. But most people didn’t have strong feelings about him. If you read his story about how he came to understand he was gay, and how he came out to his family, you’ll also see something similar. It’s not a particularly dramatic story. It was not at all how the public consciously understood gay men or how their stories were supposed to be like. To that point, while he was on the Nets, there were rumors of a gay player. Many people assumed it was Richard Jefferson, essentially because of his big personality. His normality, for lack of a better term, was a huge milestone for normalizing, rather than stereotyping gay or queer men in the public consciousness, but especially, as a Black man in a traditionally masculine field.

While I can’t prove this, I do sincerely believe that Jason Collins was crucial to the acceptance of gay men but also gay marriage later on in the public consciousness. I think it’s easy for us to look back at moments like this with the benefit of hindsight and miss how much society has changed, so quickly in a decade. What he did was incredibly courageous.

Because he was never with a man. A lot of what he did was a stunt.

Because he only banged chicks.

Rodman is not bi or queer. Stop the slander.

Because nobody thinks he actually was. He did a lot of shit for shock value lol

It was more for shock value / to sell his books and further his celebrity. He dated women. No evidence he dated men

Because he was saying it for shock value. He himself later said it wasn’t true.

Rodman was gay for pussy. An entirely different archetype. 

See Prince. 

The bisexual thing was a marketing ploy for his memoir that he later walked back. He only bangs insanely hot model/pornstar ladies (that we famously know of, any way)

Not queer, just an edge lord who got off on be prevocative for its own sake.

I don’t think Rodman is gay or trans. He is just an alternative, weird dude that doesn’t like to be in any particular label or group. That is totally cool with me. Versus Collins is an openly gay male who identifies with the LGBT community.

Because he didn’t consider himself Queer

I think ultimately there was never quite confirmation that Rodman was Bi. We saw the drag and what have you, but we had him linked to Madonna and Carmen Electra. Dude got interviewed about it and denied it, and it hasn’t really come up ever since

Because he was banging carmen electra during it

Who cares? Dude could ball. Let him wear wedding dresses and wrestle Diamond Dallas Page.

He’s too weird for your small little labels

I’m pretty sure Rodman isn’t gay.

He wasn’t.

Who gives af.

It was the 90s, there was an idea of subverting norms that didn’t necessarily mean you were X Y or Z. Look at half the bands where straight males wore dresses and eyeliner. Hell, look at 80s metal with red blooded males wearing leopard print leotards and lipstick. Nowadays theyd call Steve Tyler trans.

Because he wasn’t.

Because he was straight.

We didn’t believe him… because Madonna and Carmen. Dude was a spectacle - it was hard to discern from his real-life and his persona

Recent discourse about Jason Collins? Where are you seeing that he passed 3 and a half months ago

I don’t think any group would ever want to shine a spotlight on Dennis Rodman as a positive example of anything. Likely as simple as that.

To take it further, especially in that era, somebody like Rodman was precisely what the anti-gay crowd was in fear of. Not a shining example of “gay people are totally normal”.

Likely cause Rodman never actively came out and said he was bi during his time in the league. That and Bi erasure is a thing and people seeing him banging Carmen Electra and Madonna likely just made them think he was straight besides everything else.

Rodman was and is too much of a troll to be taken seriously.

That works for you in some ways–he’s way more famous than he’d be if he was instead just some head down, workman-like professional putting up those numbers–and against you in others.

IDK, maybe it’s true. Maybe he did it for the shock value. And maybe this is a weird take, but I always kinda thought maybe alot of what Rodman did off the court was also intended to gain some sort of psychological advantage on the court? In other words it might make homophobic players be less physical with him?

At the time, it was never totally clear whether Rodman was genuine with this, or it was a bit.

Also the understanding of “queer” was entirely different. In the 90s, American normies considered “queer” as a synonym for gay, not the more subtle understanding that we have today.

> wasn’t Rodman doing the openly queer thing in the 90s? Dude was wearing drag and makeup

Gender/sexuality was a lot more rigid back then. Wearing dresses or drag were just seen as fighting back against “traditional values”, or even anti authority. Nirvana did it, Marilyn Manson, TOOL.

So because Dennis was this huge masculine athletic dude, it came off like “oh dude is just a freak” same thing with him being bi.

You were either straight, gay or prince.

Because he was never queer, but if he ever comes out no one would be shocked

I’m only 30, but I really doubt “queer” was commonly being used in a positive way back in the 90s. Negatively? Yeah.

Iirc…..
Dennis was a very shy, not athletically gifted kid growing up. He had two older sisters who were outgoing, star athletes (played college ball) and the family held them in high esteem. I also don’t believe there was a father in the home.

Not playing dime-store psychologist here (well, maybe I am, my apologies lol) but I can certainly see why Dennis would want to imitate/emulate his sisters regardless his sexual orientation.

But hey maybe I am flat wrong lol

Was Prince gay? Similiar deal, both may has emitted gay vibes, but were also pulling hot females publically so I’m not sure. No one really calls Prince gay or bi.

No, he wasn’t.

Cause he wasn’t? Wtf is with people rewriting history.

I swear I just seen a video of him saying he’s not gay but he rocks with the community heavy

Jason Collins wasn’t the first gay man in sports. He was the first openly gay man. And even he did it at the tail end of his career. We knew there had to be other gay men who had played, but none admitted to it. The key point is that there was no confusion or ambiguity with their sexuality… and they were not straight.

There was nothing straight forward or unambiguous about Rodman. While telling us he was “bisexual” he would then tell us he’d ‘marry himself’. Rodman was the definition of ‘ambiguous’. In 2005 he also said that he was not gay or bi (and if he was he’d say so). So whatever Rodman was or is, it’s still not that clear if he fit the ‘queer’ category… or he was doing all those stunts for shock values.

In fact, the only thing that WAS clear, was that he definitely liked women.

Because we weren’t fixated on labels back then

There’s been a lot of evidence of him sleeping with and dating women. But very little with men.

His bisexual claims/wearing drag and makeup/etc. seem more in the vein of teenage boys (or a very immature 30-plus-year-old man) seeking attention and not being serious.