Congratulations, America, On Not Hating John Amaechi

John Amaechi spoke yesterday to the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation's largest (though, let's be honest, they probably don't have a ton of competition) organization of republicans who support gay rights. Amaechi said he expected the worst when he came out, but was pleasantly surprised at the reaction.

"And in fact, 95 percent of the correspondence I've had have been overwhelmingly supportive and positive," Amaechi said. "But I will say that the 5 percent that I've had have been unbelievably, viscerally, frighteningly negative."

Well, we're Americans. We don't do anything half-ass. We really put our heart and soul into our hatred. His NBA brethren haven't been among the hateful crowd, but have done their best to distance themselves from him.

"Probably 30 of my former [NBA] teammates have my e-mail and my telephone contacts and probably 16 or so of those I was in regular touch with and there are probably 10 people who I have [on instant messenger]. And zero — nobody — who's active in the NBA has been in touch with me since the day I came out, despite the fact that most of them knew I was gay in the first place," Amaechi said.

He also wondered why nba.com has never mentioned his homosexuality when it was such a huge sports story everywhere else.

I don't have an answer for you on that one, Meech. But I'm sure David Stern would rather you be gay than be anything like Stephen Jackson. I hope that's comforting.

'I underestimated America' [SI.com]