Jason Collins had written it so matter-of-factly. “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.” The personal essay , which was the cover story of Sports Illustrated in May 2013, made the 7-foot-tall, over-a-decade-long National Basketball Association player a trailblazer: the first openly gay man playing professionally in a major American team sport. He went on to play briefly for the Brooklyn Nets before retiring in November 2014. Collins’ death at age 47, which was announced on May 12, following a monthslong battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer left not only the sports world but also LGBT advocates across the country in mourning. “Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar,” a statement from Collins’ family provided by the NBA, which confirmed his death, read.…