By Debbie Schlussel

What’s more “courageous”–telling the world you are gay when your NBA career is dying and you need some buzz to revive it and get picked up by a new team? Or telling your girlfriend that you are gay before you have sex with her, put her at risk for AIDS, and then ask her to marry you?

Well, Jason Collins–whom the media and the unelected conventional wisdom purveyors of the world have declared “courageous!” for telling us he has sex with men–chose not to do the latter. He repeatedly lied to, had sex with, and then asked his girlfriend, Carolyn Moos, to marry him, and she accepted. They were together for EIGHT years. EIGHT. And this fraud never once told her he’s gay.

It ain’t like we’re in the age of “The Brady Bunch,” and Robert Reed has to pretend he’s hetero, get married, and father a daughter to keep his starring role as Mike Brady. No, we’re in an age in America–and have been for at least a decade or two–in which Jason Collins could have done the right thing and not led a woman on, possibly exposing her to AIDS–because he probably went on the “down-low” and also had sex with men while he was with her. (“The down-low” is the slang term in the Black community for men who are secretly gay and have gay sex but date or marry women.)

Eight years of deception. Eight years of lying to this chick. And this is “courage”? Hilarious. Wow, America, we’ve really regressed . . . and then some. On the other hand, the “chick” in question played for the WNBA, so her status as a straight chick–and whether or not they had sex together–is in question. As I noted on Twitter (follow me on Twitter), I’m waiting for a WNBA player to come out as openly straight. But still . . . .

The woman who was once engaged to NBA star Jason Collins tells TMZ, she had NO CLUE he was gay at the time of their relationship … in fact, she only found out last weekend … and she was floored.

Carolyn Moos (who played a few seasons in the WNBA) dated Collins for seven years and was engaged to him until they broke up in 2009 … after Collins pulled the plug on their wedding.

Carolyn tells TMZ, she never once suspected he was gay, so the news is shocking. She says Collins eventually revealed everything last weekend — just days before his big announcement — and said that his homosexuality was the real reason he ended things with her.

At the time of their breakup, Carolyn says Jason gave a bunch of BS reasons for calling it quits … and she could never understand what went wrong, until now.

Carolyn — who’s back on the hunt for Mr. Right — tells us, “It’s very emotional for me as a woman to have invested 8 years in my dream to have a husband, soul mate, and best friend in him. So this is all hard to understand.”

I understand it. This guy is NOT “courageous” for telling us he likes to sleep with men. He’s not even courageous in his dealings with fellow human beings . . . to the point that he stole EIGHT YEARS of this woman’s life. He’s a liar and a fraud.

And, hey, what a “role model” for gays everywhere that the first NBA player to come out as gay is a completely narcissistic, uncaring piece of crap. Congrats, people of the realm of The Village People and Yasser Arafat! You just got punked.

For the record, I don’t feel bad for this WNBA chick. Who stays with some guy for eight years and then gets mad when she realizes she’s been defrauded for the entire time by a gay con artist? She slept with this guy for eight years and never demanded a ring until the seventh year?

Moronette in spades. Hey, Carolyn, if I were you, I’d be running to the doc to get tested for HIV. STAT.

Exit Question: Since Barack Obama spent the time to call this fraud, Jason Collins, and praise him for his “courage,” I was wondering: if Barack Obama had a son would he be like Jason Collins?