The List Of Openly Gay Sports Mens Gets A New Addition – Wales Rugby Captain Gareth Thomas
Posted: 19th Dec 2009 Author: Michelle Penny Topics: News, Sports
The former Wales Rugby captain, Gareth Thomas, has come out in an interview with British newspaper,the Daily Mail.
Having been married to his teenage sweetheart between 2002 and 2006, Thomas said the marriage broke down after he finally admitted to himself and his wife that he was gay, saying keeping it a secret was “like a tight knot in my stomach, always threatening to seep out.”
Describing the feeling of keeping it in “..was like a ticking bomb. I thought I could suppress it, keep it locked away in some dark corner of myself, but I couldn’t,” Thomas said he’d finally come to a point when he’d accepted who he was and felt he could no longer hide it. Thomas also admitted that during the time he was married he did cheat on his wife with men, but always practised safe sex.
On the subject of coming out, Thomas said the first person he told was a coach, Scott Johnson, who was not only supportive himself, but also told two of his team mates, Stephen Jones and Martyn Williams, who gave their full support to Thomas saying “We don’t care. Why didn’t you tell us before?”
Thomas also spoke positively about how his family and friends felt about his sexuality, saying “My parents, my family and my friends all love me and accept me for who I am, and even if the public are upset by this, I know the love of those people who mean the most to me will never change.
“I’m not going on a crusade, but I’m proud of who I am. I feel I have achieved everything I could ever possibly have hoped to achieve out of rugby, and I did it being gay.
“I want to send a positive message to other gay people that they can do it, too.’
Quick to dismiss the stereotype that being a gay man meant he was attracted to every man on the planet, he told the Daily Mail “Just because you are gay, it doesn’t mean you fancy every man who walks the planet… “I don’t want to be known as a gay rugby player. I am a rugby player first and foremost. I am a man.”
Questioned on why he has only decided to come out now Thomas attributed to the sport and the image comes with it, saying “In many ways, it is barbaric, and I could never have come out without first establishing myself and earning respect as a player.
“Rugby was my passion, my whole life, and I wasn’t prepared to risk losing everything I loved.”
However whilst he may have felt he was not able to speak out early, Thomas did speak of his hope that the attitude towards homosexuality in sport would change, saying “It’s pretty tough for me being the only international rugby player prepared to break the taboo. Statistically I can’t be the only one, but I’m not aware of any other gay player still in the game. I’d love for it, in ten years’ time, not to even be an issue in sport, and for people to say: “So what?”
