Will someone please give me a Cardiff Blues jersey for Christmas?
Rugby super-star Gareth Thomas has made me one of the biggest fans on the planet and I’ve never seen a professional match.
Thomas, the most capped player in rugby, has publicly announced he is gay and said he hopes coming out will “send a positive message”.
The 35-year-old tacitly tied his announcement to support for LGBT youth, acknowledging that they’re at risk. Thomas, who has been a supporter of the children’s charity NSPCC, said: “If it makes one young lad pick up the phone to ChildLine, then it will have been worth it.”
This guy is such a class act.
Thomas, who came out to his wife in 2006, said he became aware of his sexual orientation at the age of 16 or 17 but could not accept it and feared it would affect his playing career.
He later came out to his coach, who advised he speak to a few of his international colleagues for support.
Thomas said: “He told two of my teammates, and as I sat in the bar waiting for them, I was absolutely terrified, wondering what they were going to say.
“But they came in, patted me on the back and said: ‘We don’t care. Why didn’t you tell us before?’
“Two of my best mates in rugby didn’t even blink an eyelid.”
The Welsh Rugby Union and the Cardiff Blues backed Thomas after his decision to come out.
Now, close your eyes and imagine one of the (undoubtedly many closeted) super-star athletes in the United States showing this kind of dignity and grace. That would be a fine Christmas present, indeed.
I read this and it made me so happy. I played Rugby in college and while being gay and playing on the girl’s team was accepted and to some degree expected, we actually had a number of queer male players on the boy’s team. I had never seen a group of men so open and accepting of queer men in their midst, considering how physically close a lot of them have to be. (If you’ve never played, google image the word scrum, you’ll see what I mean.)