Gareth Thomas: Openly Gay Rugby Player

Was married to his high school sweetheart … Gareth Thomas is 6-foot-3 and more than 220 pounds of muscle. He made his international rugby debut for Wales in the 1995 World Cup, and has since become a rugby star, if not legend. In 2002, he married his high school sweetheart, Jemma, and hoped to start a family. A few years and three miscarriages later, as noted in the Daily Mail, Thomas began to realize he was living a lie. In the summer of 2006, he told Jemma that he was gay, "unable to cope with the guilt of deceiving her."

… then finally came out to his coach … Coming out to his wife was difficult enough, but then Thomas was trying to maintain a facade while playing in one of the roughest sports in the world. As his marriage was falling apart, it got to be too much for even him, as he broke down in tears in front of his coach, Scott Johnson, in the locker room. When he told Johnson his marriage was over, the coach guessed why. They then went into a separate room, the coach locking the door, and Thomas told him everything. Johnson said he would tell a few of Thomas' teammates, because, as quoted in the Daily Mail, "you need the boys to surround you and support you." Later waiting in a bar for two teammates, Thomas was terrified of what they would say, "But they came in, patted me on the back and said: 'We don't care. Why didn't you tell us before?'"

… and has since gone public. His teammates' acceptance of his sexuality likely gave him the strength to eventually come out publicly in December 2009. Imagine a professional football player in the US coming out and you have a pretty good comparison. As the Guardian noted in an article this past May, reactions to his announcement have been "mostly positive." Hopefully, his coming out while an active athlete will inspire other active athletes to do the same.

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