Even tough guys fear coming out

Dec 23 2009 By Maureen Messent

THAT blond giant and sporting legend Gareth Thomas is hailed on all sides for his rugby successes – 100 caps to his name, captaining Wales to their first Grand Slam since 1978.

So I find his reluctance until now to tell us he’s gay a little puzzling.

Thomas (pictured) married a lovely wife he’d known for years. Together they mourned her three miscarriages. Then they broke up.

But why the need for all this pretence in a world that accepts homosexuality as no more than a lifestyle choice?

We are surely sufficiently adult not to feel his sexuality somehow belittles him or lessens his sporting glamour.

Clearly we’re not adult at all in this matter. If this thoroughly decent and gentlemanly bloke has felt the need to hide this fact, then isn’t he telling us that homosexuality, legalised between consulting adults back in the Sixties, remains a cause for hatred and ribald mirth from so-called “straight” males?

A sad reflection on us all.