The 51-year-old became rugby’s first openly gay professional player when he came out in 2009
Former Wales rugby international Gareth Thomas(Image: Rob Browne)
Former Wales captain Gareth Thomas says he doesn’t want to be remembered when he dies – believing the causes he is campaigning for carry far more importance.
Wales’ first Test centurion in the men’s game, Thomas has spent the years following his retirement from rugby in 2011 pushing for equality. Having been rugby’s first openly gay professional player when he came out in 2009, Thomas revealed a decade later that he was HIV positive.
Speaking as part of a campaign by Grindr and LGBTQ+ mental health charity You Are Loved that is aimed at addressing drug misuse and tackling stigma within the LGBTQ+ community, Thomas made the surprising revelation that he doesn’t want to be remembered in years to come.
“I want to be so irrelevant that when I’m dead, I have no relevance,” said Thomas to i News. “I’m genuinely fighting for equality.
“I’m fighting for equality for minorities, whether that be their health status, their sexuality or whatever, and I would love that before I die, that there not to be something to fight for any more.
“Why am I doing this campaign? It’s because I represent a community of people who are told to shut up, who are told to stand in the corner, who are told not to mention chemsex because it’s an uncomfortable conversation.
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“Whether it be people with HIV, people who have chemsex addiction, people who are part of the queer community, all of them communities, they’re far bigger than me. They are far more relevant than me.
“I believe when you campaign for something, the reason you should do it is because you care about the bigger picture. So I want to use whatever platform I have to make their issues, their problems, their fights louder. It’s never about me.”
As part of the campaign, Thomas admitted that he had stood at a friend’s bedside for two days, after they had been left on a life support machine following an overdose on chemicals.
He said: “I remember asking him when he woke up, why did you not tell me about this problem? We could have solved this before it got to this point.
“And he said because he thought I would judge him. He wanted to not be embarrassed any more, to not be ashamed about who he is, to feel loved.
“It was a subject I knew very little about. It was very much a learning process for me. I wish I could have gone back days, weeks, months, and been proactive about starting that conversation, therefore never getting to the point of standing at his bedside.”
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After he came out in 2009, while playing for Cardiff, Hollywood star Mickey Rourke was in talks to play Thomas in a movie about the full-back’s life.
The film was never made – with Thomas revealing he didn’t get off to the best start with the actor.
“I had a phone call once from the US, and I thought it was a pretty bad American accent,” he said. “I thought it was one of the boys taking the piss, pretending to be Mickey Rourke and telling me I want to make a film about your life.
“And I remember going like, excuse my French, f**k off boys. I’m tired. Whoever this is, don’t do it again.
“So they rang back again and again and the same thing kept happening. The next day I got a call from Mickey Rourke’s agent saying, can you please stop telling Mickey to f**k off? So it turns out it was actually him!”
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