Rugby player Israel Folau has drawn anger for linking Australia’s bushfire crisis to the nation’s same-sex marriage and abortion laws. Folau, who was sacked by Australia in May for making anti-gay remarks on social media, described the fires as a “little taste of God’s judgement”.
Six people have died since last month in blazes raging in eastern Australia. Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned Folau’s remarks as “appallingly insensitive”.
“He is a free citizen, he can say whatever he likes but that doesn’t mean he can’t have regard to the grievance [and] offence this would have caused to the people whose homes have burnt down,” Mr Morrison told reporters on Monday.
During the 10-minute recording, the 30-year-old says the timing of the bushfire crisis is no coincidence but only a taste of God’s judgment should nothing change. “I’ve been looking around at the events that’s been happening in Australia, this past couple of weeks, with all the natural disasters, the bushfires and the droughts,” he says.
He then reads from the Book of Isaiah in the Bible: “The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.”
Folau links the passage to the twin disasters of bushfire and drought and, in turn, the legalising of same-sex marriage and abortion. “God is speaking to you guys. Australia you need to repent and take these laws and turn it back to what is right.”
Hockey player Harrison Browne, thought to be the first openly transgender athlete in any professional U.S. team sport, didn’t have many trans athletes to look up to when he was growing up.
Then he saw Chris Mosier, a pioneering transgender triathlete being true to himself: “a trans athlete while still being a triathlete,” Browne said. “For me, when you see it, you can be it.”
When Browne came out as transgender in 2016 while playing for the Buffalo Beauts, a team within the National Women’s Hockey League, he said he had “a flood of people reaching out to me on social media saying, “It’s amazing to see you play your sport and be yourself.” His desire to take part in that type of positive representation is what drew Browne to play on a historic all-trans hockey team, which competed this past weekend in Massachusetts: Team Trans vs. Boston Pride Hockey.
The friendship tournament, played in Cambridge, was hosted by Boston Pride Hockey, an LGBTQ intramural organization that has both cisgender and transgender members. The game came about after a trans player reached out to Boston Pride Hockey and asked about its friendship series with the New York City Gay Hockey Association, which led to a conversation leading to the game.
Earlier this year, Hutch Hutchinson, who played defense on Team Trans, and New York player Aidan Cleary discussed how they wanted to create a space just for transgender athletes. Cleary contacted Boston Pride Hockey Vice President Mark Tikonoff about how they might recruit a full team of trans players.
“We have a few trans members, but not enough to make an entire team, so we started to reach out — to other cities we play with in national tournaments — San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Canada — to see if there were other players who might be interested in something like this.” Tikonoff said.
Hutch Hutchinson and Shane Diamond, players on Team Trans for the Boston Pride Hockey League.Courtesy of Kyle Outlaw
After receiving a strong response, the group organized the event, secured the space and raised funds to make sure the tournament went off without a hitch.
“For us, we didn’t realize how much we had in common, and we didn’t realize — I’m speaking personally — how much this community was underserved,” Tikonoff said. “As a cis gay man going into a locker room with other cis gay men, I don’t fear for my safety and I don’t fear judgment and I don’t fear exposing part of myself to people.”
While Team Trans lost to Boston Pride Hockey in both of the weekend games, Hutchinson said it was “an honor” to play alongside Browne and Jessica Platt — the two professional hockey players who competed in the weekend tournament. “The common thread was we have all never been on an all-trans team, and we have all gone through the struggle of ‘Where do I belong?’” Hutchinson said.
“We as trans people fight either big battles or little battles every day,” Hutchinson said. “This was an opportunity to walk into a locker room, and we didn’t have to explain anything to each other — we’re here, we are trans, this is great.”
Platt, a transgender woman who played with the Toronto Furies in the Canadian Women’s Hockey Players Association before it went out of business, said that being out and trans in a professional sport is “a really lonely experience.”
“There are not a lot of out trans athletes playing professional sports, and there are few in professional women’s sports,” Platt said. “I think that’s partially due to the fact that there’s a lot of negativity surrounding trans women participating in professional sports.”
“Growing up, I always played boys hockey and it didn’t feel like a safe atmosphere for me,” Platt said. “I knew there was something different about me but I always tried to be who I needed to be to fit in because I saw anyone who didn’t quite fit in the male hockey atmosphere got made fun of pretty harshly, so I didn’t want to be that person.” And yet she persisted, because she loves to play the sport.
Platt said that if presented with the opportunity to play forward on Team Trans again, she’d do it. “It was such a special experience for me, it was such a positive and supportive environment, I feel like everyone had no problem being themselves.”
Once the players hit the ice, it was easy playing the game they all know and love.
“A lot folks that I played with this weekend, we put years of our lives into practicing our sports and then we came out as trans and found there’s not necessarily a space for us in that sport anymore,” Hutchinson said. “I think that what happened this weekend it was important on individual levels — for me personally, it was like a full honoring of my identity: I am a trans hockey player and I am on a trans team.”
For her part, Platt said she hoped that the tournament would open more people’s minds to the fact that transgender athletes work hard and compete fairly just like cisgender athletes.
“We need more knowledge, more education, and for people to go into these things with an open mind and be willing to learn something that they might not be familiar with.”
Champion baseball player Sean Doolittle has declined an invitation to a ceremony in the White House because he disagrees vehemently with the policies of Donald Trump.
Doolittle – who plays for the Washington Nationals – told the Washington Post that he cannot justify visiting the White House as he finds Trump’s policies offensive.
He revealed that part of the reason he refused to visit the White House is because his wife has two mothers and he wanted to “show support for them”.
“I think that’s an important part of allyship, and I don’t want to turn my back on them.”
Sean Doolittle refused to visit White House over Donald Trump and his ‘divisive rhetoric’.
“There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country,” Doolittle said.
“At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can’t do it. I just can’t do it.”
I think that’s an important part of allyship, and I don’t want to turn my back on them.
Elsewhere in the interview, Doolittle drew attention to Trump’s treatment of race issues, refugees and disabled people.
“I feel very strongly about his issues on race relations,” he said. Doolittle spoke about the Fair Housing Act, the Central Park Five as well as Trump’s comments about white supremacy as examples of problem areas.
Doolittle said that Trump has disrespected the office of the president.
“I have a brother-in-law who has autism, and [Trump] is a guy that mocked a disabled reporter. How would I explain that to him that I hung out with somebody who mocked the way that he talked or the way that he moves his hands? I can’t get past that stuff.”
The baseball player also revealed that some people have taken issue with his refusal to visit the White House and said he should be respecting the office of the president.
However, Doolittle feels that Trump himself has disrespected the office on a number of occasions – and believes that this is the most important issue.
Doolittle and his wife Eireann Dolan have advocated for the rights of LGBT+ people on a number of occasions.
Gold medalist Kerron Clement is finally ready to share his story. The track athlete publicly came out Friday, on National Coming Out Day, exclusively telling Out, “I was tired of loving in the dark.”
“I have been through what a lot of people have been through which is being afraid of being who you are,” he says. “I struggled with my sexuality for 17 years. Over time, as you get older, you care less. Now it’s time to just be yourself and be free. That’s what I’ve become, free.”
Clement competed in the 2008 and 2016 Olympic Games, in Beijing and Rio de Janeiro, respectively. The track star won gold and silver medals in 2008, and another gold medal during his Olympic return.
Clement has also worked as a model and actor. In 2011 he made a fleeting appearance in a Beyonce video (at 1:47) despite “being more of a Mariah Carey fan.”
In much of America, you can still be fired for being gay. You can be denied government services. You can lose your home. Ensuring our basic civil rights protections is at the heart of the cases that the Supreme Court is hearing this week. Businesses have been a key community that have stood with us in this legal effort. They signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief in record numbers, and they are a key component of the coalition that is pushing to pass the Equality Act.
There is another important way that businesses, and other large employers, are showing up for us. Next week, more than 6,000 people will be coming to Washington, D.C. to take part in the Out & Equal Workplace Summit, the largest gathering of LGBTQ professionals anywhere in the world. These attendees come from 38 countries and represent more than 70% of Fortune 1000 companies. And it’s not just the business sector; five U.S. government agencies are also sponsoring this conference.
Summit is a forum for thought leadership. It brings together a richly diverse group who raise ideas and programs that push the envelope, who give visibility to often ignored identities, and who establish best and next practices. Summit workshops and stages are where the next iteration of LGBTQ workforce inclusion is showcased: The future is pan. It is non-binary. It is unafraid to call out racism. It openly acknowledges the significance of mental health at work.
What started as a small gathering 20 years ago has grown into a powerful testament of the commitment of leaders of large businesses to further equality and belonging. What can explain this meteoric growth?
First, large businesses increasingly understand that fostering inclusion impacts their bottom line. When people can show up authentically at work, unencumbered by fears – of social isolation, judgment, or worse – simply because they happen to be LGBTQ, individuals, teams and, yes, businesses and other types of organizations thrive.
This business case is particularly pronounced when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent. Companies who fail to create a workplace atmosphere where employees feel comfortable end up losing out. Younger generations, Millennials and Generation Z, identify as not “exclusively heterosexual” in far higher rates than older generations. Business leaders have figured out that they need to adapt if they’re going to survive.
Second, Out & Equal has transformed its approach to facilitate and support the type of interaction professionals and organizations need to succeed in these times. Historically, organizations like ours invested in developing proprietary knowledge and passing it out to the businesses that we want to impact. That top-down approach may have been the norm in the past, but it is no way to get things done in today’s interconnected world. It’s also a wastefully inefficient way to bring change.
Our approach starts with the recognition that nobody has a monopoly on good ideas. Rather, the people within these companies and government agencies who work – day in, day out – on improving the work lives of LGBTQ employees have a great deal of knowledge. We can do more for our cause by creating opportunities for these practitioners to come together, learn from each other, and co-create better solutions to the challenges that need to be addressed.
The 6,000 people who will be at the Workplace Summit will certainly have the opportunity to learn from each other. But it’s not the only such opportunity available to them.
In the United States, we know that there are different religious and cultural contexts that impact what it’s like to lead LGBTQ lives. Life in San Francisco or New York is different than in the rural South. The tools that have been used successfully in big cities to impact workplaces need to be tailored in order to be as effective in rural settings. This awareness drove us to convene two forums this year in the South. By bringing southerners together to explore the obstacles they face, and the solutions that have worked in their companies, we can catalyze change. The answer is never one-size-fits-all.
The same logic applies to our work outside of the United States. We forge partnerships across Latin America and hold summits in Brazil, India, and China. We know that the most impactful thing to do is bring together our partners who function in those regions so that they can figure out together the strategies and nuances that they need to pursue to make their workplaces ones where all people are equal, belong, and thrive.
You might be surprised to hear that businesses are sharing their best practices with one another. They certainly are! I can tell you, in these trying times, they are less interested in competing in the areas of diversity and inclusion, than in coming together to more efficiently improve their organizational cultures. This realization drove us to develop a new online Global Hub (in partnership with JP Morgan Chase) that gives change agents in each organization a secure portal in which they can engage with their colleagues at other businesses – anytime, anywhere.
The legal advocacy being done to protect LGBTQ rights to employment, at the Supreme Court and vis-à-vis the Equality Act, matters. As our community pursues these basic protections, we also need to invest in what it takes for each of us to be ourselves and to thrive at work.
Work is where we spend most of our waking hours. We interact with our coworkers. We brainstorm together. We grab coffee together. It is who we share our lives with. But too many people in our community, even if they do not fear that they will be fired for who they are, do not work in a space that allows them to fully share who they are. The work that gets done at Summit in Washington next week, and all around the year by Out & Equal and our partners, is how this reality gets better.
Erin Uritus is CEO of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, the world’s premier nonprofit dedicated to achieving global LGBTQ workplace equality.
Politics isn’t a friendly game for those of us who exist at the margins. And, yet, this is precisely the analogy Ellen DeGeneres used to defend her friendship with former President George W. Bush, a man who spent his eight years in the Oval Office passing and upholding anti-LGBT policies.
“Why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?” DeGeneres quipped rhetorically Tuesday during the opening monologue of CBS’ “Ellen DeGeneres Show,” oversimplifying the criticism she received online after she was spotted sitting next to Bush on Sunday at the Dallas Cowboys game into a rivalry between identities.
Today, DeGeneres is not only famous, she is incredibly wealthy. And she has developed a global brand that is both unfailingly positive and predictably safe.
More than two decades ago, DeGeneres did a courageous thing. She came out at a time when essentially everyone in Hollywood was straight — or pretending to be straight. In doing so, she put her comedy career on the line. A year after coming out on television, her show was canceled. (ABC denied the cancellation had anything to do with DeGeneres’ sexual orientation.)
That was then. Today, DeGeneres is not only famous, she is incredibly wealthy. And she has developed a global brand that is both unfailingly positive and predictably safe. She’s not a radical, so there’s no danger that seating her next to a former president like Bush would result in confrontation or debate. (Remember when she defended another “friend,” Kevin Hart?)
“When we were invited I was aware I’d be surrounded by people with very different views and beliefs,” she noted on the show, “and I’m not talking about politics. I was rooting for the Packers — and, get this, everybody in the Cowboys suite was rooting for the Cowboys.”
You’re not playing for the home team, Ellen. We get it.
Within this sporty frame, her friendship with the former president is recast as innocuous and inconsequential (It’s only a game!). And games aren’t real. They’re fun.
DeGeneres is not unique in equating politics with sports — just look at the media and how they report on presidential campaigns. “The race for the White House!” is CNN’s exclamatory mantra. There’s a new poll every day charting who’s “winning” or “leading” the pack.
“Here’s the thing: I’m friends with George Bush,” DeGeneres explained in her monologue. “In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different, and I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s OK.”
But here’s the thing: Politics is not a football game. LGBT lives are not toys to be tossed around for entertainment.
Ellen is the world’s most famous lesbian. George W. Bush is a straight, white man who conscientiously fronted his administration’s agenda to diminish and prevent rights and benefits being afforded to LGBT Americans.
Context matters, especially when it is broadcast on national television: Ellen DeGeneres is the world’s most famous lesbian. George W. Bush is a straight, white, cisgender man who conscientiously fronted his administration’s agenda to diminish and prevent any modicum of rights and benefits being afforded to LGBT Americans in the 2000s.
In 2004, for example, he announced his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, which aimed to “protect” the institution of marriage by limiting it to “the union of a man and a woman.” In his endorsement of the amendment, Bush implied that gay marriage is harmful to society: “Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society.” Later, in 2008, his administration refused to support the United Nations’ declaration condemning acts of homophobia — voting against the measure alongside Russia and China.
DeGeneres’ nacho-sharing pal-around was criticized by those of us who remember this not-so-distant history, who remember the policies and values espoused by Bush’s administration. This history looms especially large this week, as the Supreme Court hears multiple cases on LGBT protections and rights in the workplace.
“Just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be friends with them,” she explained. “When I say, ‘Be kind to one another,’ I don’t only mean the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone.”
These words sound good. But what does “be kind” really mean? Who does it work for, whose ideology does it uphold, and what power does it service?
“Be kind” is the mashed potatoes of words on a plate of respectability politics. For those of us within the LGBT community, as well as for people in minority communities, the request to “be kind” is a demand for silence. It is a demand for tolerance of hate and discrimination. It is a demand for complicity. It is bending oneself into the mold of likability defined by a man-centered, straight-centered culture.
DeGeneres, as she joked, just wanted to “keep up with the Joneses,” the mythical gateway family to social acceptance, as well as the name of the family that owns the Cowboys. Doubling down on her message in her monologue, DeGeneres revealed the cost of this acceptance: integrity.
She made it a point to quote a tweet supporting her friendship: “Ellen and George Bush together makes me have faith in America again.”
Plans by the International Olympic Committee to tighten guidelines for trans athletes ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Games have stymied because scientists are struggling to agree over the “tricky political and emotive issue”.
Scientists involved in the decision were expected to recommend halving the permitted testosterone levels for trans women competing in elite sport, opening up the field to more trans-inclusive races.
But sources confirmed to The Guardianthat the IOC have pinned discussions because the subject is so divisive, and consensus is not likely before the games begin next year.
Trans advocates have long argued that current regulations –established in 2015 – have limited non-cis athletes making it to elite level games.
An agreement has “proved far more difficult than expected”, says source.
The current regulations – hashed out by board members, scientists and legal advisors – allowed trans women to compete insofar that they “demonstrate that her total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months”.
However, these guidelines proved provocative, given that female testosterone levels tend to range between 0.12 and 1.79 nmol/l, while male’s are typically between 7.7 to 29.4 nmol/l.
According to the broadsheet, some scientists have advocated for reducing the permitted testosterone levels to 5nmol/L, which is below most males.
This would ensure more trans women could compete in women’s category sports, they claim.
But a salvo in the struggle to agree was some scientists disagreeing with this. They argued that testosterone suppression for trans women has little effect on reducing muscle strength even after a year of treatment.
One source told The Guardian that the draft IOC proposals “had gone around the houses” without any progress. Therefore, making it unlikely that a new consensus position would be reached before the Tokyo Olympics.
Another source said an agreement “proved far more difficult than expected because this is such a tricky political and emotive issue”.
The process is being led by the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission as well as being informed by inputs from the IOC Athletes’ Commission and the IOC Women and Sport Commission.
Stakeholders alongside medical, legal, and human rights experts will also have a say in the process.
The Guardian reported that talks will continue while other sporting federations are encouraged to create individual policies on trans athletes. But without the IOC taking the lead, these governing bodies may be un-willing to do so.
So, what did you get up to on your summer vacation? I myself did the usual gay hot spots along with many of my fellow queer Washingtonians — Rehoboth Beach for a few weekends here and there, Provincetown, Mass. All in all, a pretty gay little summer.
Just as our summers were wrapping up, Vice President Mike Pence was wrapping up his own rainbow tour of Europe, including stops in Ireland, where he dined with the country’s gay prime minister and his husband. Later, on to London, where Pence got all dreamy-eyed sitting across from Boris Johnson, gushing over both him and Brexit generally. The trip overall was no big deal, really. Most people seemed to ignore him, or, as the case with Iceland’s first family, straight up gay troll him. They famously wore rainbow bracelets in photos with the Vice President when he visited Reykjavik. Wherever he went, no one really seemed to want him there. The Irish Times didn’t dance around anything, calling the whole thing nothing but a real shit show.
Whatever you call the visit, you can’t call it, or Pence for that matter, anti-gay. That would be terribly unfair, according to Trump White House chief gay Judd Deere. That’s what he told us via his Twitter account anyway. That if you still think Pence is anti-gay, like everyone on the planet does, just remember he had lunch with gay people. True Kellyanne Conway-esque logic there. Sort of like saying, “Yes, your uncle is a complete anti-gay bigot. But may I remind you he really enjoyed Robin Williams’ performance in ‘The Birdcage?’ So, don’t you feel a bit foolish now?”
But who is Judd Deere exactly? Like me, he’s gay, and he’s from Arkansas. And he’s stepped up to the press plate at the White House following the departure of fellow Arkansan Sarah Huckabee Sanders. This column isn’t really about how anti-gay this administration is, or how Deere is wrong to enable and promote it. That’s all pretty obvious. But how, as gays, do we treat queer quislings like Deere? What do you do with this administration’s useful gay idiots? Some have argued that if you see Judd Deere out in a gay bar, you should tell him he isn’t welcome. And I have to say, this strategy is pretty damn tempting. This of course would involve some effort on my part — committing Deere’s face to memory, actively scanning bars for him, approaching him, unwelcoming him there. It’s a lot. But still, would it be fair for Deere to enjoy our gay spaces when he touts policies that fly in the face of everything these spaces represent — safety, security, free expression, and inclusivity.
There’s all of that, and now that summer is behind us, things could really come to a head this fall, as the Supreme Court is set to hear three cases of interest to us. The question, succinctly, is whether or not we can be fired for being gay. Trump’s Justice Department says yes, we can, submitting a briefing arguing so at the end of August. The cases are set to be heard this October. Aren’t you tired of having your basic rights argued over? Deere has made his thoughts clear on all of this. Calling the Equality Act passed by the House earlier this year full of “poison pills.” The Equality Act would include workplace protections (safety and security) for LGBT Americans.
I know what some of you might be thinking. There are gays of every stripe, be more tolerant, blah, blah, blah. This gay Republican thing would’ve been cool, say, in 1995, when all Republicans hated us, and so did about half the Democrats. But now, in 2019, the lines are pretty well drawn. So I’m fairly intolerant of gay Republicans like Deere. So perhaps in Rehoboth or Provincetown, or around our town, maybe I’ll get the chance to tell him one day.
Brock Thompson is a D.C.-based writer. He contributes regularly to the Blade.
When most of us launch into a new morning it is nothing like storming Normandy Beach on D-Day.
Most of us are not being shot, deported, jailed, evicted, or starved. Whatever brutal measures Trump and his minions have in mind, most of our freedoms have not yet been blotted out by a fascist state. We still have our voices and our power to act. It is for us to use them.
Some say we’re letting Trump distract us from the harm he’s doing. Really? We can’t multitask? What is he up to that we’re missing? Lining his pockets? Packing the courts? Rolling back environmental protections? Gutting USDA? Raiding FEMA funds to cage more migrant children? Promising pardons to staff who follow his unlawful orders? Attacking immigrants and people of color at every turn? Deporting students and sick children? Mocking journalists and scientists who don’t echo his desires? Letting Wayne LaPierre lead him around on a leash? Jerking off on the drapes? What?
If we are so unserious that we cannot keep track of this demagogue’s despoilments, we are done. I do not believe it. We will not all sleep through the next fourteen months. I may not be Edward R. Murrow reporting from a London rooftop during the Blitz, and you may not be Julia Child spying in Sri Lanka, but we can rise to our moment.
We bring different gifts, but we all have a part in the election. Each of us can contribute: register voters, reach out to neighbors and family, have the difficult discussions, challenge our representatives, give our time and money to candidates, run for an office ourselves.
One of the best things we can do is simply not surrender to the erosion of standards. We don’t have to accept diminished expectations because of Trump’s unrelenting trash talk and provocations. We can stand our ground. We can defend things we care about regardless of what the man-child and his rabble say.
Reality provides a backstop. Gay and trans people do not disappear because some wish to erase us. Women, people of color, immigrants, and religious minorities do not become devils or infestations or denizens of The Handmaid’s Tale because of a sociopath’s rants. Sea levels do not stop rising nor storms growing more extreme by ignoring (or nuking) them. Mass shootings are not stopped by thoughts and prayers. Crumbling infrastructure is not rebuilt by neglect. Pesticides don’t stop killing bees because of Monsanto’s denials. Sooner or later, the truth bites us in the ass. Trump’s alternate facts (that is, lies) do not become true by repetition.
45’s incompetence causes harm that mean tweets do not mitigate. He weakens our standing in the world with his obliviousness to soft power.
We, in the meantime, continue in our diversity to create, innovate, inspire, and enlighten. We do not require permission to step up and assert ourselves. We build and rebuild alliances and go where others haven’t because, as Murrow said in confronting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, we are not descended from fearful people.
The campaign ahead will be long and nasty. When you feel overloaded, you may have wandered into Trump’s funhouse. “Aha!” his trolls love to cry, as if Putin’s useful idiot is above reproach and every journalist who issues a correction (as honest people do) should be dragged off in chains. Break out. Look around you to clear your head and reorient yourself toward the reality-based community.
The idea of America, if it lives at all, lives in us. That is our wellspring. All of us are its guardians. Federal employees in particular, including DOJ attorneys and Secret Service agents, take oaths to defend the Constitution. The great majority take their oaths seriously, as I did during my own federal career. Pledges of service do not morph into plunder because a toddler scribbles over them.
Don’t give Trump’s band of saboteurs rent-free space in your head. We might win, we might not. We don’t know. Cable news is full of experts who were wrong about the last presidential election. Much is at stake. There is no point in hand-wringing or giving up without a fight. We can do this. Let’s go.
Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist. He can be reached at rrosendall@me.com.
Former Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas has revealed he is HIV positive – and hopes coming forward with his diagnosis can help break the stigma for others living with the virus.
Thomas is thought to be the first UK sportsman to go public about living with the condition, and has revealed that he was driven to suicidal thoughts after being told he had the illness by a doctor during a routine sexual health check up.
The former British Lions captain, 45, who will be a TV pundit in the upcoming Rugby World Cup, added that he “broke down” when he got the news of his diagnosis. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, he said: “I’ve been living with this secret for years. I’ve felt shame and keeping such a big secret has taken its toll.”
The former Cardiff Blues player won 103 caps and scored 41 tries for Wales between 1995 and 2007, and he is 13th on the all-time international test try-scoring list.
Last November, he was attacked in Cardiff city centre in a homophobic hate crime, but asked South Wales police to deal with the 16-year-old assailant by way of restorative justice.
The sportsman now takes one tablet containing four medications each day, and doctors have said his condition is under control to the point that it is considered “undetectable” and cannot be passed on. Mr Thomas said that his partner – Stephen – who he met after his diagnosis and married three years ago, does not have HIV.
Gareth spoke about his HIV status for the first time in a video he posted on his Twitter page, revealing “evil” people had “made his life hell” by threatening to go public with his condition without his consent.
He explained: “I want to share my secret with you. Why? Because it is mine to tell you. Not the evils that make my life hell by threatening to tell you before I do. And because I believe in you and I trust you. I’m living with HIV.
“Now you have that information, that makes me extremely vulnerable but it does not make me weak.” He added: “Even though I have been forced to tell you this, I choose to fight to educate and break the stigma around this subject.”
