The High Price of Coming Out for Gay Athletes

Gareth Thomas is one of the toughest rugby players around, becoming the first Welsh player ever to win 100 international caps. The man withstood a brutal kick to his neck in a 2006 match that led to a suspected stroke after an artery ruptured, and earlier this year had his ribs smashed in a game against Australia that led weeks away from the field and x-rays of rib cartilage.

But those injuries are nothing compared to the next test Thomas will face: being quite possibly the most high profile openly gay athlete in the world.

Thomas came out of the closet this weekend in an interview with the UK's Daily Mail, admitting that hiding his sexual orientation drove him to depression and almost suicide.

"I was like a ticking bomb. I thought I could suppress it, keep it locked away in some dark corner of myself, but I couldn't," said Thomas. "It was who I was, and I just couldn't ignore it any more."

Boom. Cue the closet door opening around the world. That's great news for Thomas (who has been out to teammates for a few years now, but not on a global scale). But what does it mean for his future in professional sports, and how will the world of rugby -- let alone the world of international sports -- react to an openly gay athlete in one of the toughest sports around?

John Amaechi, the retired NBA basketball player who came out of the closet a few years ago once he hung up his laces, said that Thomas should expect a tough road in the short term.

"When people learn you are gay, often that can squash your definition so all the good stuff goes and you just become 'some gay rugby player', which is quite difficult for many athletes to deal with," Amaechi said.

Some gay rugby player. That's the last thing Gareth Thomas wants to be known as. In follow up remarks from his big "I'm gay" news, Thomas himself said that he doesn't want to be known as the gay rugby player. "What I choose to do when I close the door at home has nothing to do with what I have achieved in rugby," said Thomas.

Yet it's a problem all openly gay athletes have had to deal with in some capacity. Martina Navratilova (the gay tennis player). Matthew Mitcham (the gay diver). Sheryl Swoopes (the gay basketball player). All of them are (or were) among the best in their sport. But it's tough to shake the gay label when within your own sport, you make up a club of just one.

And then there's the question of endorsements. The richest athletes are the ones who land the biggest endorsement deals. There's LeBron James, Tiger Woods (pre-mistress days), Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova. Could any of these folks be openly LGBT, and still reap the same paycheck even if they had the same skills?

Navratilova told OutSports a few years back that she thought she lost more than $10 million in endorsements by coming out of the closet, even though for a good chunk of her career she was the best in the business. That's a huge sum of money, and certainly a reason why some athletes keep mum about their sexual orientation, at least until after retirement.

For Gareth Thomas' part, the outcome remains to be seen. Some, like Amaechi, are predicting a bumpy road. Max Clifford, a British PR advisor, says that the sports world hasn't come as far as the entertainment industry or even the political world in welcoming openly LGBT folks.

"It's a fact that homophobia in football is as strong now as it was 10 years ago," Clifford says. "You look across society and see openly gay people in music, movies, television, politics, the clergy, and it's not a problem, nor in many sports. It's not that footballers are homophobic but the fans can be vicious."

But others are saying that Thomas' decision to come out gives rugby the opportunity to lead the way in welcoming openly LGBT athletes. Count among them rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward, who says the sport will react well to Thomas' decision to come out.

"I'm sure this will all die down after a few days of press and, as I say, from a sports point of view I'm sure rugby will take it in its stride," Woodward said. "If anyone doesn't take that attitude then they've got the problem, rather than Gareth having a problem."

True that. And here's to the idea that rugby can teach the rest of the international sports world a thing or two about accepting athletes for who they are, rather than what stereotypes pretend they should be.

(Photo courtesy of beefyboii's photostream on Photobucket.com)