Meet Gareth Thomas, first gby player to e out as gay

Contents:

• THE URAGEO JOURNEY OF IAN ROBERTS, GBY LEAGUE'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER
• FIRST OPENLY GAY GBY LEAGUE PLAYER KEEGAN HIRST OUT OF RETIREMENT
• FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER KEEGAN HIRST 'OVERWHELMED AND HUMBLED' BY SUPPORT
• DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI
• GAY RUGBY LEAGUE PLAYER SAYS HE'S SEEN MUCH 'GAYER' THGS IN SPORTS CHANGG ROOMS
• KEEGAN HIRST - FIRST OPENLY GAY, ACTIVE RUGBY LEAGUE PLAYER
• KEEGAN HIRST STEPS ON TO FIELD AS BRA'S FIRST GBY LEAGUE STAR TO E OUT AS GAY
• MEET GARETH THOMAS, FIRST GBY PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY

THE URAGEO JOURNEY OF IAN ROBERTS, GBY LEAGUE'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER

Aborigals, Polynians, Melanians and Southern European migrants provid the game’s first diversy om s Anglo-Celtic base and the terlopers were accepted if they plied wh the and “pped sweet” had no place for homosexual men and to be labeled gay was a slur implyg weakns. And that’s the way remaed until a pneer smashed the stereotype, beg the game’s first openly homosexual player, a precursor, a full 20 years before Keegan Hirst, the Batley Bulldogs player who this weekend beme the first Brish player to do likewise. “Until Ian Roberts me out we thought all gay guys were weak, ” says Mar Fenech, the former South Sydney Rabbohs pta and Roberts’s team-mate.

His father Ray was his bt iend and was openly speful about anythg gay he saw on televisn.

Stereotyp mean ls thkg and for the league muny, surround by a ep emotnal moat, there was no way he uld be tough and father always advised him to “go for the biggt guy” and, crippled by a life nial, he uld sublimate his rage and claw back self-worth by excellg at everythg physil, cludg was all a smokcreen for a new phase of his life, glorly gurated at Sydney gay pub The Exchange. “I had a sh of eedom and belongg and saw my first role mols, livg openly as gay men and women.

FIRST OPENLY GAY GBY LEAGUE PLAYER KEEGAN HIRST OUT OF RETIREMENT

Roberts would nvce them that he was gog to “50-50 clubs”, further throwg them off the trail by paradg wh betiful “girliends” at club 1984, an unlikely hero emerged for 19-year-old Roberts the form of New South Wal premier Neville Wran, who passed a law crimalisg homosexualy. ”It was the same year that Bronski Beat’s tortured g out anthem Smalltown Boy stormed world dancefloors, crystallisg the horror experience which a young suburban man is bashed for attendg a gay club and disowned by his father. Neher had any ia he was gay.

Eventually old school Souths ach Gee Piggs nonted Roberts about his sexualy, pleadg wh him to stop gog to the gay clubs. Early the 1989 season a gossip em wrten unr a nom plume appeared the Sun Herald statg Roberts had been spotted a gay club. In the followg game Roberts was baed by Bulldogs players and openly vilified by fans, the thought of a gay player fuellg the passns of the wilst Jack, pictured after a brawl wh Roberts 1991.

Roberts was bone tired om pretendg, but they both advised him to keep a fay secret until after his years later Roberts tormented gby league media and fans further by agreeg to a nu shoot Blue, a new gay magaze, but did not fively say he was gay. The opposg crowds went wild and the homophobic abe grew to new heights.

FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER KEEGAN HIRST 'OVERWHELMED AND HUMBLED' BY SUPPORT

For the gay muny, sexualy was a matter of life and ath.

Gay bashgs and killgs were rife across Sydney, creatg a siege mentaly. Many the muny viewed Roberts’s g out as a way to save liv, particularly wh high rat of gay teen suici blamed on a lack of posive role mols. Roberts appreciated the honty but uld not buy to the belief that the fans and sponsors would not tolerate a gay man.

Peter FzSimons the Sydney Morng Herald was clear on the impact of the announcement: “Roberts is not the first gay footballer, but the first wh the urage to live openly. “In the 90s gay men were murred and bashed by vigilant.

DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI

“It mt have been difficult for him to adm he’s gay, om a tough town wh zero tolerance, ” he says.

”Moments and events accumulate to create change and as the first gay ntact sport player to e out durg a reer, Ian Roberts ss wh sports diversy pneers Jackie Robson and Marta Navratilova. Keegan Hirst, the first Brish gby league star to e out as gay, has reversed his retirement cisn wh the hope to play for the Batley Bulldogs for the rt of 2022.

“After the recent thly-veiled homophobia over a rabow shirt, I thought how n I help wh visibily and cln? And a lot of would be seen as beg MUCH “gayer” than a rabow on a jersey….

GAY RUGBY LEAGUE PLAYER SAYS HE'S SEEN MUCH 'GAYER' THGS IN SPORTS CHANGG ROOMS

Hirst beme the first Brish profsnal gby league player to e out as gay 2015.

Gay sportsmen.

Homophobia sport.

KEEGAN HIRST - FIRST OPENLY GAY, ACTIVE RUGBY LEAGUE PLAYER

"There's not any gay people Batley, not that I know of, " he told the BBC. "You expect a b of stick om fans, om players - you get whether you're gay or not - but there wasn't any of that. "I don't thk there will be a Spartac-like thg where everyone out and says 'I'm gay', but if a uple of people do then 's a good thg.

"That will help normalise , and hopefully one day a sportsman who's playg, beg gay, won't be news.

"At first I uldn't even say 'I'm gay' my head, let alone out loud, " the father of two said. "Cross- ternatnal Gareth Thomas was prevly the only openly homosexual gby player after he me out whilst playg for gby unn si Cardiff Blu 2009. First Openly Gay Major League Rugby PlayerProfsnal gby player, ach and LGBTQ+ sports ambassador.

KEEGAN HIRST STEPS ON TO FIELD AS BRA'S FIRST GBY LEAGUE STAR TO E OUT AS GAY

‘There were a uple of tim when I thought about killg myself, ” Keegan Hirst says as he remembers how, as a gay gby league player unable to reveal the tth about his sexualy, he faced the darkt moments of his nflicted life.

The 29-year-old believ he is close to makg his but for Wakefield – to bee the first gay English gby player to reach the heights of Super Thomas me out 2009 and played Super League for Csars the followg year; but the Welshman brought the gravas of 100 ps for his untry gby unn as well as havg ptaed the Lns.

MEET GARETH THOMAS, FIRST GBY PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY

Hirst has followed a different path as a gay sportsman for, until he signed for Wakefield Augt last year, he had supplemented his part-time gby reer by workg on buildg s as a joer. He believed people would thk impossible that anyone om Batley, let alone a powerful prop forward, uld be gay. No one knew I was gay and so they wouldn’t know why I’d killed myself.

Photograph: Dave Williams/ still tak great urage for a sportsman, pecially a world as macho as gby league, to tell the world that he is gay. One of them said: ‘What are the mours about you beg gay? Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian“Wh a week had gone all over the game.