I was gay when I woke up and I still am. It sounds strange but when I came round I immediately felt different. I wasn’t interested in women any more. I was definitely gay. I had never been attracted to a man before – I’d never even had any gay friends. But I didn’t care about who I was before, I had to be true to my feelings.

Birch is now gayer than Christmas, with a completely new look, a completely new boyfriend, and a completely new career as a hairdresser.

The best part of all of this is that Birch says he “wouldn’t change a thing.” I’ve often said if I could choose  my sexual orientation (which I don’t think I can), I’d choose to be gay. It is the best. Thing. Ever!

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I have listened and discussed this decision with many of my family and close friends. My mind has told me that the time to retire is now. If you can’t give 100 percent to rugby then you can’t do it justice. This is a sad day, but I know that my time has come to an end as a player. My passion for the amazing game will never end or leave me however.

I do not know what lies ahead, but I feel the challenge of something different excites me more than another year of rugby.

I would like to thank everyone I have been involved with in the sport. I could not have achieved it without any of them. I have great memories and great friends that I will keep for the rest of my life. I leave knowing I have done everything in my power to be the best person and player I could have ever been. And finally, I thank my parents for all their support and help throughout my career.

The 37-year-old has played professionally since the mid-’90s. He geared up for eight different teams in Rugby Union before switching to Rugby League in 2010. He is one of the greatest Welsh rugby players of all time.

With the retirement of Thomas and Ben Cohen, the sport has lost two active opponents of homophobia. Cohen has dedicated his retired life to fighting that homophobia, and we know Thomas will do something of the same. We wish him all the luck in the world in whatever he chooses to do next.

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Gareth Thomas, the most capped player in Wales history and one of sport’s most high-profile gay men, is set to switch codes and end his illustrious career playing rugby league for Crusaders.

The Wales-based Super League franchise have scheduled a press conference for Friday at which they are expected to announced that Thomas, 35, will join them when his current deal with Cardiff expires in May.

One of the many arguments people throw out claiming professional athletes can’t come out of the closet is that no team would draft them or want them. Here you have a team in the most macho of sports going out and signing Thomas. Yet still another example of the arguments against pro athletes coming out not holding water.

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One of the many fascinating angles to this story is that he came out to his coach and some teammates years ago after ending his marriage to a woman in 2006. For several years, they’ve all keep quiet while they kept tackling opponents side-by-side with Thomas.

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. It was who I was, and I just couldn’t ignore it any more. I’d been through every emotion under the sun trying to deal with this. You wake up one morning thinking: “I can handle it. Everything is fine,” and the next morning you don’t want anyone to see your face, because you think that if people look at you, they will know.

Thomas was shocked by how welcoming all of his friends and teammates have been.

[A coach] told two of my team-mates, Stephen Jones and Martyn Williams, and as I sat in the bar waiting for them, I was absolutely terrified, wondering what they were going to say. But they came in, patted me on the back and said: “We don’t care. Why didn’t you tell us before?” Two of my best mates in rugby didn’t even blink an eyelid. Martyn said he never had a clue, would never have thought it. I felt everyone was protecting me and closing in tight around me. No one distanced themselves from me, not one single person.

The article is a great read; A nice way for so many of us sports fans, eager for more athletes to come out, to end the new year. Funny that our year-end podcast was about no big-name athletes coming out in 2009.

It’s also interesting to see fan reaction. On a BBC discussion forum, the overwhelming majority of comments are positive and supportive of Thomas.

Hat tip to UK Gay News and Markus.

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“When you do a book, especially an autobiography, you’ve got to be honest about stuff,” Owens told BBC Wales. I had an e-mail from a young guy off Facebook who had gone through the same thing I had gone through – he was gay and could not tell his parents. But they found out through television that I was gay and their attitude towards gay people had changed. He felt more comfortable that he could tell them so he did so and was accepted pretty well.”

Related: Facebook Nigel Owens fan club.

You can also find Owens on Facebook through a quick search of his name.

Hat tip to Markus.

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