Rugby player Gareth Thomas writes that “Pink List” of out successful people inspired him to come out

With actor Zachary Quinto coming out on Sunday followed by ABC News anchor Dan Kloeffler on Monday, it is interesting to explore the thought process of a famous gay person when they decide to go public.

For rugby star Gareth Thomas, it was seeing what is known as The Pink List, a list of famous out people, and noticing there was not a single athlete on it that inspired him to consider going public.

“It would really help if more people in sport were openly gay, and I’m sure that the more people I inspire, the more that will filter down to children growing up,” Gareth writes in a column for The Independent. “When people ahead of them break the mould of what they think they should be like, then children will be able to do what they want to do and be who they want to be, whether that be in sport, pop music, movies or whatever.

Some people believe that listing successful gay people shows prejudice in itself. But to me, appearing at the top of last year’s Pink List was an honour. I wasn’t looking for any reward, but for people to recognise how much I’d gone through and that I’d helped other people on their own journey meant a lot.”