Gareth Thomas: Seems Like A Nice Boy

There's a big interview with Gareth Thomas in The Observer, boldly titled; 'Gareth Thomas: The Interview'
The press love the newly out burly gay rugby player - well, he's so incongruous, isn't he?
Fagburn senses that as much as journalists are applauding Mr Thomas for being "so brave" in breaking open the sports closet, they also regard him with the same sense of shock and awe as Samuel Johnson said would greet the sight of a dog riding a bicycle.
It's good to see - albeit through mangled syntax - that; "About being gay, meanwhile, his teammates have given him no trouble at all. In fact, since Thomas came out publicly in December last year, the entire rugby community has embraced him with a love and affection..."
Although Fagburn wonders if this may also have something to do with how Mr Thomas "was renowned for being – in a famously macho sport – one of the hardest, most aggressive men on the pitch."
Thomas says he's become something of a virtual agony uncle on Twitter, and makes an important point about the two gay nations, as it were, and how mildly homophobic ribbing and banter can be taken very differently according to circumstance.
"A lot of people in London, in a larger gay community, to them it's 'whatever', because they already feel safe. But I try and think of the most vulnerable person and how it will affect them – the gay man in a small village, where all the people are in the pub are laughing at it. What message is it going to send to him?"
And it's cute how this "Welsh homeboy through and through... currently a "contented" singleton", but looking for a boyfriend, is held up by the journalist as a poster boy for wholesome values and moral virtue; "At a time when the notion of sporting role models is degraded by endless stories of philandering footballers..."
Good for him.