Openly gay rugby star Gareth Thomas
confides in his It Gets Better video that he once considered taking
his own life.
In his video, the 36-year-old Welshman
says that since he could not kill himself, he decided to start
living.
“One day I sat besides my swimming
pool with my legs dangling in the pool, bottle of vodka in one hand,
trying to find the strength and the courage somewhere to drop myself
in the water. Close my eyes, never wake up again.”
“I used to walk along the cliffs near
where I live. Everyday get a little bit closer to the edge hoping
that there would be a gust of wind from somewhere that would just
come along, push me over the edge,” Thomas adds.
“So I realized, if I couldn't do
this, if I couldn't die, that I have to start living. And by start
living, mean that I have to start telling the truth.” (The video
is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
The
It Gets Better Project encourages troubled gay teens to hang in
there and not cave in to bullies, because life gets better. The
project was the idea of sex advice columnist (Savage Love) and
gay rights activist Dan Savage.
The online collection of videos has
inspired thousands to record messages of hope. Celebrities and
high-profile politicians who have created videos for the It Gets
Better Project include President
Obama, Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, New
York Governor David Paterson, Fort
Worth Councilman Joel Burns, rocker
Adam Lambert and actor Neil
Patrick Harris.
In
a Tuesday appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Thomas said
he once “prayed to be straight.”
Coming out, Thomas added, can send a
positive message.
“Sport is something that can change
the world,” he told DeGeneres. “And with somebody being gay in
sport and being able to continue that sport sends such a positive
message to children and adults.”
Mickey
Rourke recently said he would like to play Thomas in a movie about
his life.