Two weeks after Keegan Hirst became the first British professional Rugby League player to come out publicly as gay, 23 year old Sam Stanley a professional Rugby Union player has come out as gay in an interview in today's 'Sunday Times' in the UK. (queerguru will not even attempt to try and explain the difference between Rugby Union and Rugby League to avoid upsetting sports purists, so we have attached an explanatory video below,)
Stanley who played for England Sevens at five tournaments and is a member of one of the most famous rugby families in the sport, spoke out that he hopes that telling the world he is gay will give others the courage to come out too. In the interview he talked of his painful journey to get this point and says he considered suicide because he was scared that telling the world he was gay would ruin his rugby career.
Born in Essex to an English mother and a father of Samoan descent and his brother, Michael, is in the Samoa squad for the World Cup. Stanley also added that he had also gone to great pains to cover up his relationship with Laurence, his partner of five years, although he is obviously not that worried about covering up his body according to these naked photos he posted on himself on Instagram.
