Thomas Beattie, former professional English footballer, has revealed he is gay.
The 33-year-old from Goole, Yorkshire, played for Hull City’s youth team and played professionally in the U.S. , Canada, and Singapore for more than 10 years until suffering a severe head injury in a game, causing him to end his career early in playing.
Speaking in an interview with Advocate Beattie admitted that during his professional career he did not feel comfortable coming out.
He said: ‘I never thought about coming out whilst playing. I literally felt like I had to sacrifice one of the two: who I am, or the sport I loved before I could remember.’
‘I used football as a form of escapism and in many ways, it saved me, until I reached the point in life where there was some personal growth. I was standing still on that front. Society [told] me masculinity is linked to sexuality and so being an athlete playing a physical sport felt like a huge contradiction.’
‘It’s still a new and current process for me to be honest,’ he says of coming out. ‘I told close friends and family three months ago, which was when I decided to embark on the journey of speaking openly about it.
‘As an athlete, it was something that was unspoken about, which is why I want to share my story in hopes that there will eventually be more support for people in a similar situation.
‘I recently started to tell some of my old teammates who have been amazing and treated me not a single ounce differently. They know I’m the same lad I was 10 minutes before telling them so that’s been refreshing.’
Beattie is just the fourth male footballer-after Justin Fashanu, Thomas Hitzlsperger, and Robbie Rogers, who played as gay in Britain.
