Gareth Thomas Becomes One Of The First Openly HIV-Positive People On The Cover Of Major British Magazine
November 4, 2019Rugby legend Gareth Thomas became one of the first openly HIV-positive people to appear in the cover of Men’s Health Magazine, a move “hailed as chipping away at the stigma over the virus,” ‘Reuters’ reports.
In September this year, Thomas revealed he was living with HIV, but has no regrets over going public.
“I walk down the street and there’s that realization that people who I don’t even know are aware of my medical history, my sexuality,” he told ‘Men’s Health’.
“That can be quite invasive. But the reality is I’m in a better place now than I ever was when people didn’t know my sexuality, so I’d rather it be this way than how it was before,” he continues.
Thomas said he took his fitness “to another level” after being diagnosed in an effort to counter stereotypes that people living with HIV are weak and sickly.
“My mental images of people living with HIV were always frail, always weak,” he admitted. “I wanted to display the total opposite of that.”
The cover of Men’s Health magazine really shows he succeeded.
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