There are, I know, different types of bravery and courage. The type shown by the emergency services, for example, often moves me to tears. The same with our brave armed forces. A different form of bravery and courage has been shown by the international rugby union referee Nigel Owens and the man he is and what he does is truly inspiring.
Owens is regarded as one of the finest officials in any sport. He is universally respected for his brilliant officiating, his ability to communicate to players and the part he plays in creating memorable rugby matches which in union is more important than it is in most sports. In a game that is regarded as manly and masculine Owens took the huge decision some years ago to come out as gay. To rugby’s eternal credit, no one gives a monkey’s about his sexuality. He is regarded solely as a world class referee. It is quite wonderful in a world that is still, at least in certain groups, suspicious of homosexuality and where random idiots still carry out “queer bashing” that a gay man is regarded just as another man, which of course is all that he is.
Nigel Owens also suffered greatly from depression as he grew up, once attempting suicide as his desperation became unbearable. Thankfully, he came through that but his lifetime experiences can only benefit others, gay or straight, male of female, black or white; essentially everyone.
If sharing his experiences on these matters was not enough, Owens now reveals his lifelong fight with the emotional disorder bulimia. I remember Prince Diana sharing her experiences and John Prescott’s too, even thought the latter was predictably subject to ridicule by certain sections of the media. (Guess which sections.) Before they “came out”, so to speak, I had no idea what bulimia even was, but then I grew up with severe clinical depression and anxiety and no medical person thought it necessary to share the diagnosis with me until I was in my early thirties. Mind you, no one talked about mental illness in those days, by which I mean the 1980s, and obviously it didn’t exist. Bulimia was not a recent invention.
Thanks to people like Nigel Owens, things are changing. It is increasingly easier for people to come out as gay, as depressed, as suffering from bulimia. Not everywhere by all means, as I continue to discover at my own cost in the most surprising environments and circumstances. We need more Nigel Owens’, not less, and an acknowledgement that his incredible bravery and courage makes people’s lives better. He is an incredible man.
