Nude Rugby Player Dedicates Life to GLBT Rights

He's Ben Cohen, the UK Rugby player who announced his retirement this week to pursue his anti-bullying campaign for gays worldwide. Even though he's straight and married with twins, our heart is helplessly going pitta-pat, pitta-pat.

After 15 years playing professional Rugby, and taking scads of hunky shirtless photos, Ben will now focus that hot-blooded attention to being Chairman of the BenCohen StandUp Foundation, dedicated to combating homophobia. On being a World Cup-winning hetero athlete who sounds the clarion bell for gay rights, the scruffy stud says,

"In my view, rugby is a very inclusive sport. Everyone can get involved in one way or another, so I will be using it as a vehicle to drive my message of acceptance out to people from all walks of life, everywhere. There is a lot of work to be done. Attitudes need to change. Young people should not be bullied into taking their own lives. That is what is happening and it needs to stop."

Can he marry us, too?

If you'd like to see Ben, he's kicking off his USA Acceptance Tour this week. Get details here. If he really wants a turnout, he should arrive dressed like in all the above pics, preferably in less.) Interesting fact: Ben's clinically deaf!

"I am 30% deaf in each ear which tends to mean I can't hear people. So that can be a challenge on the pitch but I have a keen eye and make up for it there. I do get teased quite a bit about it. It does worry me a bit though because sometimes people think I am being rude and that I am ignoring them, but in fact I haven't heard them."

Ben, hear this! Gays everywhere thank you for not only standing up for us, but for being brave enough to do so in the often hostile anti-gay world of professional sports. We'll definitely join you in standing up—every, er, inch of us.

· Ben Retires from Rugby to Run StandUp (ben-cohen.com)
· TowleRoad Interview: Ben Cohen (towleroad.com)
· Photos via here and here and here.

Update: A previous nude shot we posted of Ben was actually, ahem, not of Ben. Oh, you tricky internets, you fooled us!