Ben Cohen: Battling Homophobia Is His Duty

Rugby superstar Ben Cohen says he grew up around gay people and that helping to combat homophobia is his duty, according to an interview with website Accidental Bear. Asked about the inspiration for his desire to make people more accepting, Cohen replied that his views stem from meeting the guys and hearing their stories of bullying.

"We get literally hundreds of emails and Jill [Cohen's manager] passes them on for me to read," Cohen says. "That is what has spurred me on more that anything to make a noise about it and make people in general aware of what is going on. I grew up around gay people as my family had nightclubs and I used to spend a lot of time there. So to me it was normal. But when I realized that others were not so tolerant and people were taking their own lives through depression and harassment over their sexuality, I thought I had a duty to do something about it."

Cohen, a longtime opponent of homophobia in sports, recently launched the antibullying Ben Cohen Acceptance Tour with its "Beer with Ben" slogan in England and will visit Atlanta, New York, Seattle, and Washington next month. For more information, visit Cohen's site.