Gay former gby star Brennan Bastyovanszky recharg Vanuver Rogu | Geia Straight Vanuver's News & Entertament Weekly

Contents:

• VANUVER'S FIRST GAY AND CLIVE GBY TEAM IS BACK
• ‘IT WAS A SUCCS BEFORE WE STEPPED ON THE PCH’: HOW OTTAWA’S BGHAM CUP LIVERED FOR THE GAY AND CLIVE GBY MUNY
• INCLIVE RUGBY: HOW CANADA'S GAY RUGBY CLUBS OPEN THE SPORT TO ALL
• LIVGTOPICSALL LIVGSAVAGE LOVETRAVELASTROLOGYFROM THE VLTHEALTHSTYLELGBT+SEX & ROMANCEBT OF VANUVERTRANSPORATNCARTOONSHOMELS VANUVER LGBT+GAY FORMER GBY STAR BRENNAN BASTYOVANSZKY RECHARG VANUVER ROGU
• ALL GAY GBY CLUB TAK THE ADVANTAGE
• DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI
• GAY GBY'S BGHAM CUP TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD OTTAWA 2020
• OTTAWA WOLV TO HOST TERNATNAL GAY GBY TOURNAMENT 2020

VANUVER'S FIRST GAY AND CLIVE GBY TEAM IS BACK

The Bgham Cup, also known as the Mark Kendall Bgham Memorial Tournament, is the biennial world champnships of gay and clive gby. That same year the Wolv also beme a member of the Internatnal Gay Rugby, an anizatn signed to elimate discrimatn of sexual orientatns or intifitn the sport by providg members of the 2SLGBTQ+ muny a chance to play gby an clive gby club.

Brish ColumbiaThe Vanuver Rogu, first active 2002 to 2008, is back wh the hope of creatg a safe environment for people of different sexual orientatns and genr inti to enjoy the ntact Vanuver Rogu is recg players for a tournament next summerThe Vanuver Rogu gay and clive gby unn club, first found 2001, was revived early this year.

(Ty Mart)Brennan Bastyovanszky, 42, has played gby sce childhood and lov the sport — except for what he scrib as the prevalence of homophobic language wh mastream clubs.

‘IT WAS A SUCCS BEFORE WE STEPPED ON THE PCH’: HOW OTTAWA’S BGHAM CUP LIVERED FOR THE GAY AND CLIVE GBY MUNY

So early this year, he helped revive the Vanuver Rogu, a gby club clive to players of all sexual orientatns and genr club secretary says he has heard a lot of homophobic language om teammat durg his 25 years as a gby player  B. And the queer muny would have reprentatn the Bgham Cup, the world champnships of gay and clive gby, which will take place Ottawa next year.

"There were even ocsns when I was nonted, physilly threatened by people on my own team, " said Bastyovanszky, who later joed the Sydney Convicts, which scrib self as the first gay and clive gby unn club Atralia. Bastyovanszky revived the team after returng to Vanuver earlier this realized that the Bgham Cup, the biennial world champnships of gay and clive gby, was beg held Ottawa next Augt — and there wasn't a team reprentg the provce. "Canada a 'laggard' on homophobia sports, studi showOpnUnlike European sport, anti-gay sentiment still ns ep North Amerin leagu: Michael CorenLISTEN︱Brennan Bastyovanszky on why he revived the Vanuver Rogu gby club:Wh fil om The Early Edn.

INCLIVE RUGBY: HOW CANADA'S GAY RUGBY CLUBS OPEN THE SPORT TO ALL

(Bgham Cup/Amanda Tom)The world's largt amatr gby tournament has s openg ceremoni Ottawa Wednday, wh more than 1, 700 players om 20 untri sets this biennial tournament — the Bgham Cup — apart om others, is the fact has bee a world cup of gay and clive is the tourney's 10th anniversary, and is beg held Canada for the first time. In 2018, the Ottawa Wolv, Ottawa's only gay and clive team, flew to Amsterdam to prent our bid to get the hostg rights and after that we set about the bs of puttg the tournament on. "We're gog to gather the top sport rearchers, amics, legal mds and also lears om the sport Canada and we have ternatnal atten om everywhere to addrs and tackle transphobia and homophobia the sport, " Laberge said.

Organised by Internatnal Gay Rugby (IGR) and now among the largt amatr gby unn tournaments the world, the event’s two- history has seen pch up glamoro lotns rangg om London and New York Cy to Sydney and Amsterdam. This year, the petn was held Ottawa, which self boasts a vibrant LGBTQ+ muny and is also home to the Ottawa Wolv, one of the only gay and clive gby clubs Canada that lays claim to both a men’s and women’s si. Bgham himself played for San Francis Fog, the first gay and clive gby club on Ameri’s wt ast, and helped to tablish New York’s Gotham Knights.

LIVGTOPICSALL LIVGSAVAGE LOVETRAVELASTROLOGYFROM THE VLTHEALTHSTYLELGBT+SEX & ROMANCEBT OF VANUVERTRANSPORATNCARTOONSHOMELS VANUVER LGBT+GAY FORMER GBY STAR BRENNAN BASTYOVANSZKY RECHARG VANUVER ROGU

Acrdg to Amanda Mark, one of Bgham’s clost iends who travelled to Ottawa om Atralia for this year’s tournament and is also puttg her name to a women’s equivalent of the petn, he would have been “really thrilled” to see what the event has bee and how ntu to challenge stereotyp around what means to be gay.

The Bgham Cup might be a hub of acceptance and clivy but the same nnot always be said of sport at large, where sual homophobia remas an issue at both a grassroots and profsnal level. Speakg about his own experience, Laberge says that upon realisg he was gay as a teenager he no longer felt team sports was an environment where he “uld be or belong”.

There also would have been global attentn on the Universy of Ottawa’s Ftx Hall, which durg Bgham Cup week hosted an ternatnal summ on transphobia and homophobia sport, a pertent subject at a time when anisatns such as World Rugby and the Internatnal Rugby League (IRL) have troduced transgenr guil that some wh the LGBT muny have cricised for beg discrimatory. At a time when homophobia and hypermasculy still n rampant throughout men’s sports, clive gby clubs are settg a shg example of how teams n enurage participatn among those who have tradnally been unr-reprented across the game. Inclive clubs are muny lears, workg to elimate anti-lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer/qutng (LGBTQ) sentiment at the grassroots level, and provi opportuni for members of the LGBTQ muny to pete sports through tolerant and acceptg teams.

ALL GAY GBY CLUB TAK THE ADVANTAGE

They seek to eradite a culture of poisono ‘locker room talk’ – hateful chatter wh the tradnal space of gay slurs and macho pranks – and foc as much on mararie and team-buildg as they do on skill velopment. They regnize that many members of the LGBTQ muny who are terted sports have likely had to face some variatn of the ternal qutn “Do I want to be gay or do I want to be an athlete?

Its formal roots n be traced back to London, England 1995, when a small group of gay men met a pub (edor’s note: a perfect lole for the birth of a gby team) near Kg’s Cross to create the world’s first officially-regnized gay gby club. The olst, Toronto’s Muddy York RFC, has weled cisgenr gay men, trans men, and their alli to participate and pete sce the club was found 2003. I n speak to experiencg that kd of psdo-homophobic behavur the locker room wh teams that I’ve been on that I know would not have ma me feel weled if I were queer or trans.

Acrdg to Out on the Fields, the first ternatnal study on homophobia sports, while a majory of lbian and gay youths participate anized sports, more than 75% believe sports don’t offer them a safe environment. And, as Fancie allud to, a high percentage of participants of all sexuali (80%) reported wnsg or experiencg homophobia a sportg environment. On top of their regular league play Ontar and Quebec, all three Canadian clive clubs pete ternatnally the biennial Bgham Cup, the world champnship for ternatnal gay gby and the send largt gby tournament for 15-player teams the world (followg the Rugby World Cup).

DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI

Sce 2002, clive teams have gathered every other year a different cy to pete, celebrate gay cln gby, and honour the memory of Mark Bgham, for whom the Cup is named; he was a foundg member of two of the first gay gby clubs the Uned Stat before he died on Uned Airl Flight 93 durg the attacks on September 11, 2001. Tradnally held over Labour Day Weekend*, the annual tournament is open to all gay, bisexual, queer, trans and alli players, fans, and teams om across North Ameri.

“The tournament, as an stutn, is very valuable that giv gay gby clubs that have only been around for five or six years the chance to play agast others that have that same level of gby velopment unr their belt, ” adds Fancie.

GAY GBY'S BGHAM CUP TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD OTTAWA 2020

“We’ve reached the pot where we’re able to have ser nversatns about long-lastg gay gby Canada that n play a posive role helpg more people learn how to play gby, to be physilly active, to be part of a sport, and to bee better people as a rult, ” he says. “Supportg gay gby is a way for to put those prcipl to actn, and to put our money where our mouth is, bee at the end of the day, I firmly believe, as I hope that everyone do, that if you n play, there should be a space for you on a gby team. The drivg force behd the club's velopment was Royer, a Marketg & Public Relatns maven, and former print of Toronto's Muddy York, who serv as the Internatnal Gay Rugby Public Relatns Officer.

" In addn to the founrs, the Rabow Griffs will be n by an terim board prisg Fancial Planner Jamie Louren, Informatn Technology Development specialist Troy Hector, Internatnal Gay Rugby Chief Marketg Officer David Donnachie, strategic planng nsultant Marc Apduhan. “At all of the clubs, was a mon and jt accepted practice to e homophobic language, ” Bastyovanszky, 42, told the Straight by phone. Although he loved the mararie of gby and the lifelong bonds he’s formed through the sport, he also said that beg gay was an extra burn on him mentally.

OTTAWA WOLV TO HOST TERNATNAL GAY GBY TOURNAMENT 2020

“And I was always physilly aaid that if I me out or they found out I was gay, that I would be, like, physilly threatened or there would be physil vlence agast me. He joed Atralia’s first gay and clive gby team, the Sydney Convicts, and peted three tim for the Bgham Cup, which is known as the biennial world champnships of gay and clive first time was Manchter, England, 2012.

Rugby, not sexualy, is what's importantA uple of months ago, Bastyovanszky and others cid to revive the Vanuver Rogu, which was Canada's first gay and clive gby team back 2001 before disbandg said that the Bgham Cup is the largt 15-a-si tournament the world, wh more than 1, 000 registered players reprentg more than two dozen untri. Not only is that appealg to gay players who may have experienced trma the past om sports, but he said also ronat wh straight players who have backgrounds gby and other sports. Captas n help turn the tiRurrectg the Vanuver Rogu thrills Erik Denison, a former Vanuver journalist who nducts rearch at Monash Universy Atralia about ways to end discrimatory language a phone terview wh the Straight, Denison poted out that UBC has been one of the “world pneers” intifyg the harmful nsequenc of homophobia an example, Denison ced a study—led by Elizabeth Saewyc of UBC’s school of nursg and supported by the McCreary Centre Society—that found that gay boys play team sports at only half the rate of straight work enabled his team of rearchers to obta fundg om the Atralian ernment and the You Can Play project to look at fdg solutns.

“There hasn’t been one published study of an terventn to stop homophobia sport, whereas wh school bullyg, there have been hundreds of studi” Denison rearch, however, has unvered that ptas of var sports teams beme very ncerned about homophobia when they were shown data about LGBT+ suici rat, as well as the low participatn rate of gay kids sports.