The only gay on the pch | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS: PREMIERSHIP GBY REFEREE ME OUT AS GAY VIA WHATSAPP
• WHO IS GBY REF NIGEL OWENS? WELSHMAN BRAVELY ME OUT AS GAY, FOUGHT BULIMIA AND OVERME SUICI
• DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI
• ‘I NSIRED CHEMIL STRATN,’ SAYS GAY GBY REFEREE NIGEL OWENS
• PNEERG GAY GBY REFEREE NIGEL OWNS LLED AN ‘ABOMATN’ HATEFUL, HOMOPHOBIC LETTER
• LIST | 5 GAY RUGBY STARS WHO ARE OUT AND PROUD
• GAY GBY LEAGUE REFEREE LIFTS LID ON HOW G OUT AFFECTED OFFICIATG REER
• GAY GBY REFEREE NIGEL OWENS URG FANS TO AVOID HOMOPHOBIA AT TWICKENHAM THIS WEEKEND
• FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME: A KIWI REF GO TO THE GAY GBY WORLD CUP
• THE ONLY GAY ON THE PCH
• STEELERS: THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY RUGBY CLUB
• TOP ENGLISH GBY REFEREE CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS OUT AS GAY

CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS: PREMIERSHIP GBY REFEREE ME OUT AS GAY VIA WHATSAPP

Craig Maxwell-Keys explas a cisn to Exeter Chiefs' Jack YeandleProfsnal gby has ntually embraced morn technology - so 's no surprise that Premiership referee Craig Maxwell-Keys took a siar approach towards g out as gay.

"Gunng over prejudice to chase Olympic dreamMaxwell-Keys drifted towards beg a match official by chance - he broke his wrist playg for Lichfield as a youngster and, while reverg om the jury, he enrolled on a refereeg and tly bten by the refereeg bug, he took charge at the Staffordshire Unr-12 Ftival at the age of 17 and worked his way up the ladr to bee a full-time referee urse, Maxwell-Keys is not the only openly gay gby referee - Nigel Owens, who me out 2007, is one of the sport's hight-profile officials and has featured at three World Cups. But on the odd ocsn – on the very, very odd ocsn that there were homophobic ments shouted at me om the spectators – was heard by other people and was reported to the relevant bodi and they managed to al wh the suatn. In this article, we’ll name ten of the most notable gay gby personali, analyze their acplishments, discs how they are shapg the game today, and asss their impact on the overall perceptn of homosexual profsnal athlet around the world.

Thomas publicly me out 2009 and has sce scribed his experience as a secretly gay player, revealg how the social prsure and stereotyp pose a signifint challenge for many athlet today. As an openly gay figure one of the most mascule of sports Nigel Owens is a rary – but he might never have achieved his inic stat gby unn if he had gone ahead wh plans for a chemil stratn. However, he believ the mcular world of gby unn is way ahead of other global sports when to acceptg gay stars, although Gareth Thomas beme the first profsnal player to open up about his sexualy as recently as 2009.

WHO IS GBY REF NIGEL OWENS? WELSHMAN BRAVELY ME OUT AS GAY, FOUGHT BULIMIA AND OVERME SUICI

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In November 2014, two gby fans were banned for two years and each orred to pay £1, 000 ($1, 250) to a chary of gay referee Nigel Owens’ choice after the Welshman was verbally abed while officiatg an ternatnal match between England and Wal at Twickenham.

DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI

The RFU said supported ne gay gby clubs across England, and planned to bid for the right to aga stage the biennial ternatnal Bgham Cup tournament – an amatr gay gby unn tournament – which was held Manchter 2012.

It said s “We Call It Rugby” mpaign featured an advert aimed at breakg down barriers for LGBT people, profilg the gay and clive Manchter Spartans club, and overall the seri of vios had reached almost 35 ln people through outdoor advertisg, social media and televisn. “From the evince we have received this quiry, we believe there are many gay athlet who have not e out, bee they are ightened of the impact this cisn will have on their reers, and the liv of the people they love, ” chair of the mtee, MP Damian Colls, said a statement.

‘I NSIRED CHEMIL STRATN,’ SAYS GAY GBY REFEREE NIGEL OWENS

Gay gby league referee Jam Child has opened up on how revealg his sexualy publicly for the first time 2021 affected his officiatg reerJam Child beme the first Super League referee to announce he was gay 2021 Retired gby league referee Jam Child claims he 'felt more rpect' om players he officiated after revealg his sexualy. Beyond an obv passn for gby that has brought them further than any other team to the tournament, the players of such disparate experience have somethg else mon – most of them are gay. The Bgham Cup is referred to as the ‘gay gby World Cup’ but the teams bill themselv as clive – there is no requirement to be LGBTQ+, only to play gby a spir that wel LGBTQ+ people to the game.

And Owens is not jt an exceptn gby; apart om the tennis player Amélie Mrmo, virtually no ternatnal gay or lbian sports star still playg has publicly discsed their sexualy. "When I me out, took a lot of weight off my shoulrs that I was accepted, that I was gay and ma no difference, " he explas, soundg and lookg like any of the sually drsed sportsmen who pad around the untry hoe hotel near Cardiff where we meet. As a rult, has tradnally rerced an orthodox form of twentieth-century masculy that is lked to those who are whe, middle class, able-bodied, and, most important to this analysis, heterosexual (Symons, 2009) is now wily regnized, however, that twenty-first-century sport is a social stutn that shap and impacts upon the liv of gay and lbian athlet too.

Sce soclogist first began to qutn the role that sport plays the productn and reproductn of mascule inty the mid-1980s (Dunng, 1986), there was a slow progrsn om examg sport as a se of male ntrol over women, to regnizg the tersectn between sport and sexualy that rults om the largely heteronormative and homophobic culture of profsnal sport the 1990s and the first of the twenty-first century (Rowe, Markwell, & Stevenson, 2006) was this hospable perd of time that gave rise to sexual orientatn-segregated sportg spac for gay men.

PNEERG GAY GBY REFEREE NIGEL OWNS LLED AN ‘ABOMATN’ HATEFUL, HOMOPHOBIC LETTER

The Gay Gam, while spired by the Olympic Gam, were troduced to foster cln rponse to the “apparent racism, sexism, natnalism, homophobia and elism” prent the mastream gam (Symons, 2009, p.

Concerng the foc of this chapter, gby, the first soclogil vtigatn occurred the Uned Kgdom by Price and Parker (2003) and they found the existence of the untry’s first gay club (formed 1995) was prcipally anized around pg perceived or actual homophobia of mastream new Millennium brought chang attus toward homosexualy, not only to society, but also to mastream sport (Anrson, 2014).

LIST | 5 GAY RUGBY STARS WHO ARE OUT AND PROUD

Exemplifyg this shift empirilly, the first prehensive vtigatn of the experienc of gay mal playg on ostensibly heterosexual teams was nducted by Anrson 2005, and he found that matters had begun to change.

GAY GBY LEAGUE REFEREE LIFTS LID ON HOW G OUT AFFECTED OFFICIATG REER

This was a fdg that was affirmed by yet further outlook upon the gay male athlet by straight men 2011 (Anrson, 2011), has been repeatedly shown that heterosexual athlet, generally, are creasgly acceptg of homosexualy (Anrson, Magrath, & Bullgham, 2016; Anrson & McCormack, 2015; Bh, Anrson, & Carr, 2012) reason for this acceptance has to do wh changg attudal disposn toward gay men and changg masculy among heterosexual mal. Anrson (2009) has argued that an clive masculy is now the norm for “Whe, middle class men; both si and outsi of sport” rather than the “domeerg, homophobic behavurs and attus of orthodox masculy”. 347) was the first to e the term “clive masculy” to scribe mascule performanc that view hegemonic masculy as unsirable wh a willgns to embrace femy “ls ncerned wh migatg homosexual spicn through homophobia and heterosexism”.

GAY GBY REFEREE NIGEL OWENS URG FANS TO AVOID HOMOPHOBIA AT TWICKENHAM THIS WEEKEND

There is also evince for creasg societal acceptance of gay athlet and a softeng of media attus toward gay male athlet both the Uned Kgdom and Uned Stat wh a shift toward clive masculy (Cleland, 2014, 2018; Kian & Anrson, 2009) and MasculyRugby, which Dunng (1986, p. In this manner, twentieth-century gby players nsolidated their masculy wh gby servg to privilege prence of gay players the hypermascule, physil gby environment may be the ultimate subversn of the myth of gay men beg effemate and un-mascule (Symons, 2010), a siar manner to the challeng to tradnal nstctns of femy that female players prent (Wright & Clarke, 1999).

This is bee the volvement of gay players a space that has been a fundamental source of heterosexual male power unrm masculy and challeng the boundary between gay and straight mal and ultimately the perceived differenc between men and women as a whole (Anrson, 2002) example, former Welsh ternatnal player, Gareth Thomas—who is one of the most well-known and rpected players Welsh gby history (McGivern & Miller, 2017; Zhu, 2016)—me out December 2009, to an “overwhelmgly supportive” rponse (McCormack & Anrson, 2010, p. His rerd as one of the most succsful players the sport, bed wh his mascule appearance and physil playg style were certaly ntrary to the mythil reprentatns of gay mal and may expla the posive rponse. Th, there has been a softeng of the culture associated wh playg gby, driven by younger players g through the system who are creasgly rejectg, if not challengg the prevly accepted e of homophobic disurse that is ed by olr members of the gby muny.

Price and Parker (2003) found that the overridg reason for players jog one gay gby team was that the clive club offered a “safe and iendly sportg environment” (Price & Parker, 2003, p. 118) and a haven for those who had been exclud or ostracized om the mastream gby their analysis, Price and Parker (2003) examed the Kgs Cross Steelers Rugby Football Club, an amatr gby club based London and the self-claimed world’s first gay gby club. The number of gay gby clubs around the world has steadily grown, spurred by the creatn of The Internatnal Gay Rugby Associatn and Board (IGRAB) Ireland, the first gay gby team was found 2003.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME: A KIWI REF GO TO THE GAY GBY WORLD CUP

Atralia’s first gay gby club, the Sydney Convicts have been embraced by the cy’s gby muny wh s founr Andrew Purchas award the Orr of Atralia medal that regniz outstandg achievement and service by Atralians.

Fdg participants for this rearch was not difficult as the number of clive men’s gby teams has grown om ls than a dozen clubs one ago to eighty-four clubs the Uned Kgdom and Wtern Europe as regnized by and registered wh the Internatnal Gay Rugby Board. Semi-stctured terviews of ten players om each team occurred alongsi, participant observatn and wrten rpons to a participant-requted qutnnaire provid sight to the ratnale as to why the men seek to bee members of the nearly all gay men clive clubs. As one gay player said wh a lgh, “They jt don’t know they’re gay yet” the nature of clive club members who participated this rearch we opted to exclu heterosexual members of the clubs (only five heterosexual players were intified over the urse of the rearch).

What is unique, however, is the growg number of clive gay men’s sports teams which were, ostensibly, begun to promote the sport of gby among an overlooked and unrreprented populatn.

THE ONLY GAY ON THE PCH

Intertgly, the promotn of the sport at the natnal level the Uned Kgdom lags far behd the grassroots anizg of clive gay men’s teams begun jt over twenty years ago London (, 2016).

Ined, only has been the last five years that gay men’s clive teams have begun to ga a foothold gby, albe still somewhat on the borrs and not the mastream of the gby world. The purpose, rather, was to explore via a ground theoretil approach the possibly changg stcture of gby the Uned Kgdom as relat to the rise clive gay men’s gby teams and their impact on the sport England and beyond. Anrson has repeatedly argued and shown that while homophobia is rapidly creasg, as mori, gay men will always exist wh some cultural i of homophobia, or at least heteronormativy (Anrson, 2009).

That fdg alone mak this rearch novel: This is not the experience of gay men clive clubs prevly (Price & Parker, 2003) addn, the nature of masculi as pertas to the social, cultural, and temporal experience of many of the participants was examed but did not bee a central foc of this rearch.

STEELERS: THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY RUGBY CLUB

Instead, our thematic dg found three new areas of tert this vtigatn: (1) the social pal sought by and gaed by many participants on clive men’s gby clubs, (2) clubs’ prence for many gay men as a “safe haven”, and (3) for some gay men their participatn wh the clive gby club was merely a hobby and a means for them to meet other gay men wh siar terts sport. He later wanted to expla that he unrstood that not only his fellow clive men’s gby teammat saw him as a gay man and member of the club, but that when he wore his Hampshire jersey on non-gby days while walkg or travelg around town other townspeople “probably knew” he is gay. The nversatn wh the two spectators/former players was direct reference to ncerns exprsed by rearchers regard to ncsns and the effect of improper tacklg techniqu on younger players England and elsewhere (Pollock, Whe, & Kirkwood, 2017) then followed was a nversatn between the two approximately seventy-year-old former Rochter Rugby Club players when asked about chang the sexual orientatn/genr inty of current players, and not the laws of the game, regard to acceptance of gay men most levels of the sport.

A few sub-them emerged discsg the rise of clive gby teams wh admistrators, spectators, gay players, and players om non-clive clubs, openly intifyg as gay or otherwise, when the first rearcher met wh members of an clive gay men’s club and men om another non-clive club. The first of the them is nearly all participants om the “normal” teams were aware about some gby unterparts—and teammat are gay—and no one terviewed seemed to give the matter a send thought. Members of the clive teams agreed wh that asssment wh his teammate addg that the history of English gby was such that, “if you were good (at the game), didn’t matter (if you were gay.

At the re of McCormack and Wignall’s argument is tent; and the tent of the men was that of bondg through banter the way McCormack and Anrson (2010) have also shown occurs between gay and straight male ncept of the “normalcy” of homosexualy arose a number of tim durg other terviews wh the clive gby team members. Asked why he and his gay teammat did not ntue playg gby wh their straight iends, he psed as he looked across at another field where approximately fifty men age seventeen to approximately thirty-five were trag while his clive team’s group of twenty players worked out on another field, and said, “It jt was done that way” the advent of the first openly all-gay men’s team, the London Steelers, the mid-1990s and then the San Francis Fog 2001, gay men were not seen as mascule enough (Anrson, 2005b), as one clive team player said, to play gby after sendary school and to their universy years. What this separatn of straight and gay gby players effectively did was create a divisn of active gby participatn between the two groups begng at age ten to twelve years (om sendary school to universy) until well after universy years.

TOP ENGLISH GBY REFEREE CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS OUT AS GAY

Interviews wh the clive team players suggt that most of the gay men did not re-emerge on the gby scene until they were their late twenti to early men, seekg to fd a team for which they uld play, would oftentim, many players said, approach a “normal” team’s club admistrator or pta and say they were terted playg. “We get ”, the pta said as the four walked back to their trag notn of homophobia, perceived or otherwise, rarely emerged discsg the “safe haven” ncept wh the clive team players and is discsed below.