World's first gay gby club 20 years on | CNN

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
• TOP ENGLISH GBY REFEREE CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS OUT AS GAY
• CRAIG NAPIER BE FIRST STTISH REFEREE TO E OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
• WORLD RUGBY SIGNS HISTORIC AGREEMENT WH INTERNATNAL GAY RUGBY
• DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI
• THE ONLY GAY ON THE PCH
• WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TURNS 20: ‘NO-ONE HAD SEEN PLAYERS LIKE BEFORE’

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

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. 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.

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

The 32-year-old said he was spired by Blackpool striker Jake Daniels, who revealed his sexualy last month to bee the only active gay player Brish profsnal football.

"We look forward to llaboratg wh Internatnal Gay Rugby to promote clivy, equaly and iendship as gby ntu to reach out, engage and spire more men, women and children than ever before. Internatnal Gay Rugby Chairman Jeff Wilson said: "This is a momento ocsn for LGBT athlet, supporters, officials and admistrators and the people who support them the game of gby. 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. Fat, lonely, bulimic, addicted to steroids and secretly gay, Owens climbed high above the Welsh valley where he grew up and waed for the sleepg pills to take hold.

TOP ENGLISH GBY REFEREE CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS OUT AS GAY

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. 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.

Begng San Francis 1982, the Gay Gam have been held every four years sce that date and have grown to be a signifint sportg, cultural, and human rights mega-event.

CRAIG NAPIER BE FIRST STTISH REFEREE TO E OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY

In 2018 Gay Gam 10 Paris featured over 10, 000 participants across over thirty-six sports alongsi fourteen cultural events and an amic nference (Paris 2018 Gay Gam). 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). 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.

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”.

WORLD RUGBY SIGNS HISTORIC AGREEMENT WH INTERNATNAL GAY RUGBY

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”. 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.

Given the ndns, is unsurprisg to fd that gby has been regnized as enablg a culture that is pervasive wh homophobia and misogyny (Muir & Sez, 2004; Price & Parker, 2003).

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.

DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI

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. McCormack and Anrson (2010) intified that was primarily the (olr, heterosexual) ach who ma e of homophobic disurse an attempt to build masculy their (younger) players. 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.

THE ONLY GAY ON THE PCH

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. 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.

Wh a narrowg of acceptable behavr plac tradnally associated wh gay sociabily clive gby clubs may now be affordg a more clive range of homosexuali addn to masculi. 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.

WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TURNS 20: ‘NO-ONE HAD SEEN PLAYERS LIKE BEFORE’

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). RultsGay men’s participatn sport, general, and gby football, particular, has been the object of rearchers’ tert for years (Anrson, 2002, 2011; Bnier & Brownell, 2012). 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.