Former New Zealand gby player Campbell Johnstone be first All Black to e out as gay | CNN

Contents:

• FORMER NEW ZEALAND GBY PLAYER CAMPBELL JOHNSTONE BE FIRST ALL BLACK TO E OUT AS GAY
• FORMER ALL BLACK CAMPBELL JOHNSTONE PRAISED AFTER PUBLICLY G OUT AS GAY
• CAMPBELL JOHNSTONE OUT AS GAY, FORMER ALL BLACKS GBY PLAYER HAS GLOBAL REACH
• DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI
• 20 YEARS OF GAY RUGBY NEW ZEALAND TO BE CELEBRATED ANNIVERSARY MATCH
• OPENLY GAY RUGBY PLAYER FEATURED IN RUGBY ATRALIA’S NEW #PARTOFMORE CAMPAIGN
• 'KIDS ARE KILLG THEMSELV': NRL'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER IAN ROBERTS BLASTS ISRAEL FOL

FORMER NEW ZEALAND GBY PLAYER CAMPBELL JOHNSTONE BE FIRST ALL BLACK TO E OUT AS GAY

Former New Zealand gby player Campbell Johnstone beme the first All Black to e out publicly as gay, an terview wh TVNZ’s Seven Sharp on Monday.

“If I n be the first All Black that out as gay and take away the prsure and stigma surroundg the issue n actually help other people, ” Johnstone said. The former New Zealand gby player Campbell Johnstone has bee the first All Black to e out as gay, sayg he hoped to “take away the prsure and the stigma” of dog so publicly. Johnstone, 43, said Seven Sharp TV terview that he had told iends and fay “a long time ago” that he was gay.

”New Zealand’s sports mister, Grant Robertson, who is also gay, said Johnstone had blazed a trail for the natnal team – which is domant on the world stage, venerated at home and has bee a multi-billn dollar global brand. The Black Ferns – the natnal women’s team – has multiple openly gay current and past players, cludg Louisa Wall, a former member of parliament who was part of the wng si at the 1995 Women’s Rugby World has been much rarer for men the sport’s top echelons to e out publicly. In 2009, the former Wal pta Gareth Thomas beme the first openly gay profsnal gby unn player the world.

FORMER ALL BLACK CAMPBELL JOHNSTONE PRAISED AFTER PUBLICLY G OUT AS GAY

Campbell Johnstone, a former gby player New Zealand who played for the natnal All Blacks team, has e out publicly as gay. “If I n be the first All Black that out as gay and take away the prsure and the stigma surroundg that whole issue, then n actually help other people, ” he said on the Seven Sharp TV program earlier today. Men’s gby has seen var stars e out publicly as gay over the years.

In light of recent ntroversy regardg homophobic slurs by Israel Fol, we thought we would she a light on 10 fluential gay gby personali. The players have bee a bean of light bee they overme stereotyp and other challeng faced by homosexual athlet way too often. 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.

That beg said, due to s physily, gby is regard as a “manly” sport, which mak more difficult for gay players to publicly acknowledge their preference. At the same time, there are many misnceptns about this betiful sport, which has led to the margalizatn and targetg of gay players. Some high-profile stars like Israel Fol have recently ma headl due to potentially homophobic posts on social media.

CAMPBELL JOHNSTONE OUT AS GAY, FORMER ALL BLACKS GBY PLAYER HAS GLOBAL REACH

This is one of the ma reasons why reprentativ of World Rugby met wh the lears of Internatnal Gay Rugby (IGR) to help eradite homophobia and tolerance om the game. Notable homosexual gby players and personali.

Here’s a list of ten notable gay gby players and how they are shapg the game today. The very first high-profile gby player to ever e out to the public as gay is former Atralian ternatnal Ian Roberts.

Even though Ian Roberts may have been the first high-profile player to openly adm beg gay, Keegan Hirst was the first to ever do while still active. Currently a Wakefield Try prop, Hirst has bee one of the most notable gay athlet, earng himself a startg role after signg a ntract wh the League si 2016.

DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI

Sam Stanley beme the first openly gay Rugby Unn and Sevens player the UK.

20 YEARS OF GAY RUGBY NEW ZEALAND TO BE CELEBRATED ANNIVERSARY MATCH

Although he never played gby at a profsnal level, Mark Bgham has bee an inic figure for gay gby players and sportspeople around the world. Known for his heroics durg the September 11 attacks, Bgham was a robt send-row man who played for the gay-clive San Francis Fog RFC. The Mark Kendall Bgham Memorial Tournament, simply known as the Bgham Cup, is a biennial gay gby unn tournament which was held for the first time 2002.

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. The Welshman is also a TV personaly and a voted activist for the LGBT e, wng “Gay Sports Personaly of the De” at the Stonewall awards ceremony London back 2015. As New Zealand's only reprentative natnal gay and clive gby team, recently, the NZ Falns played a pose team the Bgham Cup 2022 held Ottawa, Ontar.

The Christchurch Hero are a gay and clive gby team – meang they are LGBT iendly – and are associated wh the Christchurch Rugby Football Club, which was formed 1863 and claims to be the olst football club New Zealand and the send olst gby club the world. The Hero are Canterbury’s only gay and clive gby team and have jt fished their first season – their fal game was on the day the Csars beat the Lns to w back-to-back Super Rugby champnships - and they celebrated on the followg Friday night wh a functn at the cy’s so, attend by at least 300 people, all of whom left thoroughly entertaed early the next morng after several drag acts, a strip show or two, and, fally a dance party. As a team they are followg the sprig marks of the New Zealand Falns, a gay and clive team associated wh Auckland’s Ponsonby club, but the Hero are fg their own path Christchurch, a cy tradnally seen as extremely nservative.

OPENLY GAY RUGBY PLAYER FEATURED IN RUGBY ATRALIA’S NEW #PARTOFMORE CAMPAIGN

But the Hero, who take their posn as role mols extremely serly – knowg they will be sctised by both the gay and straight muni on and off the field – have found that isn’t necsarily the se.

It’s about clivy sport and challengg some of those stereotyp; both that the straight and gay muni have had. “What we’ve found sce myself and [fellow manager] Rawa [Karetai] and the team members have been volved is that there’s often the perceptn that there’s this massive amount of homophobia sport… I gus the gay muny and straight muny had their pre-nceptns. We expected a b more of a backlash or homophobia and th far there hasn’t been – we’ve actually been really well supported by the club.

'KIDS ARE KILLG THEMSELV': NRL'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER IAN ROBERTS BLASTS ISRAEL FOL

“We did a rearch project a few years ago on homophobia sport wh [human rights foundatn] Kaleidospe Atralia. In that report shows there is a lot of homophobia sport. A lot of them haven’t played gby before or they haven’t sce they were que young, and our experienc high school playg for the first XV or send XV, pecially at an all-boys school like myself, wasn’t very nice pecially if you were gay.