Ben Cohen opens up about beg a gay in: It's excg to bridge the gap between gay and straight people - Mirror Onle

Contents:

• SAM STANLEY IS FIRST ENGLISH GBY PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY
• LESTER’S NICK MCCARTHY OUT AS GAY AND THANKS CLUB FOR THEIR SUPPORT
• DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI
• SAM STANLEY BE FIRST ENGLISH GBY UNN PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY
• LIST | 5 GAY RUGBY STARS WHO ARE OUT AND PROUD
• 10 GAY RUGBY PLAYERS WHO MA THEIR COME OUT
• BEN COHEN OPENS UP ABOUT BEG A GAY IN: IT'S EXCG TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN GAY AND STRAIGHT PEOPLE
• LIST | THE SPIRATNAL GBY UNN PLAYERS WHO’VE E OUT AS GAY
• WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TURNS 20: ‘NO-ONE HAD SEEN PLAYERS LIKE BEFORE’
• JOG THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY TEAM CHANGED MY LIFE. SO I MA A FILM ABOUT
• RUGBY PLAYER GRABS OPPONENT’S CROTCH AND A GAY FORMER PLAYER MAK A JOKE OF

SAM STANLEY IS FIRST ENGLISH GBY PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY

"Stanley's cisn to make his sexualy public after Batley Bulldogs prop Keegan Hirst last month beme the first gby league player to openly e out as ternatnal Gareth Thomas was prevly the only openly homosexual gby player after he me out whilst playg for gby unn si Cardiff Blu , who ptaed Wal and the Brish and Irish Lns, went on to play for league si Csars before retirg, but Hirst was the first player to e out publicly whilst playg the 13-man, leadg referee Nigel Owens, who is due to officiate at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, me out 2007. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho/ShutterstockFellow Lester player Dunne revealed his bisexualy last year, around the same time Nassib announced he was gay and a few months before Atralian Cavallo ma headl across the world by sharg his news.

LESTER’S NICK MCCARTHY OUT AS GAY AND THANKS CLUB FOR THEIR SUPPORT

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. Wh lots of new Gay & Inclive Rugby Clubs settg up across the globe each year, ’s more and more likely that you live close enough to one to get volved wh and enjoy all kds of gby – regardls of your genr, sexualy, ethnicy, relign, size or gby the Map Search below or scroll through the Global Club Listgs lower down this page to fd an IGR club. Rugby is one of the most loved sports the world and due to s physily, is regard as a “manly” sport, which mak more difficult for gay players to publicly acknowledge their preference.

DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI

It is the sport’s rponsibily to posively promote anti-homophobia, and anti-bullyg general, so that the majory of people who are acceptg have a lour voice than those who prott. Followg the footsteps of Ian Roberts who may have been the first high-profile player to openly adm beg gay, Keegan Hirst was arguably the first ever to do while still actively playg gby. In an terview wh the Sunday Mirror, the now divorced father of two and self-nfsed gay tells of the moment he fally found the words to expla to his wife the reason they uld no longer be together.

As a young spired player he stated, “…this is pretty spirg for me as a fairly new player who happens to be gay, I had held off pursug gby bee of but the guys i play wh give no shs whatsoever and we have good banter about .

A large athlete at 6 ft 4 (193 cm) and 225 pounds (102 kg), Bgham was a robt send-row man who played for the gay-clive San Francis Fog RFC and was a favore for his teammat the gby songs that he tght them. To honor him, The Mark Kendall Bgham Memorial Tournament, simply known as the Bgham Cup and was started 2002, is a biennial gay gby unn tournament is named after the former gby player. The former England gby unn ternatnal player adms he was surprised by his "gay in" stat as he gears up to mark the ath of his father wh new anti-bullyg mpaignBen CohenHe was one of the world’s most fearsome gby players - a 6ft 3s powerhoe who helped England w the gby World Cup.

SAM STANLEY BE FIRST ENGLISH GBY UNN PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY

” Dcribg how he began his work, Ben add: “I was pletely unaware of any gay followg until one day about seven or eight years ago, I got a msage out of the blue om a French lad, Lrence, om Paris. “I started to hear their stori and realised that we were sufferg the same sort of pa and anguish but at the hands of other people - me wh what happened to my dad and the knock on effect that had on my whole fay, and them wh pg que often wh homophobia, ” he said.

LIST | 5 GAY RUGBY STARS WHO ARE OUT AND PROUD

“So I really enjoyed playg gby agast straight men, wh my gay teammat, bee for me kd of proved that we were jt as mascule as they were – that we n be jt as physil as they are. 5, 597: The number of homophobic crim reported to police England and Wal 2014/1522%: Increase on prev year11%: Of all hate crim reported to police were based on victims’ sexual orientatn Figur urty the Home Office. “When I first played for a gay gby club, I turned up, put on my boots, and was exactly the same as any other gby club I’d ever played for – the difference was I felt I uld be myself a way I wasn’t at other clubs.

Here, queer people were reclaimg their place on the pch – an arena they grew up beg told they didn’t belong Israel Fol began postg “hell awas homosexuals” on social media I realised I had to tell the story of the club – and my own story. There was the ocsnal homophobic sledge, but over time the Steelers won the rpect of the straight burly Brish men bee not only did they beat them on ocsn, they showed them that we’re all pretty much the forward to me takg my mera to Amsterdam to film the club at the Bgham Cup, the world cup of “rabow” gby.

10 GAY RUGBY PLAYERS WHO MA THEIR COME OUT

It was only when Israel Fol began postg “hell awas homosexuals” on social media that I realised I had to tell the story of the club – and my own like Dan Palmer, I too have Fol to thank small part. 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.

BEN COHEN OPENS UP ABOUT BEG A GAY IN: IT'S EXCG TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN GAY AND STRAIGHT PEOPLE

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”. 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.

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.

LIST | THE SPIRATNAL GBY UNN PLAYERS WHO’VE E OUT AS GAY

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.

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

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. 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.

JOG THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY TEAM CHANGED MY LIFE. SO I MA A FILM ABOUT

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.

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.

RUGBY PLAYER GRABS OPPONENT’S CROTCH AND A GAY FORMER PLAYER MAK A JOKE OF

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.