Home - Internatnal Gay Rugby

Contents:

• NASHVILLE’S GAY RUGBY TEAM STRIPS DOWN, SHOWERS UP FOR 2016 CALENDAR: PHOTOS
• HEARD OF THE STEELERS? NO, NOT THEM, THE GAY GBY TEAM OM LONDON
• JOG THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY TEAM CHANGED MY LIFE. SO I MA A FILM ABOUT
• RUDY GAY REPORTEDLY DRAWG INTERT FROM 5 TEAMS
• GAY RUGBY LEAGUE PLAYER SAYS HE'S SEEN MUCH 'GAYER' THGS IN SPORTS CHANGG ROOMS
• DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI
• LIST | 5 GAY RUGBY STARS WHO ARE OUT AND PROUD
• “WE HAVE THE CHANCE TO BE ROLE MOLS FOR OTHER GAY FOLKS WHO WANTED TO PLAY SPORTS, BUT NEVER FELT GOOD ENOUGH OR STRONG ENOUGH. MORE IMPORTANTLY, WE HAVE THE CHANCE TO SHOW THE OTHER TEAMS THE LEAGUE THAT WE ARE AS GOOD AS THEY ARE. GOOD GBY PLAYERS. GOOD PARTIERS. GOOD SPORTS. GOOD MEN.”
• WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB THAT BEAT THE BIGOTS BY TACKLG HOMOPHOBIA GETS S OWN FILM

NASHVILLE’S GAY RUGBY TEAM STRIPS DOWN, SHOWERS UP FOR 2016 CALENDAR: PHOTOS

As did last year, the Nashville Grizzli gay and clive gby team jt released s 2016 fundraisg lendar and the gby beef is on display aga to raise money for the team and their hostg of next year's Bgham Cup! “We were found 2006 and are the only gay and clive gby team Nashville.

RELATED: USA Rugby and Int'l Gay Rugby Sign Agreement to Rid the Sport of Homophobia. “We will host the Bgham Cup, world champnship of gay gby, here Nashville May 2016. Named after Mark Bgham, who died the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Bgham Cup is the biggt tournament the world for gay and clive teams and this will be the first year has been hosted the South.

RELATED: Keegan Hirst Be First Brish Pro Rugby League Player to Come Out as Gay: ‘Now I Feel Free'.

HEARD OF THE STEELERS? NO, NOT THEM, THE GAY GBY TEAM OM LONDON

And Don't Miss Last Year's Hotns: Nashville's Gay Rugby Team Gets Wet, Muddy, and Shirtls for New Calendar: PHOTOS.

As Towleroad reported earlier this year, USA Rugby, the natnal erng body for the sport of gby unn the Uned Stat, has signed “a memorandum of unrstandg” wh Internatnal Gay Rugby ahead of next year's Bgham Cup Nashville. ConttThe Gotham Knights Rugby Football Club is a Divisn III men's club the Empire GU of New York and a member of Internatnal Gay Rugby (IGR). The Knights are one of the top petive clubs at the Bgham Cup, a biannual ternatnal gay/clive gby unn tournament.

The Knights beme the Internatnal Gay Rugby Champns at the 2010 Bgham Cup Mneapolis, Mnota. Through our 15 year history we have proudly field teams of diverse athlet of all skill levels and dited experience to petivens, excellence and fns gby while refutg negative stereotyp of the Gay/Bi-sexual male athletic muny. While our membership is not Gay/Bisexual exclive, all active members fully support their Gotham Rugby brothers and support the Gotham Missn to the LGBTQ muny.

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

Internatnal Gay Rugby is a Charable Inrporated Organisatn, registered England and Wal wh our registered office at 71 Holland Road, Wt Ham, London, E15 3BP, England, Uned Kgdom (Chary Number – 1154241) provi our member clubs wh velopment support and rourc the areas of club anisatn, recment, retentn, fundraisg, event management, and, regnal and natnal unn relatns. To mark their 20th anniversary as the UK's first gay gby team, the Kgs Cross Steelers stipped down and posed for a new book to be published by die 'ze Meat.

RUDY GAY REPORTEDLY DRAWG INTERT FROM 5 TEAMS

All the players were photographed by Meat's founr, Adrian, who started Meat 2010, said that he was "tired of the body shamg that go on wh the gay muny.

GAY RUGBY LEAGUE PLAYER SAYS HE'S SEEN MUCH 'GAYER' THGS IN SPORTS CHANGG ROOMS

" His aim is to "celebrate the bodi of 'ordary gay men. The Steelers has not only helped pave the way for clive gby teams but also helped hanged perceptns about gay sportsmen.

"Alex Smh, Chairman of the Kgs Cross Steelers said: "Dpe so much progrs over the last 20 years, n still be very difficult to be an out gay man, ma even more so by a lot of unhelpful noise around how to be, act or look wh the muny.

DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI

"He add: "For two s, our club has helped hundreds of men - big, small, gay or straight - realize the great maxim about gby: that is a game for people of all shap and siz - tly a sport for everyone. Niamh LewisMar 1, 2021, 09:52 AM ETWhen Eammon Ashton-Atkson, an Atralian televisn reporter, cid to film his gby club as they went to the biannual Bgham Cup 2018, he uld never have imaged the posive reactn a documentary about would film Steelers is about London-based Kgs Cross Steelers, the world's first gay gby club and one of over 60 such sis world-wi.

Although the stori the film are related to the stggl of g out, prsn, and a history of bullyg for beg gay, they're are told a way which wir dienc n empathise wh. "It's a story about a gay gby club, but 's also a story about human stggle, and people g sport and their sense of muny to help each other, which is universal, " Ashton-Atkson told ESPN. "She's got a certifite for the hight achg level, and sce she left the Steelers she's been nsistently overlooked and not even shortlisted [for jobs] than men who are ls qualified and ls experienced than her, which is heart-breakg and disgtg, " Ashton-Atkson beg gay 2021 wtern society is often unremarkable today, you don't have to go back very far to fd trmatic stori.

"But, if 's easier to e out now, then why do we need gay gby clubs? "That's a thought that do go through your md, and while 's generally a posive there are still pockets of homophobia. Then, 2019, Atralia's Israel Fol spouted his famo anti-gay ments on Instagram, sayg "hell awas" gay opened the drawer and started the ed aga om scratch, and turned to the unnventnal documentary has bee.

LIST | 5 GAY RUGBY STARS WHO ARE OUT AND PROUD

"Wh beg gay, you don't thk that I grew up sperately wantg to change my sexualy, like, wishg the gay away? They were dubbed the tabloids as 'Harlequeens, ' there was homophobic ments, and a fear over ntractg HIV and AIDS.

"For those of who grew up when wasn't ok to be gay, jt really before the ter was mon, there was huge stigma.

You had Margaret Thatcher's Sectn 28 [a law brought the UK by a Conservative ernment om 1988-2003 to the "prohib the promotn of homosexualy"], misnceptns about the HIV vis, " Ashton-Atkson explas.

“WE HAVE THE CHANCE TO BE ROLE MOLS FOR OTHER GAY FOLKS WHO WANTED TO PLAY SPORTS, BUT NEVER FELT GOOD ENOUGH OR STRONG ENOUGH. MORE IMPORTANTLY, WE HAVE THE CHANCE TO SHOW THE OTHER TEAMS THE LEAGUE THAT WE ARE AS GOOD AS THEY ARE. GOOD GBY PLAYERS. GOOD PARTIERS. GOOD SPORTS. GOOD MEN.”

"For those guys who were settg up that team 1995, they were real trailblazers bee they were gog out to different teams Essex week--week out smashg down stereotyp one game of gby at a time and om what I heard, the men Essex, they had never met an openly gay man before, let alone an openly gay sportsman.

However, "There are still issu wh homophobia and homophobic language beg ed on the pch.

"And one of the thgs we've been workg on wh Harlequs and Monash Universy is that a lot of that isn't actually homophobia, 's the culture of clubs, the challeng of languag not beg followed through. The former Wallabi prop scribed a moment when he was drivg recklsly, the feelg of “ath felt preferable to anybody disverg [he] was gay. Not jt any gby club, the world’s first gay gby club, the Kgs Cross Steelers London.

WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB THAT BEAT THE BIGOTS BY TACKLG HOMOPHOBIA GETS S OWN FILM

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. Photograph: One Man Band MediaIn fact, om this sgle club, there are now 80 gay and clive gby clubs around the world cludg five Atralia.