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

Contents:

• WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB THAT BEAT THE BIGOTS BY TACKLG HOMOPHOBIA GETS S OWN FILM
• HEARD OF THE STEELERS? NO, NOT THEM, THE GAY GBY TEAM OM LONDON
• 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
• “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.”
• DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI
• STEELERS: THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY RUGBY CLUB
• LESTER’S NICK MCCARTHY OUT AS GAY AND THANKS CLUB FOR THEIR SUPPORT
• THIS GAY JOURNALIST MA A MOVIE ABOUT HIS LIFE-CHANGG CISN TO JO WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB
• TACKLG HOMOPHOBIC ATTUS: THE STRAIGHT MEN WHO PLAY FOR GAY GBY CLUBS

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

World's first gay gby club that beat the bigots by tacklg homophobia gets s own film 25 years after beg found by Tory peer Lord HaywardKg's Cross Steelers were first set up 1995 at the world's first gay gby clubThe team was found by Tory Lord Hayward, who is also s chairmanA documentary lled 'Steelers' is set to screen at the Glasgow film ftival A team member - a TV news reporter – said he was spired to make the film after Atralian gby player Israel Fol said 2019 that ‘hell awas’ homosexuals Published: 00:48 BST, 20 Febary 2021 | Updated: 08:32 BST, 20 Febary 2021.

When the world’s first gay gby club was set up 1995, Rob Hayward had a stock reply to wags who asked if his team played pk shirts. For a llectn of gay men we agreed remarkably quickly on our lours – midnight blue and emerald green! ’Tory Lord Hayward is ed to puzzled looks when people learn that he is founr and chairman of Kgs Cross Steelers – a gay gby team – who tell their story a new film.

The club was found 1995 as the first gay Rugby club by Tory Lord, Robert HaywardBack the 1980s at the height of the Aids panmic, he sat silent rage on the Commons backbench as fellow Conservative MPs dulged anti-gay rhetoric. He felt ‘eply unfortable’, not least bee he was stgglg to e to terms wh his own electns expert who has advised Boris Johnson, Thera May and David Cameron, Hayward didn’t clare he was gay until a few years after he left the Commons was around the time he got volved wh the gby film featur players such as Drew McDowell, whose off-pch alter ego is drag queen ‘Drewalic’ member Eammon Ashton-Atkson – a TV news reporter – said he was spired to make the film after Atralian gby player Israel Fol said 2019 that ‘hell awas’ homosexuals. And Hayward, 71, said opponents also shout homophobic tnts on the pch.

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

But while other teams lim drkg, Steelers n e gay datg app Grdr for only a limed time to mata ‘disciple’. Pictured: Players for the Kg's Cross Steelers actn agast a rival team Club member Eammon Ashton-Atkson – a TV news reporter – said he was spired to make the film after Atralian gby player Israel Fol said 2019 that ‘hell awas’ homosexuals.

Hayward retorted: ‘If they’re gog to be racist, what will they do when they fd out we’re all gay? They were terrified of ‘beg the first ever club to lose to a gay team’.

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

Hayward said that as the upg film shows, the club has been a lifele for many gay peopleThe Steelers are now a faiar part of the London gby scene.

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

Hayward said that as the film shows, the club has been a lifele for many gay people.

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. 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.

“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.”

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.

DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI

"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.

"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.

STEELERS: THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY RUGBY CLUB

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. "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. First gay gby club found 20 years ago.

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

The first time Mark Bhell and his all-gay gby team led up agast a straight si, he was overe by a sense of his own masculy. For much of his life, the Brish lawyer had been told that beg gay somehow ma him ls of a man. Yet standg shoulr-to-shoulr wh his gay teammat, he felt liberated.

“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. Bhell was one of the early players to jo the Kgs Cross Steelers, the world’s first gay gby club, which this year celebrat s 20th anniversary.

What started when six iends met a bar north London 1995, wh the ia of formg a gay-clive gby team, has sce turned to a club wh over 150 members and three teams. The Steelers have won the European petn for gay gby clubs, the Unn Cup, on four ocsns.

THIS GAY JOURNALIST MA A MOVIE ABOUT HIS LIFE-CHANGG CISN TO JO WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB

As the 2015 Rugby World Cup enters s fal stag, there are no openly-gay players the tournament. However, wily-rpected gay referee Nigel Owens officiated three pool gam and a quarterfal, but is not volved this weekend’s semis.

He’s not alone his stggle – former Wal pta Gareth Thomas beme the first profsnal gby player to publicly announced he was gay 2009. But when the Kgs Cross Steelers lnched two s ago, homosexual profsnal gby players were unheard of. Homophobic crime numbers.

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. This was 1990s Bra, and fear of the AIDS epimic was actually enough to put some teams off playg the all-gay Steelers such a high-ntact sport.

TACKLG HOMOPHOBIC ATTUS: THE STRAIGHT MEN WHO PLAY FOR GAY GBY CLUBS

“If you had said to me the early ’90s that out-gay men uld play a club like the Steelers, I’d have said was prehensible, ” says the club’s chairman, 43-year-old Alex Smh. Bhell says the homophobia they experienced the early days wasn’t only attributable to AIDS fears.

Smh says he n thk of “maybe two homophobic cints” the last he’s played for gay teams across the UK. “I wasn’t an out-gay man at that pot and I found that creasgly difficult.