Pri 2018: 100 members of the world's first gay gby club to jo march | London Eveng Standard | Eveng Standard

Contents:

• 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’
• WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TURNS 20: ‘NO ONE HAD SEEN PLAYERS LIKE BEFORE’
• CELEBRATG 20 YEARS OF THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY RUGBY CLUB
• PRI 2018: 100 MEMBERS OF THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TO JO MARCH
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• ‘FDG THIS MUNY IS HUGE’: STORY OF WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY TEAM PTURED ON FILM
• TACKLG HOMOPHOBIC ATTUS: THE STRAIGHT MEN WHO PLAY FOR GAY GBY CLUBS
• HEARD OF THE STEELERS? NO, NOT THEM, THE GAY GBY TEAM OM LONDON
• PRI 2018: 100 MEMBERS OF THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TO JO MARCH

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

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?

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

"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. 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.

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

"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. Found 1995 is the world’s first gay-clive gby unn club. Its foundg sparked the begng of a much larger gay-clive gby movement which to date clus over 60 clubs across the world.

CELEBRATG 20 YEARS OF THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY RUGBY CLUB

In 2009, the club hosted, and won, the Unn Cup – a biennial tournament for gay gby clubs Europe. First gay gby club found 20 years ago. 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.

PRI 2018: 100 MEMBERS OF THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TO JO MARCH

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.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

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.

‘FDG THIS MUNY IS HUGE’: STORY OF WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY TEAM PTURED ON FILM

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. “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.

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

“I wasn’t an out-gay man at that pot and I found that creasgly difficult.

“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.

“I wasn’t openly gay. And there were a few ments, not directed at me but perhaps to the women who were the park, which ma me feel not feel like I wanted to reveal I was gay to them.

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

The Steelers are now also gearg up for the 2016 Bgham Cup, the biennial ternatnal gay tournament to be held Nashville, Tennsee, May.

Wh over 50 gay gby clubs around the world today, ’s a long way om the days of six iends meetg a London pub wh a seemgly “prehensible” dream. Flick through the gallery for the story behd other openly gay athlet. World’s first gay gby club turns 20: ‘No one had seen players like before’.

PRI 2018: 100 MEMBERS OF THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TO JO MARCH

This year the world's first gay gby club, the Kgs Cross Steelers (pictured blue and green), celebrat s 20th anniversary. But overall, homophobic abe has been rare, says Robert Hayward, a former Conservative MP and one of the club's foundg members. Before the people me out and before our team started playg fixtur, I thk there was a perceptn that gay men jt did theater.

However, that's not to say 's easy, of urse, and a sport as eply rooted heterosexual masculy as gby is, n be Kgs Cross Steelers were formed 1995 by a group of gay men a pub —spoiler alert—Kg's Cross. Their aim was to create the first gay-clive gby unn team the world.

Twenty years later they have a membership of over 120 and are four-time wners of the European Champnships for gay gby story of the world's first gay gby team starts, surprisgly, wh Tory MP and soon to be Lord, Robert Hayward.