IGR Timele - Internatnal Gay Rugby

Contents:

• GAY GBY CLUB MANCHTER VILLAGE SPARTANS GRANTED OFFICIAL TEAM STAT

GAY GBY CLUB MANCHTER VILLAGE SPARTANS GRANTED OFFICIAL TEAM STAT

Whether you’re an experienced player lookg to return to gby or a total begner, lookg to give gby a try, Manchter Village Spartans RUFC, based at Sale Sports Club, have a place for you at our pneerg, Gay and Inclive Rugby Unn and Touch Rugby the world’s send-ever LGBT+ Rugby Club and a foundg member of Internatnal Gay Rugby (IGR) we’ve helped hundreds of LGBTQ+ and straight players disver, or return, to gby by promotg the sport through projects such as Comic Relief’s Try For Change or England Rugby’s Spir of 2012 and we ntue to rec players regardls of their genr, sexualy or gby don’t have to be gay to be a Spartan. As the world’s send-olst ‘Gay & Inclive’ Rugby Unn clubs, and one of the three foundg members of Internatnal Gay Rugby, more than 21years on, we ntue to exist to create a safe, posive and #clive club environment where #gby n be played and enjoyed on and off the pch by everyone regardls of sexual orientatn or gby abily. The Spartans fully support the statement issued by IGR Internatnal Gay Rugby rponse to the alarmg policy cisn that was announced by World Rugby last night regardg the excln of Transgenr Players.

The Village Spartans O2 Touch squads travel up to Prton Grasshoppers on Friday eveng to play an Autumn iendly agast Typhoons of Lanshire RUFC their first iendly agast another Internatnal Gay Rugby Team this season. More specifilly, a gby team - but one that would be for men who intified as gay or bisexual.

But the lads cid to give a try and hand out some leaflets the Gay Village.

Manchter Village Spartans RUFC was set up and the world's send gay Rugby Unn team was born.

"I don't know whether anyone imaged jt how huge the gay gby movement would bee bee of clubs like the Spartans. They helped tablish the worldwi gay and clive gby phenomenon and are still helpg to grow the sport. I heard about the club om workg wh a lleague the police who was openly out and gay", Dean said.

The club hosted the 'Bgham Cup' - rmally known as the Gay Rugby World Cup - Manchter 2012.

Sports Groups Greater ManchterThere are loads of sports groups for LGBT people Greater Manchter, and some of the are specific for gay, bi and trans men. Village Manchter Football ClubVillage Manchter Football Club is a gay/bi/straight clive club that wel anyone who lov. “A good 80-90% of players are gay, or bi-sexual.

As one of the world’s very first ‘Gay and Inclive’ Rugby Unn clubs, Manchter Village Spartans RUFC (found 1998) exist to create a safe, posive and clive club environment where gby n be played and enjoyed, on and off the pch by all adults, regardls of sexual orientatn or gby abily. We are a foundg member of Internatnal Gay Rugby (IGR) and, 2012, hosted the IGR’s bi-ennial ‘Bgham Cup’ - the ternatnal gay and clive gby "World Cup" year we'll be gog to Amsterdam to play wh 1000's of other Gay gby players.

30pm) and we play on most Saturdays durg the also play lots of gam vers other Gay Rugby clubs up and down the untry - a brilliant way to meet other LGBT players also givg gby a try.

| Vis ManchterWhile the entire cy is overwhelmgly welg to visors of any background, the Gay Village, loted jt south of Chatown, is the hub for Manchter’s sizable LGBTQ+ muny. | Manchter PriThe Gay Village is also home to a host of r LGBTQ+ events, cludg Sparkle, a trans-foced celebratn held each July; sprg’s cheekily tled Great Brish Bear Bash; and a yearly Pri blowout that attracts hundreds of thoands of revelers om all rners of the globe. Manchter served as the backdrop to the origal Queer as Folk a full 17 years before openly gay ndidate Carl At-Behan was elected Lord Mayor.

And while the drag show’s atten were undoubtedly terribly marred om the experience, the event also shed a light on Manchter’s thrivg unrground gay scene, drawg even more LGBTQ+ people to the cy. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, jt a few years after acclaimed Mancunian mathematician Alan Turg famoly pled guilty to homosexual acts, the nalont pub’s growg clientelle had gradually claimed the neighborhood as their own. The year 1964 saw the rise of the North Wt Homosexual Law Reform Commtee (later renamed the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly, or CHE), an activist group that eventually brought down the crimalizatn of homosexualy.

In 1975, a group of gay men got together and set up the Manchter Lbian & Gay Swchboard Servic (MLGSS), a uncil grant-fund telephone helple for queer and qutng Mancunians. And 1985, another grant, this one for a relatively substantial £1, 700, gave way to the first-ever Manchter Pri, plete wh a massive downtown Manchter Village Spartans RUFC, a gay and clive gby club, is a foundg member of Internatnal Gay Rugby.