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

Contents:

• DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI
• SAM STANLEY IS FIRST ENGLISH GBY PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY
• LIST | 5 GAY RUGBY STARS WHO ARE OUT AND PROUD
• 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
• 10 GAY RUGBY PLAYERS WHO MA THEIR COME OUT
• LESTER’S NICK MCCARTHY OUT AS GAY AND THANKS CLUB FOR THEIR SUPPORT
• SAM STANLEY BE FIRST ENGLISH GBY UNN PLAYER TO E OUT AS GAY
• FIRST OPENLY GAY GBY LEAGUE PLAYER KEEGAN HIRST OUT OF RETIREMENT
• WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TURNS 20: ‘NO-ONE HAD SEEN PLAYERS LIKE BEFORE’
• GAY GBY PLAYER TEXAS SHAR HIS PRI VIO TO SPIRE OTHERS TO LOVE THEMSELV
• FORMER NEW ZEALAND GBY PLAYER CAMPBELL JOHNSTONE BE FIRST ALL BLACK TO E OUT AS GAY
• RUGBY PLAYER GRABS OPPONENT’S CROTCH AND A GAY FORMER PLAYER MAK A JOKE OF

DISMANTLG STEREOTYP: 10 INSPIRG GAY RUGBY PLAYERS AND PERSONALI

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. "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.

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 IS FIRST ENGLISH GBY 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

Cast & crewUser reviews2022Unrated2h 14mFollowg a dnken enunter, two equally attached men om a sh strapped and divid gay gby club unwtgly sleepwalk to an adultero affair but mt nceal their growg feelg...

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

Read allFollowg a dnken enunter, two equally attached men om a sh strapped and divid gay gby club unwtgly sleepwalk to an adultero affair but mt nceal their growg feelgs or risk stroyg the club they love.

Followg a dnken enunter, two equally attached men om a sh strapped and divid gay gby club unwtgly sleepwalk to an adultero affair but mt nceal their growg feelgs or risk stroyg the club they productn, box office & pany Vios1More like thisReview Good cematography, ltle substanceCematography and actg: goodMic: too much 's distractg, often not even ftg the scene and overly dramaticScript: that's where the film really lacks. 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.

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

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.

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.

10 GAY RUGBY PLAYERS WHO MA THEIR COME OUT

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.

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

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 .

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

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.

FIRST OPENLY GAY GBY LEAGUE PLAYER KEEGAN HIRST OUT OF RETIREMENT

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. “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.

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

“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. 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.

GAY GBY PLAYER TEXAS SHAR HIS PRI VIO TO SPIRE OTHERS TO LOVE THEMSELV

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.

FORMER NEW ZEALAND GBY PLAYER CAMPBELL JOHNSTONE BE FIRST ALL BLACK TO E OUT AS GAY

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”.

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

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.