LGBT+ History Month: Super League referee Jam Child speaks publicly about beg gay - BBC Sport

Contents:

• WHO IS GBY REF NIGEL OWENS? WELSHMAN BRAVELY ME OUT AS GAY, FOUGHT BULIMIA AND OVERME SUICI
• LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH: SUPER LEAGUE REFEREE JAM CHILD SPEAKS PUBLICLY ABOUT BEG GAY
• ‘I NSIRED CHEMIL STRATN,’ SAYS GAY GBY REFEREE NIGEL OWENS
• GAY GBY LEAGUE REFEREE LIFTS LID ON HOW G OUT AFFECTED OFFICIATG REER
• GAY GBY REF
• CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS: PREMIERSHIP GBY REFEREE ME OUT AS GAY VIA WHATSAPP
• TOP ENGLISH GBY REFEREE CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS OUT AS GAY
• IS GBY AS GAY AS LOOKS? A CURUFC PLAYER’S PERSPECTIVE
• THE 1975 NCEL SHOWS INDONIA AND TAIWAN AFTER MALAYSIA GAY KISS UPROAR
• IS GBY GAY
• LIST | 5 GAY RUGBY STARS WHO ARE OUT AND PROUD
• THE ONLY GAY ON THE PCH

WHO IS GBY REF NIGEL OWENS? WELSHMAN BRAVELY ME OUT AS GAY, FOUGHT BULIMIA AND OVERME SUICI

But on the odd ocsn – on the very, very odd ocsn that there were homophobic ments shouted at me om the spectators – was heard by other people and was reported to the relevant bodi and they managed to al wh the suatn.

Child wants to 'help te' people and enurage rpectSuper League referee Jam Child has not spoken publicly about his sexualy before - but this is not his 'g out' 's been a long time sce Child was '' - wh his fay, iends and refereeg lleagu all aware that he's an exclive terview for the BBC's LGBT Sport Podst, Child has bee one of the hight-profile nam gby league to open up about beg gay.

LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH: SUPER LEAGUE REFEREE JAM CHILD SPEAKS PUBLICLY ABOUT BEG GAY

"Listen: The LGBT Sport Podst - The one wh Jam Child'If this helps te others, that's great'Child's cisn to talk about his sexualy is driven by a number of is still more than a month to go until the new Super League season starts, which means he n share his story whout worryg about overshadowg any actn on the there's also another many ele officials, Child gets plenty of abe - cludg some of a homophobic nature.

‘I NSIRED CHEMIL STRATN,’ SAYS GAY GBY REFEREE NIGEL OWENS

As an openly gay figure one of the most mascule of sports Nigel Owens is a rary – but he might never have achieved his inic stat gby unn if he had gone ahead wh plans for a chemil stratn.

GAY GBY LEAGUE REFEREE LIFTS LID ON HOW G OUT AFFECTED OFFICIATG REER

However, he believ the mcular world of gby unn is way ahead of other global sports when to acceptg gay stars, although Gareth Thomas beme the first profsnal player to open up about his sexualy as recently as 2009.

Gay gby league referee Jam Child has opened up on how revealg his sexualy publicly for the first time 2021 affected his officiatg reerJam Child beme the first Super League referee to announce he was gay 2021 Retired gby league referee Jam Child claims he 'felt more rpect' om players he officiated after revealg his sexualy.

GAY GBY REF

In November 2014, two gby fans were banned for two years and each orred to pay £1, 000 ($1, 250) to a chary of gay referee Nigel Owens’ choice after the Welshman was verbally abed while officiatg an ternatnal match between England and Wal at Twickenham. The RFU said supported ne gay gby clubs across England, and planned to bid for the right to aga stage the biennial ternatnal Bgham Cup tournament – an amatr gay gby unn tournament – which was held Manchter 2012. It said s “We Call It Rugby” mpaign featured an advert aimed at breakg down barriers for LGBT people, profilg the gay and clive Manchter Spartans club, and overall the seri of vios had reached almost 35 ln people through outdoor advertisg, social media and televisn.

“From the evince we have received this quiry, we believe there are many gay athlet who have not e out, bee they are ightened of the impact this cisn will have on their reers, and the liv of the people they love, ” chair of the mtee, MP Damian Colls, said a statement. Welsh former gby ternatnal referee Nigel Owens has shared the homophobic abe he received a "hate" filled letter on social 51-year-old posted a picture of the letter sayg "unls we start llg out the kd of people nothg will change. "Nigel Owens now ns a farm the Gwendraeth 'me out' as gay 2007 and went on to bee the first referee to reach a landmark 100 ternatnal tts 's now livg a lifelong dream of beg a farmer and workg as a TV letter sparked an outpourg of support for Owens om people on social mediaOne social media er lled the letter "pathetic and absurd" while dozens exprsed their "love" for the gby legend.

CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS: PREMIERSHIP GBY REFEREE ME OUT AS GAY VIA WHATSAPP

At last an article a newspaper about gay guys that ma me feel good, did anyone else see the article the Sunday Tim today, on page 7 of the sports sectn (which for some reason they ll 'Soccerlife and Sport'). The journalist, Clton van r Berg, also mentns a hero on Uned Airl Flight 93 (he was one of the guys who stormed the -|- p an attempt to overe the highjackers): he stat that Mark Blgham was a gay gby star. Craig Maxwell-Keys explas a cisn to Exeter Chiefs' Jack YeandleProfsnal gby has ntually embraced morn technology - so 's no surprise that Premiership referee Craig Maxwell-Keys took a siar approach towards g out as gay.

"Gunng over prejudice to chase Olympic dreamMaxwell-Keys drifted towards beg a match official by chance - he broke his wrist playg for Lichfield as a youngster and, while reverg om the jury, he enrolled on a refereeg and tly bten by the refereeg bug, he took charge at the Staffordshire Unr-12 Ftival at the age of 17 and worked his way up the ladr to bee a full-time referee urse, Maxwell-Keys is not the only openly gay gby referee - Nigel Owens, who me out 2007, is one of the sport's hight-profile officials and has featured at three World Cups. 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... 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.

TOP ENGLISH GBY REFEREE CRAIG MAXWELL-KEYS OUT AS GAY

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 aka In om BehdWhat a ms. Comments like this don’t make someone homophobic, but they do pat an image of an unwelg environment, which n make very timidatg to e out to people – particularly if those around you are olr (and bigger). I thk ’s a shame that flippant ments like this give the imprsn that gby is not a sport for all sexuali bee, while may seem disuragg om the outsi, homophobia, om my experience, is not particularly apparent a team.

IS GBY AS GAY AS LOOKS? A CURUFC PLAYER’S PERSPECTIVE

Dpe several lol bylaws discrimatg agast LGBTQ+ people Indonia, s natnal laws have never ma homosexualy a crimal there have been attempts to crimalise homosexualy by nservative policians and groups, while gay upl often face discrimatn the world’s most populo Mlim-majory untry.

Oi Timothy I beg you stop playg gby you battymanby Topshaggerpsystroyer September 9, 2020FlagGet the is gby gay GayThe want to have sexual relatns wh another gby player for his btaly or game playg way that guy pounds the other team to bs would make me turn gby gay for the huge beastby Griffs Bt September 25, 2020FlagGet the Rugby Gay random fns.

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.

THE 1975 NCEL SHOWS INDONIA AND TAIWAN AFTER MALAYSIA GAY KISS UPROAR

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. 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.

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”. 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”.

IS GBY GAY

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.

LIST | 5 GAY RUGBY STARS WHO ARE OUT AND PROUD

His rerd as one of the most succsful players the sport, bed wh his mascule appearance and physil playg style were certaly ntrary to the mythil reprentatns of gay mal and may expla the posive rponse.

Th, there has been a softeng of the culture associated wh playg gby, driven by younger players g through the system who are creasgly rejectg, if not challengg the prevly accepted e of homophobic disurse that is ed by olr members of the gby muny. 118) and a haven for those who had been exclud or ostracized om the mastream gby their analysis, Price and Parker (2003) examed the Kgs Cross Steelers Rugby Football Club, an amatr gby club based London and the self-claimed world’s first gay gby club.

THE ONLY GAY ON THE PCH

The number of gay gby clubs around the world has steadily grown, spurred by the creatn of The Internatnal Gay Rugby Associatn and Board (IGRAB) Ireland, the first gay gby team was found 2003. Atralia’s first gay gby club, the Sydney Convicts have been embraced by the cy’s gby muny wh s founr Andrew Purchas award the Orr of Atralia medal that regniz outstandg achievement and service by Atralians. Fdg participants for this rearch was not difficult as the number of clive men’s gby teams has grown om ls than a dozen clubs one ago to eighty-four clubs the Uned Kgdom and Wtern Europe as regnized by and registered wh the Internatnal Gay Rugby Board.

Semi-stctured terviews of ten players om each team occurred alongsi, participant observatn and wrten rpons to a participant-requted qutnnaire provid sight to the ratnale as to why the men seek to bee members of the nearly all gay men clive clubs.

As one gay player said wh a lgh, “They jt don’t know they’re gay yet” the nature of clive club members who participated this rearch we opted to exclu heterosexual members of the clubs (only five heterosexual players were intified over the urse of the rearch). The purpose, rather, was to explore via a ground theoretil approach the possibly changg stcture of gby the Uned Kgdom as relat to the rise clive gay men’s gby teams and their impact on the sport England and beyond.