The World's First Gay Rugby Club

September 11, 2019 5:51 AM

“Straight teams come to play us with preconceptions of what we will be like. They think we won’t be aggressive, that we’ll be rubbish and running around really camp,” he says. “Our mission is to change attitudes just by turning up and playing a killer game whether we win or lose." London-based Kings Cross Steelers, the World's First Gay Rugby Club

Wikipedia also notes in a nice article: "The 'Steelers' is a homage to the Pittsburgh Steelers, an American football team, of which numerous of the founding members of the Kings Cross Steelers were fans. " Club website.

posted by alasdair (7 comments total)

Tangentially related previously.
posted by hippybear at 6:28 AM on September 11, 2019

Huh, weird that I've never heard of them. Also I'm surprised that the Rooneys have never sued them for trademark infringement.
posted by octothorpe at 6:39 AM on September 11, 2019

Washington DC has a gay rugby club called the Scandals
posted by exogenous at 7:11 AM on September 11, 2019 [3 favorites]

Playing rugby with a gay team for a short time 15 years ago changed my self-esteem to at least manageable, can-live-like-this levels.

(And I wasn't very good. I'd probably be intolerable if I'd had any skill.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:15 AM on September 11, 2019 [5 favorites]

a few years ago, I was lucky enough to march in the Sydney Pride Parade near the Convicts, and I'm still recovering from the thrill
posted by roger ackroyd at 7:27 AM on September 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

nice! my friend's straight cousin had a rainbow american flag in his garage and when i asked her about it, she said he was on some kind of lgbt+allies rugby team and he was super into it. it sounded like they have a ton of fun as a group.

i like that they're upfront that they're still experiencing homophobia on the pitch after 20 years. and this, "Wright adds: “You can even kiss people on the nose [when straight teams are getting mad]!," reminds me of a kissaroo from me to you. gamers the same
posted by gaybobbie at 7:43 AM on September 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

Washington DC has a gay rugby club called the Scandals

And the Renegades. Gay rugby is everywhere now!

Also, apropos of today being September 11, there's the Bingham Cup, too, "a biennial international, non-professional, gay rugby union tournament, first held in 2002. It is named after Mark Bingham, who died on board United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed during the September 11, 2001 attacks."
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:15 AM on September 11, 2019 [1 favorite]