Gay Rugby- A step forward or a step backward

handsomecake

also did they find every other club homophobic? are other clubs not gay friendly? what drove them to do this?

jill_valentine

You're kind of safe in assuming that a sports team is straight friendly. We have that luxury. Gay sporting types don't, so yes, it is necessary to specify the gay friendliness of a club.

If you don't think it is necessary, how about asking a few "normal" rugby clubs - they don't have to be professional, just normal parish/ town rugby clubs - to stick "gay friendly" there on the clubhouse sign. Shouldn't be any big deal, right?

javaboy

ven0m wrote: »

Sorry, but it is. Like it or not, it is a form of segregation based on sexuality. You can say whatever you like, it doesn't change that fact.

It's not segregation because they don't stop straight people joining.

There have been debates already on these types of venues being segregationist.

Yeah and I was one of the people involved in one of the debates on it recently. My stance was that it's probably pretty annoying to be a gay guy trying to meet another gay guy only to find every second guy in the George is straight. Just like if you go to an Irish bar in Spain and most people in it are Spanish, you might feel a bit annoyed. I don't think it should be a rule or a law or anything though when it comes to those kind of venues. Just more of a general suggestion that it would be nice if people respected. But they don't have to.
The thing with the rugby club is slightly different because people generally aren't there to find a partner. They're there to play rugby and not feel excluded on the basis of their sexuality. So no gay guy is really going to feel aggrieved that his gay-friendly rugby club has loads of straight guys in it. As long as the straight guys are themselves gay friendly, there's no issue.

I think some of you are so caught up in being PC you are truly oblivious to the fact that attaining equality for gay/lesbian members of society cannot be achieved by perpetrating stereo-typical segregationist behaviour in an effort to 'enhance the social aspects' of normal life.

Actually if I was being really PC about this I would say as you do that gay friendly label is segregationist. Instead I'm being practical about it and saying that if a certain category of person finds themselves marginalised at most clubs, then there's nothing wrong with a club being set up that explicitly aims to integrate them. Some people just want to play rugby now in an environment where they don't feel left out and can't wait around for equality to reach every corner of society naturally.

quality in society means integration, not separation. The sooner some of you PC-friendly bleeding hearts association members realise that, the better.

Like I said, you also have to be practical about these things. If 10% of the population are gay, then a squad of 30 rugby players will have only 3 gay people on average. They might feel left out at times, they might not. If they do, what's wrong with there being a gay-friendly rugby club where they are guaranteed not to feel left out based on their sexuality?

You can look on that as segregation if you want but imo that line of thinking is a bit PC bleedin' heart itself. Are gay bars segregationist? Are Polish bars segregationist? Are Irish bars segregationist? Or are they all just places where people with common interests/traits can conveniently find people with similar interests/traits?

jill_valentine wrote: »

It might be if straight people were barred from the team, but, as seem to vaguely recall mentioning, that's not the case.

Did you mention that? I didn't notice.

jill_valentine

javaboy wrote: »

Or are they all just places where people with common interests/traits can conveniently find people with similar interests/traits?

Nail on the head.

DubArk

ven0m wrote: »

Handsome cake hit the nail on the head for me.


I am not all knowing, never once said I was - so less of the sarcasm, it's the lowest form of wit.

Go back to whatever you were doing before you decided to troll, & put on your 'love-me-love-the-world-love-even-an-emo' badge. Honestly, here's e thinking society had come far & finally gay & lesbian people (even labeling them by their sexuality I think is wrong - they're just people like all the rest of us) should be unafraid, unashamed & not require labeling, or labeling into groups, or find themselves needing to form 'friendly' groups.

Should just be a 'friendly' rugby club - why a need for 'gay friendly'?

Your as clear as mud again.... oops lowest form of wit!!

Im no troll, I have been in this debate from the onset, so drop your get out clause.

Sticks and stones.........:rolleyes:

Reflector

People have to understand that it is difficult to be a gay guy on a team of predominantly straight people. I could play rugby for any team and I'd probably really enjoy it but the fact would remain that any time it came to socialising I would feel a little out of place. It wouldn't be as big a deal as maybe 10 years ago but we still have a long way to go.
For gay people although most are very accepting it is still very difficult. when you introduce someone as your boyfriend and you are always greeted with this bemused look or a laugh as if you had just made a joke. I think that from everyone of my straight friends there is only about 2 or 3 that I really feel totally at ease with as in their own minds they dont view me or my relationship any different. It's a long way from having the **** kicked out of you but it's still there and until it is 100% accepted by society there will always be a need for gay bars, clubs, cafes, hangouts.

DubArk

Reflector wrote: »

People have to understand that it is difficult to be a gay guy on a team of predominantly straight people. I could play rugby for any team and I'd probably really enjoy it but the fact would remain that any time it came to socialising I would feel a little out of place. It wouldn't be as big a deal as maybe 10 years ago but we still have a long way to go.
For gay people although most are very accepting it is still very difficult. when you introduce someone as your boyfriend and you are always greeted with this bemused look or a laugh as if you had just made a joke. I think that from everyone of my straight friends there is only about 2 or 3 that I really feel totally at ease with as in their own minds they dont view me or my relationship any different. It's a long way from having the **** kicked out of you but it's still there and until it is 100% accepted by society there will always be a need for gay bars, clubs, cafes, hangouts.

Well I completely understand where you’re coming from. I have said this on another thread so I do apologise for repeating myself but I do think this applies here.

I come from a small rural area, as far as everyone knows everyone; that sort of a town. I've being out for quite some time and no one gives me a hard time. My game was rugby, since I was knee to a grass hopper I lived and breathe the game.


Someone has to be the first, and then things get better. I was more or less the first in my town to be so open, im not a screaming queen, so I just told people and as sure as eggs or eggs, it got around like wild fire.

Yes the odd remarks have been made from people who have a jar on them; I pay little or no attention to them and if they persisted, usually someone would go over to them, have a quiet word and well, things just settled.

It's was very important that I got support from those around me.
Really I’m only gay not a mass murder. I like to think I have a good bunch of mates around me and that’s very important to me. I don’t want to have to live in some sort of a gay community, I want to live near all my mates and family and socialise with them too.

Sure I slag the F*** out of my mates and yes they do the same but only in jest.

I work in manly a male workforce and again I am out to all my work colleagues and I am in a very long relationship; all that know me know that.

So im in a very confident position, one I earned by being the first to come out, one I have due to being in a relationship and being very good at my job.

NOT all gay people are so strong or lucky in life. I could of only dreamt of a local club advertising that it was “gay friendly” when I played first as the sheer torment I went through was so difficult to start with.

I don’t believe that tokenism works but this is not tokenism, this is just a statement, a statement that makes things a little easier for young men and women to fulfil there dreams of playing for a team of their choice.

As I said earlier I was one of the first to come out and I expect that with my example and the help of statements LIKE GAY FRIENDLY TEAMS that things will improve and down the road the statement will not be necessary cause it’ll be a given.

But at this stage in Ireland I feel it is necessary to spell it out.



Last word on the subject from me, Im tired of listening to me too.

Over and out!!!

Reflector

just to add a last remark the gay friendly team who is very young in development was born out of some peoples desire to play rugby with their friends in a fun and relaxing atmosphere. Loads of teams were started by communities maybe as they were part of the same church or work place or simply from the same area. Some of these clubs were very exclusive and if you weren't the right person or knew the right person they didn't want to know you.
This gay friendly club doesn't discriminate, as no other club does really but not officially, but because of whom started it and why it was started it is known as a gay friendly club. Ideally in the future the club may develop further and may attract all sorts of players and just become a club with all sorts of members with longetivity.

hot2def

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Seriously though, I do find it funny that if someone set up a strictly no gays rugby club or whites only awards ceremony that there would probably be uproar.

you can set up a no women golf club with no bother.