Sydney Convicts to host Bingham Cup 2014

The International Gay Rugby Association & Board (IGRAB) today announced the Sydney Convicts Rugby Club had succeeded in its bid to host The Bingham Cup in 2014.

The week-long event, to be held in August 2014, will see up to 40 teams and 1,500 rugby players, along with coaches and supporters, hosted in Sydney. The event is now considered the world’s largest non-professional international rugby tournament.

According to Jeff Wilson, IGRAB chairman, “The wide ranging support shown by the Australian sporting greats, senior business leaders, and government figures is remarkable. The vocal endorsement of the Australian Prime Minister, Members of Parliament, State Ministers, and the Governor of New South Wales highlights Australia’s willingness to tackle homophobia on the pitch, continuing strides toward eliminating homophobia in sport. We look forward to a world-class tournament that celebrates tolerance and acceptance in a very welcoming and supportive city such as Sydney.”

Andrew Purchas, chairman of The Bingham Cup 2014 organizing committee, said, “We are very pleased that IGRAB chose Sydney to host the seventh Bingham Cup in Sydney. I have no doubt that Sydney will embrace The Bingham Cup and make all the competitors feel extremely welcome. This is the first time the Bingham Cup has been hosted in the Southern Hemisphere. The rugby union establishment has been extremely supportive of the Sydney Convicts and the hosting of the Bingham Cup.”

Alex Smith, chairman of The Bingham Cup 2012 in Manchester, added that “the Sydney Convicts were worthy winners of Manchester 2012, the sixth Bingham Cup tournament. We look forward to seeing them defend the Cup in the great city of Sydney. The Bingham Cup 2014 promises to be another outstanding tournament.”

Gay rugby grows in Canada and worldwide

Congratulations to the Ottawa Wolves, who were approved by the IGRAB Board of Directors last week as our newest full member club.

The Wolves were formed in 2008 and are members of the Eastern Ontario Rugby Union and Rugby Canada, and they join the Vancouver Rogues and Muddy York of Toronto as Canada’s third IGRAB club.

The Canadians don’t seem to be done expanding the IGRAB roster, however. Recently, the Scotian Storms were formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Though in their infancy, the Storms hope to become a full-fledged club and IGRAB member.

Meanwhile, the Muddy York and Wolves are working together to bring a club to Montreal. They will be playing a match on Saturday, 1 August, at 4:30 at Molson Stadium in Montreal.

In Europe, gay-identifying rugby clubs are being developed in Cork, Ireland, and Lisbon. Lisbon would be the southernmost IGRAB club in Europe, and their formation continues the trend of European gay rugby clubs expanding the sport in places not among the traditional rugby-playing countries. Similarly, a group in Melbourne is currently building a club in the Aussie Rules-mad state of Victoria, while in the U.S., new gay clubs are currently being formed in Houston and Denver.

Two of the IGRAB Board’s goals are to make sure that existing rugby clubs who meet our membership criteria are fully integrated into the organisation, and that developing clubs are mentored by IGRAB’s Board and other nearby IGRAB clubs.

Please contact us for information on IGRAB membership for rugby clubs.

IGRAB affirms policy of inclusiveness

The International Gay Rugby Association and Board (IGRAB) recently reviewed two outstanding bids to host the 2010 Gay Rugby World Championship, The Bingham Cup®. Bids were presented by the Minneapolis Mayhem RFC of Minnesota and Sin City Irish RFC of Las Vegas, Nevada. The Sin City proposal was unprecedented in that a club who were not IGRAB members (and a majority of whose members are not gay or bisexual) offered to host IGRAB’s premier event. While these aspects of their bid led to much discussion over the nature of IGRAB and even “gay rugby”, it also gave us an opportunity to both reaffirm the inclusive nature of IGRAB rugby and explore opportunities for the future of clubs like Sin City within our organisation.

Ever since the Kings Cross Steelers established the first viable “gay rugby club”, gay and bisexual athletes have followed their example and formed teams where people could play the world’s greatest sport in supportive and inclusive environments. The founding principal of all gay rugby clubs is that a player’s sexual orientation is irrelevant to his or her ability to play rugby or be a teammate or opponent. Because of this, IGRAB member clubs have held firm to the idea that no club founded on providing a place for gay people to play rugby should discriminate against those who are not gay. The IGRAB Executive Committee strongly reaffirms the principal contained in our constitution (and in echoed by such national rugby unions as England’s Rugby Football Union and USA Rugby) that “no individual shall be excluded from participating in IGRAB or rugby on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Rugby is unique in the “gay sports” world in that gay rugby clubs rely on their local and national governing bodies for their ongoing existence. As a gay rugby club takes their first steps to fielding a full team they seek membership in their local area rugby union. These unions provide IGRAB clubs with logistical support, game officials and, importantly, opponents. The majority of an IGRAB club’s opponents each year are not other gay rugby teams but are rather locally based “traditional” clubs who’ve welcomed IGRAB clubs as fully accepted members of the rugby community. In our unique brand of rugby, gay players compete both alongside and against straight players and after each match celebrate the spirit of competition together, all in an environment where sexual orientation has no bearing on the notions of sportsmanship and camaraderie.

This experience is the ultimate expression of inclusiveness, and each time an IGRAB team takes the field against a traditional rugby club, both sides are acting in furtherance of IGRAB’s mission and the sport itself. The Executive Committee believes that gay rugby has never been simply about gay issues. Instead it offers gay athletes a chance to build teams in supportive but competitive environments, and it offers straight athletes an opportunity to make new friends both as teammates and competitors. Differences that once could have divided rugby players in Mark Bingham’s early playing days now serve to strengthen the entire sport of rugby, gay and straight.

There is clearly a place for clubs like the Sin City Irish within the IGRAB family. The specific role and nature of those clubs is something on which IGRAB members will discuss and develop consensus in the coming weeks, but the principals of inclusiveness and teamwork with the larger rugby community will guide that conversation.