So, you’ve probably heard that golf is returning to the Olympics. Yeah, I thought it was pretty boring too. But much more exciting and garnering a lot less attention is the fact that rugby is also returning to the Olympics in 2016. I mean, rugby! Okay, so not everyone is as crazy about rugby as I am, but rugby means ruggers. And that means rugby legs and rugby butts all over the Olympic coverage in Rio. Forget the swimmers and gymnasts, ruggers are walking wet dreams.

So I’m a little biased. I’m a rugger. And while I’m no Ben Cohen or Ian Roberts or any of the other hundreds of drool-worthy ruggers around the world, I am a proud gay rugger.

But what is rugby? If you grew up in the US, your exposure to rugby is probably incredibly limited. The US is kinda, well, weird in that it is one of the few Western nations not avidly following rugby. Worldwide, rugby is huge and the third most watched sport. Rugby is very closely related to American football and soccer; think of it as the big rowdy one of the bunch who called soccer a wuss for having no contact and made football cry for adding things like helmets and pads and time outs… pansy.

Rugby union (there is also league, but we’re not going there) is most often played with fifteen men per team. There is no forward passing, but you can kick forward. If your team has the ball, you must be behind the ball carrier. If you get tackled, there is no stopping play; you get your battered ass back up and start running right away. It’s 80 non-stop minutes of brutal elegance. There are also variations of rugby union; rugby 10s and the newly appointed Olympic rugby 7s. These variations feature fewer players and faster matches… and a lot more running.

Rugby isn’t a sport that pops to mind when most folks think of gay athletes. Body building, gymnastics, tennis, swimming were long held to be the extent of gay athletics. And, well… tricking for some might as well be an Olympic sport. But as gay softball and flag football leagues rose around the world, something curious happened. Gay rugby started taking root.

The first predominantly gay club were the King’s Cross Steelers out of London who began playing in 1995. The movement caught on and in ’98, the Washington DC Renegades became the first gay rugby team in the US. Today there are an estimated 38 active gay rugby clubs world wide with more starting up. That’s a whole lot of gay ruggers.

Nearly all of these gay clubs belong to their local rugby union. They play (and in more than a few cases, beat) their local straight rugby clubs. It wasn’t long before the fledging gay rugby world wanted a chance to compete against each other. And in 2002, the International Gay Rugby Association and Board, or IGRAB, was formed. Also in 2002, the first bi-annual Gay Rugby World Championship, also known as the Bingham Cup, was hosted in San Francisco. The Bingham Cup is named for Mark Bingham, an openly gay rugger and player for the San Francisco Fog who is generally believed to be one of the passengers who rushed the cockpit of United Flight 93 on Sep 11, 2001.

From the first Bingham with eight teams in San Francisco, to the thirty-two teams who competed in 2008 in Dublin, IGRAB is only getting bigger. The 2010 Bingham Cup will be held in Minneapolis this June with an estimated thirty-five clubs. Just stop and think about that for a moment. Over 800 gay rugby players from all over the world in a concentrated area for a week… yeah, book those tickets now boys.

But again, why would perfectly sane gay men (if such a thing exists) opt to play rugby over less brutal options like flag football? For each rugger there is a different answer. Yes, there are a few guys who are into pain (these are the guys who grunt a little too loudly during tackle drills). But most agree that rugby is a sport all about inclusion and breaking down obstacles.

Rugby has a long tradition of breaking down barriers. Earlier I mentioned Ben Cohen and Ian Roberts. Roberts was an openly gay Aussie rugger for the last three years of his career and generally considered one of the best in the nation. Cohen is straight, but is so thankful for his gay fans he throws gay themed parties. The Wallabies, Australia’s national rugby team, recently took place in a very visible anti-homophobia campaign back home. And let’s not forget the French Rugby team’s annual nude calendar… yeah, there’s a reason why rugby resonates with gay men.

Look at your average rugby club. Once you stop drooling, look at the wide range of body types. You’ve got bears and cubs aplenty, but you’ve also got twinks and muscle studs and regular average Joes. Every single body type can be put to good use on the rugby pitch. And unlike most gay bars, all of these different gay stereotypes are united and friendly.

But most importantly, rugby allows proud gay men to break down stereotypes while playing a sport they love. Unlike gay softball and flag football leagues who only play other gay teams, gay rugby clubs mainly play straight teams. These local teams know we’re gay and respect us as peers and take us seriously on and off the pitch. They usually stop making gay jokes the first time we slam them into the ground just as hard as a straight player. And they drink and party with us after the match at the Drink Up, a very important rugby tradition.

Let’s not forget one little thing… have you seen most ruggers? Woof! I get to tackle that! There’s nothing quite like wrapping my arms around a cub’s legs and forcing him to the ground… actually, I seem to do better as the one being forced to the ground. Anyways…

Look up your local IGRAB club. With only 38 of us, we are spread a little thin. But if we’re in your home town, come out and show us some love. Who knows, you might just get to take a tired and sweaty rugby cub home with you…

Our buddy Bryan -  interviewed this month – is a teacher, LGBT community volunteer, rugby player and all around nice guy.
Oh yeah...a hell of a sexy cub, too!

You can reach Bryan at Bear411 under the name “Frosty79”.