This year, the Emerald Warriors hosted 45 teams from 15 countries in what was the biggest Union Cup to date. The welcome was truly legendary as sponsors supported the sporting community in hosting such a prestigious tournament. The famous Guinness Gates were repainted in rainbow colours for the occasion, and a wealth of international media lauded sporting icons like Lindsay Peat and Nigel Owens.
2019’s Union Cup was the first year a dedicated women’s tournament featured. As teams lined out to compete for the inaugural Ann Louise Gilligan Cup, it was not hard to spot the female players who are more commonly found togging out for their country and top tier AIL clubs. But as these warrior women lined out as proud members of the LGBT+ community, the absence of their male counterparts was stark. In 2019, the gender gap has never been wider than when looking at the number of actively playing elite athletes who have publicly confirmed their LGBT+ sexuality.
From Nicole Owens to Lindsay Peat, and most recently Katie McCabe and Ruesha Littlejohn, these athletes are the very definition of trailblazers; they go first to show that it is possible and they light the way for others. But men have not followed.
One man who knows this only too well is Nigel Owens, international rugby union referee. The man is a living legend amongst fans of the sport, not only for his sporting career, the highlights of which include refereeing numerous Six Nations games, Heineken Cup games and World Cup Finals, there is also his legendary sense of humour; he’ll regularly reprimand players with playful quips which sound like something a respected uncle would dole out to a favourite nephew who was acting the maggot. And Nigel is also a proud advocate and member of the LGBT+ community.
“I didn’t come out to be a trailblazer. It was just something I had to do, it was affecting my life,” says Nigel as we start chatting about the state of play for LGBT+ people playing sport at an elite level. But why are there still no male pro team-sport athletes publicly out?