Epilogue to The Bingham and Amanda Cup Tournament - Rome - 2024
I have just returned from a 5 day rugby tournament in Rome. 4 matches in 4 days. Why is this significant? Well, that is because this was the Bingham and Amanda Mark Cup Tournament hosted by the IGR1 and attended by approximately 3500 rugby players from across the LGBTQUI+ community.
The IGR Bingham Cup is an international gay rugby union tournament named in honor of Mark Kendall Bingham, a rugby player and a hero of United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. Mark Bingham was openly gay and played rugby for the San Francisco Fog and the Gotham Knights, embodying the values of inclusivity and diversity in the sport.
Officially announced at the Bingham Cup 2018 Amsterdam, the Amanda Mark Cup is IGR’s women’s global championship that runs in tandem with and as part of The Bingham Cup.
Named after Amanda Mark, Mark Bingham’s best friend and long-time supporter of IGR and Bingham Cups, the Amanda Mark Cup was created to acknowledge the ever-increasing number of existing IGR clubs that have added female sides to their roster or the even more common establishment or joining of women’s rugby clubs.
This year the Amanda Mark Cup was competed for by inclusive FLINTA*2 teams from Ireland (Emerald Warriors), Germany (The Berlin Bruisers and The Flying Nuns), Sweden (The Beserkers), The Netherlands (Amsterdam Lowlanders, eventual winners of the Cup), France (Les Simone), Canada (Ottawa Wolves) and The USA (Nashville).
Noteable by their absence were women’s teams from Britain (England, Scotland & Wales). There is a reason for this. In June 2022 the English RFU (Rugby Football Union) amended their Gender Participation Policy (GPP) to exclude transgender women and girls (TWAG) from the women’s rugby category. This has become known as “the trans ban”. Despite there being only 7 registered TWAG players (myself included) our presence was deemed so egregious that we needed to be banned from the women’s category with immediate effect, despite there having been no safety or fairness issues reported from within the community game. The ban in England was adopted quickly thereafter by Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
Despite the ban in Ireland, the IRFU did permit their Dublin based Emerald Warriors Women’s team to attend the tournament even though they would be facing off against teams which included TWAGs. The English RFU however refused to sanction the attendance of The London Vixens, “sister” team to The Kings Cross Steelers, both of whom play out of East London Rugby Club. I am not aware if any Scottish or Welsh clubs made the request of their respective Unions, although I doubt they would have shown the same courage as the IRFU had the clubs applied. Whilst the IRFU sanctioned the attendance of The Emerald Warriors they do still maintain a trans-ban on Irish soil. Quite what mental gymnastics they went through to make that happen are lost on me, however the Warriors did manage to send a fully inclusive FLINTA* team which included a TW player.
For my part, I have been extremely fortunate to find a home with The Berlin Bruisers who have offered me “a home in exile” since last year and was able to attend the tournament as a member of their team, and was privileged to take the field for 3 of their 4 pool games, alongside a contingent of players from the Stockholm Beserkers who joined us to make up our numbers and offer an opportunity to play for their fledgling FLINTA* women’s team. We adopted the joint name of The Bruiserkers. Even though we convened for the first time in training on the 23rd May we quickly gelled into a formidable force and bonded as a team in a way that is entirely unique to the game of rugby. Engraved on the plaque outside Twickenham, the home of English rugby, are the words
RUGBY UNION IS AN INCLUSIVE GAME, FOR ALL SHAPES AND SIZES, IN WHICH TEAMWORK, DISCIPLINE, RESPECT AND SPORTSMANSHIP PROVIDE HEALTHY, PHYSICAL SPORT DEVELOPING LIFE SKILLS AND LIFELONG FRIENDSHIPS WHILST PROVIDING ENJOYMENT FOR ALL ITS PARTICIPANTS
and I have no doubt that over the 4 days of the tournament we all began lifelong friendships that will endure long after the tournament. Indeed, plans are already afoot for a reconvention at The IGR Union Cup scheduled to be held in Olso in 2025, itself a biennial tournament last held in 2023 in Birmingham.
The 2023 Union Cup in Birmingham was boycotted by the global FLINTA* teams due to the RFU’s trans-ban, which meant they would not be allowed to bring their TWAG teammates to the tournament. The narrow-minded, bigotted approach of the RFU has resulted in its pariah status within the IGR community. As someone who grew up in South Africa in the 70’s and 80’s I know how it feels to be a pariah state in the rugby community and it is somewhat ironic that it is a South African who has been the driving force behind the exclusion of TWAGs at a World Rugby level and within the British and Irish Unions. I guess you just can’t take the instinct to disciminate out of some people.
The biggest losers in the RFU’s trans-ban however are the very women they propose to “protect”. Female rugby players (those the RFU define as “players assigned female at birth” (AFAB)) in Britain and Ireland are denied the opportunity to participate in a broad international community of inclusive rugby playing nations, as evidenced by the RFU’s refusal to sanction the participation of the Vixens. Certainly there are some AFAB players who would prefer to play only with and against other AFAB players, however at the community level there is a greater majority who would prefer to be able to play inclusive rugby. The British and Irish Unions have spectacularly missed this point and British and Irish rugby is, ultimately, the loser.
The United Kingdom, under the “stewardship” of the Conservative Party for the last 14 years, has become a toxic environment for people who identify as TWAG. At its highest levels, including the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak himself, the Party has gone out of its way to cosy up to the wildest fringes of anti-transgender hate groups like Fair Play for Women and The LGB Alliance, along with a litigious erstwhile author who shall not be named, and have allowed this Old-South African’esque level of discrimination against a marginalised group of entirely helpless people to propogate. British and Irish society en-masse have become international pariahs of LGBTQUI+ rights in much the same way as even moderate old-South African citizens were identified based on the actions of their government. My South African accent is still my biggest marker of my shame.
LGBTQUI+ Rights, like all Rights, are never assured in perpetuity and will forever need to be feverously defended. The IGR, in recognition of this, have begun rostering an All Trans Match at all of their tournaments. The Bingham and Amanda Cup tournament of 2024 was no different and this years match featured a staggering 60 players showing a noteable year-on-year increase.
I was circumspect as to whether I should participate in this match. There is a risk that by combining trans-men and trans-women in a match would serve to promote the idea that transgender players should be restricted to playing only against each other. I had decided to attend the tournament on the basis that I would be able to play the game I love amoungst my fellow FLINTA* players. Playing the All Trans Match had not been a priority for me. I was there as a Bruiser, to play for The Bruiserkers.
Taking the middle Saturday off from playing (mostly to rest my aging body!) I took the time to reflect on this. On the Sunday morning I played in the final Bruiserkers match of the tournament, the Bowl Final against Les Simone, and felt sore, bruised (sic) and tired after four gruelling days in the Roman sunshine.
Ultimately, I took to the field in the All Trans Match because it was clear that this match represented an opportunity to showcase the incredible transgender players of our beautiful game and to champion our visibility. I realised that I should not allow the transgender exclusionary forces to deny me the opportunity to play with my own community, regardless of the “optics”. Politics are for Will Carling’s “Blazer Brigade”. To hell with them.
We are here, we exist, we have always existed, and I refuse to cower in a closet and deny who I am…a transgender woman, a woman, and a member of the incredible FLINTA* rugby community that is growing worldwide, with or without the regressive British and Irish Unions and their pet South African “scientist” who has dragged them back at least 50 years.
To my wonderful Bruiserkers, you have given a cynical, old, battle-hardened rugby veteren a renewed sense of community and enthusiasm.
Bierre, Bierre, Bierre…Bruiserkers!!!!
Watch the All Trans Match here:
https://www.therugbynetwork.com/video/69a4df54-560c-4285-cf79-08dc7f4e4dc1
https://igrugby.org
Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Transgender, Asexual