International Gay Rugby Association and Board
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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International Gay Rugby Association and Board (IGRAB) is the umbrella organization for the world's gay rugby clubs. It is dedicated to encouraging lesbians and gay men everywhere to play rugby. IGRAB is based in London, UK.
The Goals of IGRAB are to:
- Lobby for the inclusion of rugby in the Gay Games, and work with the Federation of Gay Games to foster rugby within the Games.
- Supervise a gay rugby world cup, known as the Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament or Bingham Cup for short.
- Encourage the creation of more lesbian and gay friendly teams
IGRAB seeks to ensure its activities and rugby generally are inclusive in nature. IGRAB will strive to ensure that no individual shall be excluded from participating in IGRAB or rugby on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, political beliefs, athletic ability, age, physical challenge, mental challenge, or health status.
IGRAB constitutionally covers rugby union, rugby league, rugby sevens, quad (wheelchair) rugby, and touch rugby. Rugby union is by far the largest part of rugby hence IGRAB's focus is biased towards this code of rugby.
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[edit] History
In 2002 a coordinating group of gay & bisexual rugby teams based around the globe got together to create IGRAB as the body to promote rugby as an all-inclusive non-discriminatory sport which everyone can play, regardless of sexuality. The formation of this body led to the inauguration of a new international rugby competition -- a gay rugby world's cup -- which in a unanimous decision by all the members of IGRAB became known as the Bingham Cup.
[edit] Member Clubs
Europe
- NOP Amsterdam Rugby Club, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Bristol Bisons, Bristol, England, UK
- Cardiff Lions, Cardiff, Wales, UK
- Copenhagen Scrum, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Emerald Warriors RFC, Dublin, Ireland
- Caledonian Thebans RFC, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- La Melee Alpine, Grenoble, France
- Kings Cross Steelers RFC, London, England, UK
- Malmö Devilants, Malmö, Sweden
- Village Spartans RUFC, Manchester, England, UK
- Los Valents de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
- Les Gaillards Parisiens, Paris, France
Australasia
- Ponsonby Heroes Rugby, Auckland, New Zealand
- Brisbane Hustlers RUFC, Brisbane, Australia
- Sydney Convicts Rugby Club, Sydney, Australia
North America
- Atlanta Bucks RFC, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Austin Lonestars RFC, Austin, TX, USA
- Boston Ironsides RFC, Boston, MA, USA
- Charlotte Royals RFC, Charlotte, NC, USA
- Chicago Dragons RFC, Chicago, IL, USA
- Dallas Diablos RFC, Dallas, TX, USA
- Houston Roughnecks RFC, Houston, TX, USA
- Los Angeles Rebellion RFC, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Minneapolis Mayhem RFC, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Gotham Knights RFC, New York, NY, USA
- Philadelphia Gryphons RFC, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Phoenix Storm RFC, Phoenix, AZ, USA
- Portland Avalanche RFC, Portland, OR, USA
- North Carolina Kodiaks RFC, Raleigh-Durham, NC, USA
- San Diego Armada RFC, San Diego, CA, USA
- San Francisco Fog RFC, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Seattle Quake RFC, Seattle, WA, USA
- Muddy York RFC, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Vancouver Rogues RFC, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Washington Renegades RFC, Washington, DC, USA
South America
- Buenos Aires Rugby, Buenos Aires, Argentina
