Steelers: the World's First Gay Rugby Club
A paean to acceptance on the sports field, Eammon Ashton-Atkinson’s first documentary makes for both heartbreaking and life-enhancing viewing.
All sports, like life, are comprised of both straight and gay players. Whether the gay players come out to their team mates is another matter. It is still difficult for some to be open about their sexuality, even though it is God-given, whichever way you swing. Homophobia is still rife in schools on the playground and in sport on the playing field. The situation is gradually improving step by step but there is still a long way to go before ignorance, bigotry and fear are totally wiped out. Such was the experience for Eammon Ashton-Atkinson, a gay Australian television reporter and rugby player who, while visiting London, encountered the King’s Cross Steelers, a rugby club exclusively for gay players.
In Australia he had been unable to be himself and come out as gay, having suffered bullying at school. The Steelers, the world’s first gay rugby club, has been going for twenty-five years and although they initially only played other gay clubs, they are now accepted by straights too. Recent events have seen the world of rugby embracing any sexuality, particularly when the Welsh gay player Gareth Thomas came out and was surprised by the reaction of his fellow team mates. He has even married his now-husband.
Eammon Ashton-Atkinson has documented his journey and also that of others in the Steelers team: Simon Jones who was on medication for depression due to his guilt and feelings of shame, so that he couldn’t even get out of bed until he joined the Steelers and found sympathy and true friendship. Andy McDowell gained acceptance as not only a skilled rugby player but also a talented drag queen; but then many of the Steelers team are not averse to showing their feminine side, albeit a rather butch one.
The team coach, Nic Evans, is (or was) a lesbian rugby player herself who had experienced homophobia even from gay men. Her decision to leave the Steelers after three good years is a very poignant one and indeed the whole film is one of emotional release from having to hide one’s true self until eventual acceptance from like-minded friends. The team members obviously get on (if not get off) with each other and they certainly do seem like a band of happy brothers, all of whom have probably been through the mill before reaching a state of true happiness. Eammon Ashton-Atkinson’s documentary is a moving but also witty piece of film-making, heartbreaking at times but also life-enhancing. It deserves to be seen by all.
MICHAEL DARVELL
With: Eammon Ashton-Atkinson, Nic Evans, Simon Jones, Andrew McDowell and the King’s Cross Steelers Club team.
Dir Eammon Ashton-Atkinson, Pro Eammon Ashton-Atkinson, Screenplay Eammon Ashton-Atkinson, Ph Eammon Ashton-Atkinson, Ed Eammon Ashton-Atkinson.
One Man Band Media-Republic Film Distribution.
82 mins. UK. 2020. Rel: 16 April 2021. Available on Amazon Prime. Cert. 15.