The Bingham Cup 2012

It was a close run between Manchester and Sydney, but it was announced that our very own Manchester is up, and about to host the "Bingham Cup" in June 2012!

The "Bingham Cup" began in 2002 and is still going strong! Every two years, gay rugby teams (yes you heard right!) come from all over the world to play the sport we all know and love!

This year, the championship is coming to the UK as Manchester beat Sydney 34 votes to 28 (voted by teams around the world) to host the International Gay Rugby World Championship in 2012.

Manchester’s bid was lead by their own team, the Village Spartans! Now, over 1,000 players (and that's not including the supporters) will descend on the city for the three-day event at Broughton Park.

It also seems that the team is now working closely with IGRAB to make sure all will go smoothly.

It seems that even in the midst of all the issues we are facing, there are still people out there who will keep fighting for what they believe in! It is wildly known that sports of almost any sort have a stigma put upon them involving the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community in some way or another... and it is truly refreshing to see that people won't just sit by and let others tell them that gay people are not allowed to play rugby, or cricket or even football! No, they...and we, both should and will stand up against it! And many have done...here are just a few of the 'LGBT friendly' sports and supports in the uk.

http://www.gfsn.org.uk/ (Gay Football Supporter's Network)

http://panthersrfc.co.uk/ (Leicestershire panthers 'rugby')

http://www.kxsrfc.com (Kings Cross Steelers 'rugby')

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/villagespartans/ (village Spartans Manchester 'rugby')

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBT_community_centers (full list of centres worldwide)

This is dedicated to Mark Bingham, whom the Bingham cup is named after, a gay former University of California-Berkeley rugby star. who died in the 9-11-01 attacks.

By chantelle calow