Europe’s first openly gay owners of a professional sports club look ahead to the latest match celebrating the Pride movement
Keighley Cougar players, wearing a Pride-inspired kit, celebrate during the Pride match against Coventry Bears last year.Keighley Cougar players, wearing a Pride-inspired kit, celebrate during the Pride match against Coventry Bears last year.estled on the edge of the Pennine countryside, not too far from Bradford, Keighley is hardly the first place that springs to mind when you think of the Pride movement.
“Growing up in Keighley I had a difficult teenage life, when being gay wasn’t exactly something you shouted about,” O’Neill says. “I remember hearing about an LGBT group meeting above a shop in Keighley in the 1990s and it wasn’t exactly open, so we wanted people to feel as though they could come watch rugby league and be open about their sexuality.”Photograph: Courtesy of Ryan O'Neill
That first Pride event was a success and after a Covid-interrupted period, Keighley’s annual Pride match returns on Sunday, bigger and better than ever. Keighley will play in a kit that has the Pride rainbow flag sported across the middle, local drag queens will perform live and the club have launched a music video featuring LGBTQ+ icon Billy Porter and the players. “To have macho rugby players dancing around in rainbow gear takes some courage,” O’Neill says, smiling.
Keighley, who are top of League 1 and undefeated this season, sparking hopes of Cougarmania 2.0, anticipate their biggest crowd of the season for the match against West Wales, but the Cougars are one of a handful of clubs to throw Pride events, which poses the question of whether rugby league is doing enough to support the LGBTQ+ community.
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