Gay Rugby Players Gather For Tournament Named For 9-11 Hero

[ruggerson]

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/05/052606bingham.htm

(New York City) The city where the memory of the 2001 terror attacks lingers most painfully will for the first time this weekend host a rugby tournament honoring Sept. 11 hero Mark Bingham, an openly gay man and avid rugby player who died on United Flight 93.

The Bingham Cup is open to gay rugby teams and pays tribute to Bingham, who is believed to have been one of the passengers who fought the hijackers on Flight 93, forcing the plane to crash in rural Pennsylvania instead of Washington, D.C.

"Mark's legacy was that he showed a lot of people that a gay man can be a good athlete in a rough contact sport like rugby and that a gay man can also be heroic," said Scott Glaessgen, a member of the New York team, the Gotham Knights, who met Bingham through their shared interest in the sport.

Glaessgen said Bingham's example has inspired the growth of gay rugby from a handful of teams in 2001 to 40 worldwide today. Some 800 players on 26 men's teams and two women's teams are participating in the biennial tournament, which starts Friday.

(more)

[MadMaddie]

1. He was a hero....

and he deserves this honor.. I played Rugby...I love the sport but let me tell you when those big women eventually caught up with me..let's just say I should have kept on running...

[racaulk]

3. Keep on running! Ain't that the truth!

I play rugby now and I'm a back. I usually play in one of the center positions. I've never been too keen on that whole "being tackled" thing. I had a friend tell me once that I won't have to worry about being tackled if I run fast enough. Easier said than done--I don't think he realized that there are 15 men standing between me and the try line. I guess I'll just have to try harder at being "fast enough." :)

And I've seen a few matches of women's rugby. You definitely have my respect--I think the women play rougher than the men do!

[racaulk]

2. RIP, Mark Bingham. A true American hero.

As a player in one of the gay rugby teams that Mark helped to inspire, Mark has had a profound impact on my life, even though I never met him. Rugby, though an incredibly rough and difficult sport, has been very therapeutic for me, has greatly increased my circle of friends, and has allowed me to find a fraternity-like brotherhood that I didn't know was out there for me. My life has been greatly enriched because of Mark, I just regret that I'll never have the opportunity to tell him that.

By all accounts that I have read by people that knew him, Mark was an incredible man and someone that I would have been honored to call a friend. Learn more about him here: http://www.markbingham.org/

Due to work and other commitments, I was unable to attend the Bingham Cup tournament this year. But I will damn well be there in 2008!

Go Bucks!

[dsc]

4. I am no sportman

but I am glad he is getting his due somewhere. Plus Rugby shorts are way hot on the right guy.

[Democrats_win]

5. Good to hear they did this.