Watch: Gay Rugby Players Strip in Locker Room Shoot

Photography by Adrian Lourie/Meat

The Kings Cross Steelers pose in a new shoot for Meat magazine.

By Xavier Piedra

Wed, 2016-04-13 15:50

To mark their 20th anniversary as the UK’s first gay rugby team, the
Kings Cross Steelers stipped down and posed for a new book to be
published by indie 'zine Meat.

Entitled Meat The Kings Cross Steelers, the book features 29 players from the team’s 200-strong membership. All the players were photographed by Meat’s founder, Adrian Lourie.

Lourie, who started Meat in 2010, said that he was “tired of
the body shaming that goes on within the gay community.” His aim is to
“celebrate the bodies of ‘ordinary gay men.”

Christopher Kang, 1st XC player of The Kings Cross Steelers, who is featured in Meat, also agrees with Lourie in regards to male body image.

“I see myself as a pretty average looking-dude so I don’t really see myself as a pin-up anything,” Kang said. “So I’m chuffed that I’ve had the good fortune of joining a long line of Meat
magazine dudes alongside so many of my fellow Steelers. The Steelers
has not only helped pave the way for inclusive rugby teams but also
helped hanged perceptions about gay sportsmen.”

Alex Smith, Chairman of the Kings Cross Steelers said: “Despite so
much progress over the last 20 years, it can still be very difficult to
be an out gay man, made even more so by a lot of unhelpful noise around
how to be, act or look within the community. That’s why I’m proud that
the Kings Cross Steelers have partnered with Meat to help show that anyone can be a pin-up by simply being yourself.”

He added: “For two decades, our club has helped hundreds of men –
big, small, gay or straight – realize the great maxim about rugby: that
it is a game for people of all shapes and sizes – truly a sport for
everyone.”

If the pictures aren’t enough, be sure to watch the teasers for more of the hunky team’s players:

Tags: Sports