In pics | Gay rugby players head to the locker room for MEAT Zine
By Ben Kelly
It’s been 20 years since the Kings Cross Steelers were founded as the first gay rugby team in the UK, and to mark that anniversary, 29 players from the 200 strong membership have stripped off for a new book published by Meat.
Meat The Kings Cross Steelers was shot in the changing rooms of the team’s West Ham training ground, and the photos showcase the Steelers’ vigour and vitality – as well as the diversity and inclusivity that are at the heart of the team’s ethos.
Photographer Adrian Lourie, who first published Meat six years ago, says he has never retouched the images that appear in the cult magazine.
“I started Meat because I was tired of the body-shaming that goes on within the gay community and I wanted to celebrate the bodies of ‘ordinary’ gay men,” he says.
“A collaboration with the Kings Cross Steelers made perfect sense as they believe in the same inclusiveness that I do.”
Alex Smith, Chairman of The Kings Cross Steelers says: “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.”
He adds: “For two decades, our club has helped hundreds of men – big, small, gay or straight – realise the great maxim about rugby: that it is a game for people of all shapes and sizes – truly a sport for everyone.”
If that’s not enough to get you hot under the collar check out some more of the team’s 29 hunky players in this behind the scenes video.
Meat The Kings Cross Steelers can be ordered from meatzine.com, with the first 100 copies sold including an artist-signed 6×4 colour photo print.
A fundraiser for the Steelers takes place at Heaven, London on May 6, with tickets available from pitchero.com/clubs/kingscrosssteelers.
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