Exeter Chief’s imposing second-row Jack Dunne will be the Premiership’s first openly LGBTQ+ player when he makes his debut for the club this weekend.
“Hopefully once there are one or two more people it will start to feel that this is something they can say and it won’t be a big thing,” Dunne, who identifies as bisexual, revealed exclusively to BBC Sport.
“Hopefully it would be good for other gay or bisexual men to see people like me and hopefully it’ll give them a bit of confidence to be able to be who they are.
“All my team-mates back at Leinster, none of them ever had an issue with it, they were all very supportive, so it wasn’t something I really worried about too much,
“I thought if people were going to give me stick for it that was their problem, not mine, so I wasn’t too concerned about it.
“It was probably tougher coming out to my friends and family back in the day, I’d been OK with it for five years or so, so it wasn’t really a big thing for me when I came out publicly, the personal one was probably bigger than the professional one.”
Five rugby lads who are out and proud
RUCK wanted to celebrate five out and proud rugby stars. Their focus? How we can collectively align to take action that drives change on and off the pitch.
1. Nigel Owens
All fans, players, and anyone who knows anything about rugby will know the name, Nigel Owens. Besides having the record for most test matches refereed, Owens has earned a reputation as one of the top rugby referees around the world.
The Welshman is also a TV personality and a devoted activist for the LGBT cause, winning “Gay Sports Personality of the Decade” at the Stonewall awards ceremony in London back in 2015.
