A top rugby official in Fiji was fired within days of being appointed after she spoke of “this gay problem” in women’s national teams.
Laijipa Naulivou resigned as director of rugby before her appointment was cancelled by the Fiji Rugby Union to reinforce a “commitment to upholding professional standards and safeguarding the integrity of Fiji Rugby.”
The FRU added on Wednesday it “categorically rejects any form of discrimination.”
Naulivou, the first captain of the Fiji women’s team, said in an interview published by the Fiji Sun “those who played with me know that I do not condone being gay for women in rugby.”
I’ve never been to Fiji…
But I can’t imagine making it to a national women’s team and still being bigoted against lesbians. Its not exactly a rare thing to run across.
Like, at least in America, it’s incredibly common for LGBT to play rugby. Hell, we had a gay pornstar on my men’s college team for a while, we gave him as much shit as anyone else on the team, but rugby culture has always been incredibly accepting.
Doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re dumb enough to join the team, you’re a part of the team.
Rugby is perhaps one of the gayest mainstream sports around.
Anecdotally at my university in the early 2000s the women’s sevens tournaments were basically a networking event for the ladies who enjoyed the company of other ladies.
I occasionally show up to a college alumni game and shit has changed so much.
Like, the drinking culture was out of control, but socials aren’t even really a thing anymore.
Literally the only reason I joined a team back in the day was for the parties. Good on the zoomers for not drinking as much, but it’s not like the old days.
We used to run thru 5-6 kegs on weekday nights, I was 18 years old picking up kegs from a closed liquor store at like 4am because we ran out. And carrying it blocks back the party for it to be floated in 30 minutes.
The zoomers are vaping cannabis extracts these days, no need for alcohol.