On June 17, a rugby team which includes many NYC Firefighters refused to play another local rugby team. As far as I remember, the only other time a rugby team refused to play was a few years back when Stanford refused to play Cal citing that they had no chance so why risk the injury?

This time it’s a little worse than someone just being scared. This time it was prejudice. The Rock B/Fire team refused to play the Gotham Knights, because the Gotham Knights, who is comprised mainly by gay men, did not want to submit to HIV testing:

“He came up and said something like, ‘I don’t mean to be a jerk, but . . .’ and then he asked if we could all confirm that we were not HIV positive,” said [Eric] Malfren, who was standing with the group. “He asked us several times.”

In the year 2006, I would expect people to know better. It’s kind of a shame that Rugby only gets mention in the media here when something is either very odd or very bad. Which is even dumber of me to continue that but I felt like commenting. I think it really shows that some of the 9-11 unity that our country shared for quite some time might be wearing off. It also shows that even though it is 2006, prejudice is just as strong as ever.

• NY Firefighters Refuse to Play Against Gay Team (OutSports)