For the first time in Fog Rugby history, the team has earned a spot in the Northern California Rugby Football Union (NCRFU) Division III playoffs. After beating Humboldt Old Growth 39-12 in the last match of regular season (Saturday, March 27), the Fog Men finished in fifth place behind Marin, Redwood, Berkeley, and San Bruno.
Playoffs begin on April 10, location TBD.
Testifying before the Senate today, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that ending the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would be “the right thing to do.”
Mullen told the Senate’s Armed Services committee gay people should be allowed to serve openly in the nation’s armed forces.
President Obama repeatedly stated his opposition to the policy during his campaign for the White House, and pledged during the State of the Union address last week to repeal the ban within a year.
Mullen stressed he was “speaking for myself and myself only.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates appeared before the same Senate panel, announcing that he would initiate a year-long review of the policy.
“The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how we best prepare for it,” Gates said. “We received our orders from the commander-in-chief and we are moving out accordingly.”
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” was passed by Congress in 1993, and permitted gay men and lesbians to serve as long as they kept their sexual orientation secret. “Homosexual conduct,” however, was sufficient grounds for discharge from the military.
Since then, nearly 11,000 troops have been dismissed under the policy.
Former international rugby star Gareth Thomas became the first openly gay top-level rugby player after coming out in an interview with British newspaper The Daily Mail.
The 35-year-old Thomas, Wales’ most-capped player after appearing in 100 tests*, retired from internationals after the 2007 World Cup, but still plays for Welsh provincial side Cardiff Blues.
Read more about Gareth Thomas coming out in CNN and WalesOnline.
* Translation: Thomas was a member of the Welsh national team on 100 occasions against other teams in international competition.
Relatives of the victims of United Airlines flight 93 gathered at the plane’s crash site in western Pennsylvania today, taking part with in a groundbreaking ceremony for a memorial to honor the passengers who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. They were joined by Ken Salazar, US Secretary of the Interior.
Mark Bingham, an early member of the San Francisco Fog, was one of the 38 passengers on that flight. He was 31 years old at the time of the crash.
President Obama today signed the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. The law is named after Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming college student tortured and killed because he was gay, and James Byrd, a black man lynched by white supremacists.
The Matthew Shepard-James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence, where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
The San Francisco Fog R.F.C. stands united in working towards a future in which such acts never occur.
In the first video below, Matthew Shepard’s mother, Judy Shepard, speaks about her son’s life. The second video recounts James Byrd’s murder and its aftermath.
After securing a solid victory in Tempe, Arizona, this past weekend, the Fog Women finished fifth overall in West Coast Division I. The Fog beat Tempe 35-24 to edge out the same team in the final rankings, only narrowly missing the D1 playoffs. The club at large is proud of such a strong showing for the women in only their fourth season as a team.
The Fog Women will continue to play on into the post-season with tournaments and scrimmages.
A California bill, signed into law by governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday, honors the life of Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay politician elected to public office, by proclaiming his birthday, May 22, as a day of significance across the state each year.
Milk was elected a San Francisco Supervisor in 1977 and served until he and mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White in 1978.
The Fog men are gearing up for the 2009-2010 season with practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:30pm - 9:30pm, at the Fog Rugby pitch.
The men’s first pre-season game is on Saturday, October 17.
FOG RUGBY® is proud to announce that Bass and Budweiser have just renewed their sponsorship contract for three more years after the brands’ successful sponsorship of the club.
The Fog Rugby community loves Bass and Budweiser products and is very much looking forward to the coming three years of sponsorship.
Alice Hoagland, mother of Mark Bingham, spoke at the “Day of Decision” protest rally in San Francisco on the evening after the Prop 8 decision was given by the California Supreme Court. The following is a video of her speech.
