The Gay Rugby Podcast

Welcome to The Gay Rugby Podcast! In this full episode, hosts Jack Higgins and Ozzie Luna sit down with Logan Legs from Quake Rugby, one of the oldest and most inclusive men’s rugby clubs in the U.S., based in the Pacific Northwest. This episode was filmed live at Rucktacular, the premier LGBTQ+ and inclusive rugby tournament in Palm Springs, California, bringing together gay rugby teams from acro...

In Episode 29 of The Gay Rugby Podcast, hosts Jack Higgins and Ozzie Luna sit down with “Rugby Daddy” himself, longtime New-York City rugby lifer (and Gotham Knights legend) Kevin Healy, for a conversation that pulls back the curtain on the early days of gay and inclusive rugby, when there was no Instagram, no Tinder, just sweaty post-game beers, in-person recruiting, and a handful of shirts passe...

There’s a certain poetry to how someone ends up in rugby without ever planning to touch the pitch. For Eric Anderson, it started the day his husband joined the local team in Los Angeles and Eric, who’d never played a minute, walked into the Rebellion’s orbit and somehow wound up running the whole thing. On Episode 28 of The Gay Rugby Podcast, Jack Higgins and Ozzy Luna sit down with Eric, now Pres...

Tom Goss brings the room to a hush before he makes it sing. We caught him with the band for a full live set and a wide-ranging interview that cuts under the surface of a queer music career, the songs that make crowds cheer, the parts of gay life only other gay men sing about, and why a single track like Bears can mean more than a chorus. Tom’s been turning honest storytelling into sing-along anthe...

Lelo Adult Toys - Black Friday Sale | Save an additional 20% off already amazing deals by using code GRP20 at checkouthttps://www.lelo.com/Kevyn Fong doesn’t do small talk. The LA comedian came by the Gay Rugby Podcast and immediately started asking the questions everyone avoids — what actually happens when you join a gay rugby team, and what’s it like living inside that community once you’re in i...

On this week’s Halloween-themed episode of The Gay Rugby Podcast, we’re diving into the ridiculous, creative, and occasionally questionable world of rugby sevens fan costumes. From diehards who commit fully to a theme to those who look like they got dressed in the dark before kickoff, we’re ranking them all; not out of judgment, but appreciation for the spectacle that happens when sport collides w...

Downtown Los Angeles was pulsing with color when we set up our mics at DTLA Proud Festival. The air was thick with basslines, drag queens strutted past the fountains at Pershing Square, and somewhere between the main stage and a churro stand, we spoke with actor and activist Milton Darnell Smith, a man who carries pride in his bones. This is Episode 24 of The Gay Rugby Podcast, and it’s all about...

Rugby has its own language. Every scrum, ruck, and knock-on carries meaning, rhythm, and history. In this episode of The Gay Rugby Podcast, hosts Jack Higgins and Ozzie Luna from Los Angeles Rebellion Rugby unpack the slang that runs through the sport — and what it says about identity, culture, and belonging. It’s part translation guide, part cultural study. The guys break down how rugby’s coded v...

His decision didn’t just ripple, it detonated. In Episode 22 of The Gay Rugby Podcast, we sit down with R.K. Russell, the NFL player who, in a moment of courage and clarity, became one of the first active players to publicly identify as bisexual. What follows is equal parts locker-room confession, cultural reckoning, and hard-won tenderness: a story about leaving silence behind, about masculinity...

Episode 21 of The Gay Rugby Podcast - “When Did Pool Parties Become Boring? | Andrés Rigal & Summertramp” - finds us sitting down with longtime nightlife & event-producer Andrés Rigal, founder of SummerTramp and a co-organizer of DTLA Proud, to talk about the arc of queer pool parties in Los Angeles. Rigal reflects on the early days of SummerTramp, the gaps he saw in Los Angeles’s summer e...

Episode 20 of The Gay Rugby Podcast drops us right into the middle of DTLA Proud Festival 2025, recorded on August 24 at Placita Olvera in downtown Los Angeles. The episode features Richard Suarez-Tascon of Rebellion Rugby, where he helps lead alumni and RugBAE engagement, and the conversation zeroes in on the rivalry and shared DNA between rugby culture in New York City and Los Angeles. With the...

Episode 19 of The Gay Rugby Podcast features Lauren Doyle, a former USA Women’s Rugby Sevens star and three-time Olympian who represented Team USA in Rio, Tokyo, and Paris. Doyle opens up about what happens when the Olympic dream ends, the adrenaline fades, the medals go into storage, and suddenly you’re left facing the world outside of sport. She speaks openly about the post-Olympic blues, the me...

Pride as a Form of Protest” isn’t just a rallying cry - it’s the reason DTLA Proud exists. Formed as a more diverse, grassroots response to the mainstream West Hollywood Pride, the festival brings queer culture back to the center of Los Angeles with intention and bite. In this episode of The Gay Rugby Podcast, filmed live at DTLA Proud festival 2025, we talk with Eric Solis and his husband Dennis...

In Episode 17 of The Gay Rugby Podcast, we pull charts, pull no punches, and let LA stand-up Kevin Sullivan read the scrum like it’s written in the stars. From Aries flankers who live for collision to dreamy Pisces fullbacks who can’t stop chasing the offload, we map out rugby zodiac signs with a wink, a whistle, and a little queer magic. Kevin (an openly gay comic you’ve seen around the Hollywood...

From dating app dopamine to locker room breakdowns, the messy overlap of rugby and mental health. Episode 16 of The Gay Rugby Podcast is less polished highlight reel and more raw post-match debrief. We dig into using dating apps for validation and rugby and mental health, pulling no punches on how those late-night swipes blur into dating app addiction, how the highs of a “like” hit feel like a dop...

An Olympic rugby prop eats like it’s a full-time job. For Episode 15, Elliot Norris joins us on The Gay Rugby Podcast to find out what it really takes to get through a day on that kind of fuel. We hand him the daily meal plan built for an elite front-rower: thousands of calories spread across precision-timed meals, heavy carb loads before training, protein spikes after, and recovery shakes that ta...

The Gay Rugby Podcast dives headfirst into the chaos surrounding the Run It Straight Challenge reaction, peeling back the layers of a viral trend that’s become as controversial as it is captivating. Episode 14 doesn’t hold back-we talk about the brutal clips flooding feeds, the adrenaline‑hungry crowds, and the moment it all turned dark in New Zealand after a young man’s death. The conversation mo...

Jack Higgins and Ozzie Luna just got back from Boston with bruises, stories, and a hangover or two, and they’re spilling it all on Episode 13 of the Gay Rugby Podcast. The NORAM Cup isn’t just another weekend of rugby - it’s the beating heart of the gay and inclusive rugby community, a mash‑up of bone‑crunching tackles, sideline laughter, and late‑night socials that feel more like a family reunion...

Dre’s been one of our teammates for years — but he’s also Mr. Mega Woof 2024, a staple in West Hollywood’s go-go scene, and one of the most magnetic performers we know. So when he invited us to learn a few moves, we showed up… completely unprepared. What started as a friendly tutorial turned into a full-on spectacle: a bunch of sweaty rugby players trying to keep up with a seasoned go-go dancer. T...

Before rainbow laces, viral TikToks, and international tournaments, there was a handful of gay men in Los Angeles brave enough to build a rugby club from the ground up—one scrum at a time. In Episode 11 of the Gay Rugby Podcast, hosts Jack Higgins and Ozzy Luna sit down with Gabriel Galluccio, co-founder of the Los Angeles Rebellion, to trace the untold story of queer rugby in Southern California....

When Brazilian rugby star Izzy Cerullo took the field at the 2016 Olympics, she had no idea she was about to become a queer icon. But after her then-girlfriend proposed on live television-mid-Games, mid-glory-Cerullo found herself at the center of a global moment that said everything about visibility, identity, and the politics of being queer on the world stage. In Episode 10 of The Gay Rugby Podc...

Episode 9 of the Gay Rugby Podcast drops straight into the action at NORAM Cup 2025 in Boston, where something unprecedented unfolded on the pitch: the third-ever all-trans rugby match. In a tournament known for celebrating inclusive sport, this year’s moment felt bigger-more urgent, more electric. Trans athletes came together from across North America, uniting in a game that wasn’t just about rug...

North American rugby is changing-and the biggest tournament on the continent is leading the charge. In this episode of the Gay Rugby Podcast, Jack Higgins and Ozzie Luna sit down with Quinton Leduc for an in-depth interview about NORAM 2025, the next major event in North America rugby. Hosted in Boston by the Boston Ironsides, NORAM Cup 2025 is more than just a rugby tournament. It’s a celebration...

We brought our unapologetically gay rugby podcast to the madness of LA Sevens rugby, one of the biggest rugby events in Los Angeles, and sat down with The Rugby Guy to unpack what’s really going on in the sport. If you’ve been searching for an inclusive rugby podcast that covers more than just scores and stats, you’re in the right place. In this episode, we talk about what it means to show up quee...

The 2025 edition of LA Sevens Pride delivered two days of high-energy international rugby and an electric celebration of inclusivity at Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles. In this episode, The Gay Rugby Podcast recaps all the major moments from the tournament, on and off the pitch. South Africa’s men’s team took home the title with a 19-5 win over Spain in a breakout performance that saw th...