Hit squad: on the straight-friendly L.A. Rebellion gay rugby team, men of all sexual stripes come together to butt heads--but in a good way.

One a recent Tuesday evening at Los Angeles's Poinsettia Park near West Hollywood, about a dozen men a grass field were running head on into a practice tackle, grunting loudly as they shoved the hapless dummy around.

It was all just part of the weekly chill of the area's straight-inclusive gay rugby club, the L.A. Rebellion. "That was good--if you were wearing a skirt," joked coach Gary Patterson, after one lightning-fast player smashed into the dummy. That kind of smack talk is common on rugby pitches around the world, but the Rebellion's trash talk is a bit unusual.

"And high heels," one player added.

"Only on weekends," another chimed in. Although the number of participants is tiny in comparison to that of other league sports (the gay men's softball league boasts 30 teams and 450 players in Los Angeles alone), rough-and-tumble rugby is becoming a passion for a growing number of gay men, plus more than a few straight men who have no problem playing on teams that celebrate sexual diversity.

While there may be a few campy comments, there is no such thing as touch rugby. Since ruggers don't wear protective equipment or helmets, the hits are real. Most Rebellion team members can list numerous rugby-related injuries, including torn biceps, dislocated fingers, and black eyes.

For gay rugger Richard Cardona, who has been playing for less than a year (and is currently off the field with a shoulder injury), the extreme physical nature of the game is the real attraction.

"There is something to be said for taking someone down, but in a sportsmanlike manner," Cardona says.

Gay rugger Ralph Peschek, a longtime softball and football player, learned about rugby through his partner.

"I started to come out and watch matches and thought, This is way better than football," he says.

The L.A. Rebellion is one of roughly 20 gay rugby teams that have popped up in the United States since 2001; the sport received great attention after the September 11 attacks, when gay rugby player Mark Bingham became a hero to gays and straights alike after he died thwarting the United Flight 93 hijackers.

While in most large cities there are all-gay leagues for sports such as softball or tennis, gay rugby teams compete in local leagues that are primarily straight. The Rebellion belongs to the Southern California Rugby Football Union, a well-organized league that has been in existence since 1937 and boasts significant Hollywood roots (horror master Boris Karloff was its first president). The Rebellion, whose player makeup is 25%-30% straight, has been something of a basement dweller in its league, which is understandable given that it's a new team with players who are mostly newcomers to the game.

"I never actually played a team sport before," says out player Len Lanzi, who has been with the Rebellion for a year and a half. "I've always been a person drawn toward groups. [Rugby] reminds me of being in a fraternity. I like that sense of brotherhood."

When the team first started, losing by 50, 60, or even 100 points was common. But losses haven't diminished the Rebellion players' enthusiasm for rugby. Over the last two seasons the team has increased its level of play and become more competitive, with team members giving credit to out Rebellion president Will Tabor's leadership and Patterson and Tabor's coaching.

"We have a really good team now," Patterson says. "They are going to surprise some people next year."

In 2008 the Rebellion will go to Dublin to participate in the Bingham Cup, a biennial international rugby tournament established in 2002 for gay and bisexual teams. The increased interest Mark Bingham spurred in the sport continues thanks to people like Tabor, who has been with the Rebellion as a player and coach for more than four years. He's developing the team with hopes of turning losses into wins.

Tabor has always gone in for contact sports, but like virtually all the other members of the team, he says he is drawn to rugby's spirit of camaraderie.

"When I became a member I got into the whole team, support, brotherhood aura," Tabor says, noting that after every game both teams come together to commiserate and drink, regardless of sexuality. "When we step onto the field there's no sexuality. I don't know ff there's a need for a 'gay' team. Rugby is encompassing of everybody."

The team added a number of straight players after fielding a booth at the Sunset Junction Street Festival in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake, an area popular with progressive straights and gays. Tabor thinks he knows why the Rebellion's straight players suit up with the gay team.

"These are people who are open-minded, love the sport of rugby, and enjoy the camaraderie of being around gay men who they also see as everybody else," he says.

While Tabor is very up-front with prospective players about the Rebellion being predominantly gay, he lets them know the focus is rugby, not sexuality.

Rebellion coach Gary Patterson, who is straight, sees it a little differently, however. For Patterson, the concept of a gay team is key to the club's existence.

"I regard the Rebellion as a gay team with straight guys," Patterson says. "I make that distinction, a very important distinction. It's important that the club never loses its heritage."

Patterson has a sense of how gay players new to the game might feel, because as an African-American he was often the only player of color on the field. While he is proud of his sport for being so affirming, he knows Mark Bingham was a seminal figure in gay rugby.

"The emphasis may not be that he was gay, but the whole rugby world knows who he is," Patterson says. "Almost overnight there was acceptance."

Ben Conway started playing rugby as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and when he moved to Los Angeles to attend law school in 2003 he decided he still "wanted to run around and hit people."

"I Googled 'L.A. rugby,' and they were the first club that came up," Conway, who is straight, says of the Rebellion. "And I saw 'gay rugby' and thought that was kind of cool."

Now a lawyer with a nonprofit organization, Conway says people ask him why a straight guy would play on the Rebellion. Involved in gay rights advocacy since age 20--he interned with the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project in law school Conway considers himself "one of the allies on the team."

Jim Hash, team vice president and treasurer, switched from soitball two years ago.

"It's more than standing on third base waiting for the ball to get hit to you," he says. "I wanted to get to do something more physical."

Hash's boyfriend, however, has opted out of cheering from the sidelines.

"He prefers not to watch me play because he doesn't want to see me get hurt," Hash says. "When I come home with bruises and blood, he says, 'And that's the reason I don't come watch with you.'"

Like many other gay team members, Cardona says the Rebellion was a welcoming place for him to learn the game, because it allowed him to "make mistakes and be OK with it and not be judged or called something just because I'm new."

A professional dancer for more than two decades, Cardona says the numerous injuries associated with rugby are no problem: "As a dancer you're married to pain."

Christopher Jones, one of the straight players on the Rebellion, came to the team with more experience. After playing rugby in high school and in a men's league in Wisconsin, he joined the Rebellion for practical reasons when he moved to California.

"To be honest, the reason I initially joined them was because where they were practicing was a mile from my work," Jones says. Now, though it would be easy to switch to a straight team, Jones isn't going anywhere.

"As long as I'm in this area, I'll be staying with this team," Jones says. "I've already formed a bond with these guys, a real great group of guys, so I wouldn't want to bail on 'em."

Lisotta is a frequent contributor to The Advocate.