Royce Wilkinson
In 2004 we launched a women’s harlequin rugby side
I’ve been in Minto since 1991. I’m a casual youth worker for the local Minto Youth Centre and I’m still studying. I am of Maori origin, and we’ve been in Australia since 1985. I grew up in Manly. Mum had a sister living here in Campbelltown and we came out here every weekend. Mum liked it and put her name down for Housing and we moved out in ‘91.
Coming from the North Shore and living a few minutes from the beach, coming out to Minto was very hard for me. I didn’t like it. I was going to school from Minto to Manly until it caught up. I was coming back at all hours and mum didn’t like it and she said, “You have to go to the school across the road.” Eventually I got friends and found it comfortable.
I have three children and I’m a single mum. I currently have a girlfriend so I’m tackling quite a bit, I’m tackling being gay! It’s actually quite good because I know a lot of people. I had a reputation to uphold and I was wary as to how the community was going to accept me. Being gay was not very common, I noticed that when I was growing up. It wasn’t very common for a gay couple to be living in this community but I find that now it’s not bad and everyone knows who I am in Minto and they’ve accepted that.
My girlfriend and I met when I was playing in this team that was in Liverpool. It took me three years to push for a team out here in Campbelltown. In 2004 we launched a women’s harlequin rugby side. We put up with a lot — the rumours. They haven’t had the women’s rugby out here for a while and a lot of the husbands and boyfriends of the girls playing, were always suspicious, saying that it’s only for lesbians. And it was only me and my partner who were the lesbians in the team. The rest of the girls all have boyfriends and what not!