Reuben Jarvis
Human Resources Systems Administrator
I am one of the founding members of the Transmanian Devils, the UK’s first and only trans rugby club. The team is a barbarians-style rugby team, consisting of trans players based across the UK from Brighton to Aberdeen, 
We formed in March 2023 and are celebrating our first anniversary this week. Earlier this month we played at our second tournament, in Newcastle, where we won our first game.
We created the team to take up space and fight for trans rights in a sport that has excluded trans women and placed extra restrictions on trans men. We are liaising with the English, Welsh and Scottish Rugby Unions to hopefully overturn the discriminatory policies currently in place. We are also working to remove discriminatory practices at a club level. We have a handful of games coming up throughout the UK this year, including our bootcamp in August in Manchester and a tournament in Edinburgh in October.
It feels amazing to have won our first game. It evidences the fact that trans people belong in sport.
I studied human rights in my law degree, but it feels good to be on the ground floor liaising with organisations and effecting real change. Being a part of the Devils has given me so much enthusiasm to improve the world for trans people and has led me on to getting involved in healthcare campaigning for trans patients.
I also enjoy giving our supporters and other teams at tournaments the chance to see just how good trans people can be if they are given a chance to excel. Every single lovely message in the group chat after a match or tournament about how safe people feel with us to express themselves and how much they love our focus on cultivating joy makes my heart burst.
You can find out more about the team on Facebook.
27 March 2024