‘We won’t let hate win’: Keighley Cougars on staying put after a wave of LGBTQ+ support (EXCLUSIVE)

Ryan O’Neill grew up in Keighley, West Yorkshire, as a self-described loner, dreading school and finding refuge at the Keighley Cougars’ rugby league ground, where his father sat on the club’s board. Though he hated playing rugby, the club, at least, was his happy place. “It was a big part of my family’s life,” he says.

He left for London at 22 without telling anyone he was gay, carrying years of bullying and overheard slurs with him, not returning for nearly two decades.

In 2018, Keighley Cougars were pushed to the brink of collapse. Its owners, O’Neill says, stripped sponsorship money and left players unpaid until the bailiffs arrived to take what was left. All the while, he was watching from a distance on social media. He turned to his husband, Kaue Garcia: “I just said, ‘I really think we should try and help save it,’” he recalls.

A new-found love for rugby

Garcia, who grew up in São Paulo and lived in Bangkok before settling in London, had never seen a rugby match. “I don’t even know what rugby is,” he says of his response to O’Neill, “but if you think it’s a good idea, let’s do it.”

So, they bought a rugby club. For O’Neill, who has run a fashion business since 2006, this wasn’t about making money. “If you look at this place as a business, you’re probably a bit of a lunatic,” he says. “It’s the heart ruling the head.” 

After the couple took over in 2019, Keighley was ecstatic. Within months, the couple held their first Pride game, brought a drag queen onto the pitch and flew the rainbow flag. Some sponsors disappeared the moment the flags went up. The fans’ reaction was harder to predict – O’Neill and Garcia braced themselves for empty stands, but it turned out to be their biggest crowd yet.

Sharing queer joy for Pride

“Our usual big, rough straight blokes came, shook hands with us and said, ‘I had never seen a drag queen in my life,’” says Garcia. “We just showed them that yeah, it’s a day that we celebrate our community, and it’s no big deal.”

O’Neill adds, “My dad would always say, ‘Oh, bloody hell, keep me away from them drag queens.’ But when the drag queen was here and he’s having a laugh with the drag queen, it changed his attitude quite a lot.”

It’s a similar story with his mother. “If you rewound 25 years and met my mum, she’d be horrified at the idea of Pride. And now she’s there holding the rainbow flag in front of our float [at Manchester Pride], having the best time of her life.”

For O’Neill, his motivation for returning to Keighley was personal. “I left here in the closet and I’ve come back out of the closet,” he says, “and I’m going to make sure it’s comfortable for everybody – every kid in this town – to come out if they want to.”

Attitude attended the club’s 2025 Pride match and left converted. With Pride flags on every surface and people young and old just enjoying themselves, it was clear what the club means to the people of Keighley.

Overcoming a hurl of abuse

But it hasn’t been easy. Homophobic online abuse has become a part of the couple’s daily lives. In 2024, a backlash arrived after the club appointed broadcaster India Willoughby as the club’s patron, making her the first trans person to hold such a role at a professional sports club. Death threats followed online – even JK Rowling weighed in. “The most shocking thing was the attacks we got from James Dreyfus and Martina Navratilova, who are meant to be part of our community,” says O’Neill.

That resolve was tested this summer. Worn down by years of abuse that had left both prescribed anti-anxiety medication, the couple announced in June that they would sell both clubs at the end of the season.

Then the messages came. An LGBTQ+ fan asked what the loss of the rainbow sign at the entrance to Cougar Park, the one that reads “Everyone is welcome here,” would mean: would he still be welcome, would he still be safe. From Ukraine, an offer came of honorary membership to its rugby league, thanking the couple for their “kind hearts” and with the message, “Hold on, we are with you.” Within days, O’Neill and Garcia had changed their minds – they’re staying. “We won’t let hate win,” Garcia told us.

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This full interview appears in issue 371 of Attitude magazine, on sale in print and digital now. Order Attitude magazine issue 371 in print now, or in digital on the links below on Apple News+ and the Attitude app.