"I've always felt a bit lonely in the world of darts": Openly gay WDF referee Lee Rodger shares personal inclusivity struggles in darts

Huw Ware has long been an ambassador for the Rainbow Laces campaign as well as the LGBTQ+ darts community Out on the Oche and has been at the forefront of this over the past few years but part of a new series, he sat down with fellow referee Lee Rodger to discuss his own personal struggles.

The Rainbow Laces campaign is an initiative ran by Stonewall, a UK human rights charity aiming to promote inclusion in sport for LGBTQ+ and increasing visibility when perhaps there wasn't in the past. The PDC has been supporting Rainbow Laces in the past and Rodger who is a referee in the WDF so following in Ware's footsteps shared his own struggles.

As well as the importance of campaigns such as the ones heralded by Ware on helping him to feel comfortable in the world of darts where he is now a prominent referee. “To me it’s quite an important thing,” said Rodger to PDC>

“A lot of people outside my close friends don’t know that I’m openly gay myself. I keep that quite private and I don’t really like to talk about it too much.

“Coming from a background where I’ve always felt a bit lonely in the world of darts, if I can sit and talk about it, I can make myself feel better. If one person can watch this and think, ‘I feel a bit better about it myself too’, then that’s a job done. Campaigns like this are so important to let people like myself out there know that they’re not alone - that, for me, is the most important thing. You can be your true self and find people out there going through the exact same thing as you, you can be yourself and live your best life with it.”

Ware as a result of his rise to become a senior referee in the PDC system and a trailblazer as an openly gay man in this spotlight used his platform to spotlight. In particular with a Facebook group called Out on the Oche.

It is a community on Facebook with almost 200 members and is an inclusive space for darts fans and members of the LGBTQ+ community like Rodger to come together and make friends but also have an online darts league where they play against each other.

Having such a group is something that Rodger is hugely thankful for and being able to be with a group of people where he doesn't have to hide who he truly is. “I’ve made friends and met people through this group,” continued Rodger. "It’s such a comfort to be somewhere where I don’t inadvertently hide who I am.

"Being in that sort of environment for me is such a relief, to be around people who know what it’s like to go through this and know how it feels. There’s a lot of comfort in that. Having Out on the Oche and having the Rainbow Laces campaign, for me especially and hopefully so many more people out there, they can be their true selves and know that there’s a place in darts that they belong in.”