Ben Cohen MBE activist , and former star rugby player for the England National Team is one best allies for the LGBTQ comunnity that Queerguru has ever had the pleasure of meeting. He is not only naturally handsome, he is also disarmingly charming.
In November 2000, Cohen’s father Peter Cohen was fatally injured while protecting an attack victim[at the Eternity nightclub in Northampton, which he managed. He died a month later from head injuries sustained in the assault.
It inspired Ben to start The Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, Inc., in 2011. It is “the world’s first foundation dedicated to raising awareness of the long-term, damaging effects of bullying, and funding those doing real-world work to stop it“. Since Cohen retired from Rugby (he is still the 3rd highest scorer in history of the National Team) he he has focused all his efforts on the Foundation.
The LGBT community with its long history of bullying had greatly benefited from the Foundation’s work. And we have the perfect and the easiest way to pack Cohen back and support the Foundation. Each year Cohen puts himself front and center on a brand new Calendar …… sort of “if you’ve got it then flaunt it” which raises a great deal of money and puts a big grin on so many of us .
Here is a glimpse of this years calendar (which can be ordered NOW at http://bencohencalendar.com/. Also we have thrown in a few front covers from previous years to show you what you have been missing
Cohen has appeared on the cover of several queer magazines and on 18 June 2013, he was named as one of the initial inductees to the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame newly established in Chicago, Illinois. But just as impressive (we think) in 2010, Cohen donated a signed jockstrap to support GMFA, a British charity addressing gay men’s health issues, which was sold at auction at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.
Here’s a video of Cohen appearing on the BBC TV’s Strictly Dancing doing the Paso Doble with Kristina Rihanoff who went on to be his live-in girlfriend and the mother of his latest child. Now there are three (children) who are fortunate enough to be able to officially call Cohen ‘Daddy.”
Last, but no means least, here is QUEERGURU interviewing Ben Cohen in PTown back in 2016 when he took part in a KHIELS Road Tour to raise funds for AMFAR, another cause near to both Cohen’s heart and ours too.
