WDF referee Lee Rodger has opened up about his personal struggles with inclusivity in darts, revealing that he has often felt isolated within the sport. In a new series, Rodger sat down with fellow referee Huw Ware—a longtime ambassador for the Rainbow Laces campaign and the LGBTQ+ darts community Out on the Oche—to discuss his experiences. The Rainbow Laces campaign, run by UK human rights charity Stonewall, aims to promote inclusion in sport for LGBTQ+ people, and the PDC has supported it in the past. Rodger, who officiates in the WDF, shared his own challenges, following in Ware’s footsteps.
“To me it’s quite an important thing,” Rodger said. “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, who has risen to become a senior PDC referee alongside mainstays such as Kirk Bevins, Charlie Corstorphine, and Owen Binks, has used his platform to spotlight inclusivity, particularly through a Facebook group called Out on the Oche. The community has almost 200 members and serves as an inclusive space for darts fans and LGBTQ+ members like Rodger to connect, make friends, and participate in an online darts league. Rodger expressed deep gratitude for the group, saying, “I’ve made friends and met people through this group. 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.”
