I started martial arts in 1992, when I was at university. I wasn't a sporty or active kid. I never did sports. If it was time for a physical education lesson, I normally found a way not to be there.

But I wanted to find ways of self-defence. I suppose it's a very European thing – an Eastern mysticism associated with martial arts. When I was younger, it very much appealed to me, with understanding Zen, and other concepts.

I joined a school called Tatsu Do karate, which aligned with the human consciousness movement of the 1970s, of trying to take your body to new spaces, and the self-defence aspects of that.

I was involved with them for about six years but I wasn't out in that environment and I wasn't very out in those days. Until I was 21, it was illegal to be gay in England. People weren't out at university because there weren't gay spaces for people. I was in a small town called Derby. I suppose if you're in the big cities like London, you might find a different experience, but certainly not in Derby.

In ‘97, I moved to Manchester, which has a very big and thriving gay community and it became very easy to be out and publicly gay.

I started doing jujitsu and really liked it – it struck a chord with me. But there was a lot of language used in that environment that is very homophobic. There's a lot of toxic masculinity that exists in martial arts spaces. It appeals to the insecure male ego of “I'm going to be stronger than you, bigger than you, faster than you, more than you.”

That's not what martial arts are about. They’re meant to be about yourself, not about someone being better than someone. That would be a sport, I suppose, but not an art.

[As told to Ragi Gupta — continued: https://www.pixstory.com/story/degendersports-thats-not-martial-arts-thats-just-rubbish-how-can-gender-determine-strength1680526007/207916]