The club faced criticism after members joined the round for gay and bisexual men despite not being members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The incident, which has forced Derwent Rugby and Derwent College to make formal apologies to the LGBTQ+ communities, took place D-Bar’s long awaited opening night.
After a number of complaints were made about the incident, Derwent Rugby posted an Instagram story apologising for their behaviour stating that “looking back we disrupted the experience”.
This first apology was seen by some students as inadequate, and a new permanent post was made in which they apologised for their apology, realising the first was “not sincere”.
In this new post they went on to say they “truly apologise for the actions of some of the Derwent Rugby players […] we should never have gone up and we fully regret this”.
A statement on the Derwent College Instagram said the participation of Derwent Rugby in the event had “the unfortunate consequence of publicly undermining the experience of gay and bisexual men in the College, and at worst subjecting it to parody”.
Despite a lengthy apology by the College Manager, many in the comments of this post felt it was insufficient.
One user commented that the post had “so many words but not a single ‘we’re really sorry for making a mockery out of the LGBTQ+ community in front of mass amounts of people’”.
One commenter made a statement about the lasting impact of the incident on relations between Derwent College and the LGBT community, saying: “Many members of the queer community left the event due to being uncomfortable, I think it may take more than an Instagram post to make the community feel invited back to these events”.
Derwent College said they “do not tolerate hate speech or discrimination. This includes ableism, bullying and harassment, homophobia, sexism, racism, transphobia or any other form of prejudice or hostility toward individuals or groups”.
A University of York spokesperson said: “All of our students have the right to enjoy a respectful and supportive environment on campus, and we are very disappointed to hear about the conduct of some students at this event. As a community we uphold and promote wellbeing, equality and fairness, and we are investigating this incident.”