In 2001 Andrew Purchas was working in San Francisco, living with his partner and playing the odd game of rugby for the San Francisco Fog, a gay rugby club. In August, the club’s president Mark Bingham wrote to his players to advise that the club had been accepted into the Northern California Rugby Union.

Bingham told his players it was a chance to be “role models for other gay folks who wanted to play sports, but never felt good enough or strong enough”.

“More importantly, we have the chance to show the other teams in the league that we are as good as they are,” Bingham said. “Good rugby players. Good partiers. Good sports. Good men.”

Two weeks later, on 11 September, 2001, Bingham was one of the passengers who charged the cockpit of United Airlines flight 93 that plunged into a field outside Pittsburgh.

The Fog inaugurated a tournament in Bingham’s honour and called it the Bingham Cup. Eight gay rugby clubs turned out. For Purchas – who had played with Bingham in the Fog’s first ever game – it was a life changer.

Fifteen years later Purchas has received the Order of Australia medal for “services to rugby union and to the promotion of social inclusion for LBGTI people”.

“I was shocked when I got the letter,” says Purchas. “That’s how you’re told – a letter comes out of the blue. My Dad [James, a doctor] received one. My sister-in-law [athlete Jane Flemming] received one. I’m so honoured and privileged.

“It’s a great reflection of the hard work a lot of people have put in to make it happen. I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved over the last 15 years in promoting gay rugby and equality more generally.”

After returning to Sydney, Purchas set about recruiting players for an Australian team to contest the Bingham Cup in London in 2004. Within three months he had a squad of 28 – the Sydney Convicts. Purchas thought it might be a one-off – a tour, and that would be it. But seeing how important it was to the players, hearing their stories, empathising with them as he’d done with the men of the Fog, Purchas knew he had to keep it going.

In 2014 the Convicts hosted the Bingham Cup. Purchas had the four Australian football codes and Cricket Australia sign a commitment to implement anti-homophobia policies. And they did it on national television. It seemed a win for gay sports people, and a positive, progressive look for Australian sport.

Yet outside the ARU – which has held the Bingham Cup in its trophy cabinet and in Wallabies flanker David Pocock has an outspoken advocate – the signatures of the sports’ CEOs amounted, effectively, to lip service.

Purchas engaged the Human Rights Commission and the Australian Sports Commission, and the “Pride in Sport Index” was born. And now each sport’s effort to be inclusive of LBGTQI people is measured and published. Sport is being kept honest, even though issues remain.

“Look at the number of out athletes since Ian Roberts in 1996,” Purchas says. “The only out competing athlete in the history of the Australian summer Olympics team, is Matthew Mitcham. So, just with those two anecdotal aspects, you’ve got to think there must be a problem.”

At the beginning of each season Purchas, still very much the godfather of Sydney Convicts RFC, welcomes new players by reading out the words of Mark Bingham. For Purchas they “sum up the essence of what gay rugby is about”.

“It’s about demystifying the relationship between sexual attraction and one’s desire to compete and play in sport. People often ask [whether our aim is] that the Convicts won’t exist. And I think the answer is that the Convicts don’t need to exist.

“But there will still be a Sydney Convicts team. We’re kind of communal creatures and like to hang out with each other.”