![]() Kogod said LGBTQ youth may idolize athletes like Rapinoe, but they struggle to relate to them and often lack visible role models such as teachers and coaches in their day-to-day lives. Women's National Team, JGonzalo Fuentes / Reuters Adrianna Franch is one of five openly LGBTQ players on the U.S. Only 24 percent of LGBTQ youth say they play a school sport, compared to 68 percent of all youth nationally, according to a report from the Human Rights Campaign. This year we have published an extensive survey, in partnership with the ground-breaking LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall and Kantar, the people behind the world’s first inclusion index. That is good for the community, because she has been able to transcend this definition of ‘lesbian soccer player’ and just be ‘badass soccer player.’”Įven as the roster of out LGBTQ elite athletes grows, many young players continue to struggle. Today and every day, Lesbian Visibility Week and DIVA stand against this narrow-minded intolerance, and proudly believe in LWithTheT. “It is hard not to love her regardless of how you feel about the community in general. “Right now Megan is America’s sweetheart,” said Sarah Kogod, an inclusion strategist for the You Can Play Project, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ people in sports. As you know, Lesbian Visibility Day takes place every year on April 26th. Dr Julie Scanlon, who specialises in equality and diversity, explains why this day is important for recognising and celebrating the contributions of lesbians, and making sure they are included, valued and engaged. Martin, who plays for the Minnesota United, is the only openly gay player still in the league, and the only out man in any of the big five American sports leagues.Īfter Rapinoe scored two goals in a 2-1 quarterfinal victory over France last week, at the tail end of LGBTQ Pride Month, she exclaimed,“Go gays!” and added, “You can’t win a championship without gays on your team - it’s never been done before, ever. 26 April 2021 Despite existing for over a decade, International Lesbian Visibility Day is little known. To date, only two players in the men’s North American Soccer League - Martin and Robbie Rogers - came out before retiring. Anthony Souffle / Star Tribune via AP file File photo: Collin Martin announced he is gay on social media Friday, June 29, 2018, making him the only active male athlete in the major U.S. There are currently only three known openly gay professional male soccer players in the world - Collin Martin of the U.S., Anton Hysen of Sweden and Andy Brennan of Australia - and there were no openly gay men playing in the 2018 World Cup. Gay men in professional soccer have been slower to come out. “I think it signifies partly this new generation of young women who are coming into the sport, who have grown up in a different cultural context wherein being openly out, being queer, being non-gender conforming - whatever kind of identity - are not stigmatized to the extent to which they were in the past,” Cooky told NBC News.īut in countries where homosexuality is still stigmatized, she added, many players probably remain closeted.
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