--- title: What Women's Soccer Means to Queer Fans description: As fans gear up to enjoy the Women's World Cup tournament in Australia, the LGBTQ+ community reflect on what the sport means to them. canonical: https://time.com/6295823/womens-world-cup-queer-fans/ author: Armani Syed article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-07-19T19:18:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-14T19:56:10.000Z article:section: Sports og:title: What Women's Soccer Means to Queer Fans og:description: Women’s soccer has long been a more empowering space for LGBTQ+ individuals. og:url: https://time.com/6295823/womens-world-cup-queer-fans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba4c2ebfe3022fb1/698a3ec986f68e42a36f29d2/women-soccer-lgbtq.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: women-soccer-lgbtq og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Women's Soccer Means to Queer Fans twitter:description: Women’s soccer has long been a more empowering space for LGBTQ+ individuals. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba4c2ebfe3022fb1/698a3ec986f68e42a36f29d2/women-soccer-lgbtq.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Women's Soccer Means to Queer Fans > Sponsored content. 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Updated: Apr 14, 2026 7:56 PM UTCPublished: Jul 19, 2023 7:18 PM UTC In an inconspicuous park on the periphery of London Stadium, Stonewall FC’s women and non-binary (WNB) soccer team are darting around the pitch in their signature powder blue and fuschia kit. Team coach Amii Griffith, 32, has one eye on me and one eye firmly on the game. “I’ve been with Stonewall more or less since the beginning as a player,” Griffith says. “The club was 30 years old before they managed to form a women and non-binary team, and for a sport that is quite inherently queer in the women’s space, it took a long time.” Using crutches to stay upright after a sporting injury forced her off, but not away from, the pitch this year, Griffith quickly turns to her frustrations with FIFA’s recent decision to once again ban “One Love” [LGBTQ+ solidarity armbands](https://time.com/6235503/one-love-armband-qatar-world-cup/) from the [Women’s World Cup](https://time.com/6287100/womens-world-cup-2023-faq/) tournament, which is taking place across Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to Aug. 20\. The tournament comes amid a flourishing wave of mainstream popularity gathering behind women’s soccer. Historically, the sport has acted as a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community and welcomed queer players openly in a way that men’s soccer has broadly failed to. But Stonewall members say there’s a chance that newfound levels of global attention could jeopardize decades worth of inclusivity and political defiance that form the DNA of women’s soccer. “It harks back to the problem that I had with the Men’s World Cup and \[players\] not being able to wear the armband, which I thought was very disappointing,” Griffith says of the soccer association’s decision. Instead, eight armbands with messages of social inclusion have been approved, but none mention LGBTQ+ rights. “You can’t step up for all these people who live in a society that doesn’t accept them?” asks Griffith. --- ### More from TIME --- “It all feels very performative to say you can’t wear this armband. It dictates the terms in which inclusivity can take place,” adds Julia Apthorp, a 30-year-old Stonewall player. “The point of inclusivity is that people can express themselves wherever and whenever.” Founded in 1991, Stonewall FC is the [U.K.’s first LGBTQ+ soccer club](https://www.stonewallfc.com/). The WNB division is just two-years old but there are now six teams; players who do not identify as members of the community are still welcome to join. The club takes its name from New York City’s 1969 [Stonewall riots](https://time.com/longform/stonewall-anniversary-lgbtq-activists-interview/), which became a historic watershed moment in the gay liberation movement in the U.S. and beyond. Stonewall provides a home for players to enjoy their sport without having to conceal or dilute their identity. When asked if conversations around sporting inclusion are heading in the right direction, Griffith says some players remain as vulnerable as ever. She points to the case of double 800m Olympic champion [Caster Semenya](https://time.com/5958665/caster-semenya-tokyo-olympics/), who was legally identified as female with differences of sexual development (DSD) at birth. In 2018, regulations were introduced by the World Athletics governing body that forced Semenya to have hormone treatments to reduce her testosterone levels in order to participate in women’s races—a ruling that she has been fighting against. As athletes have to fight to show up as themselves in their sport, Griffith says, spaces like Stonewall should not be taken for granted. **Read More:** [_How Women’s Soccer Exploded in Britain_](https://time.com/6294722/womens-soccer-popularity-britain/) “The environment that WNB teams can provide is 100% inclusive, super safe, everyone understands each other and can be super open. It just means you can let your guard down a bit,” says Apthorp, who joined Stonewall two years ago. “Stonewall has really helped me progress and fall in love with the game again.” She has played for all three of Stonewall’s WNB teams and says the club has allowed her to develop a greater breadth of skills across a variety of positions. Griffith says Stonewall promotes inclusivity by implementing simple habits; the team starts a match by exchanging their names and pronouns so transgender and non-binary players feel seen and heard. ## **Women’s soccer has always pushed boundaries** Women’s soccer has long been a more empowering space for LGBTQ+ individuals, with more openly queer players than their male counterpart teams. At the last Women’s World Cup in 2019, there were [at least 41 players](https://www.itv.com/news/2019-07-07/womens-world-cup-why-are-more-female-professional-footballers-gay-or-bisexual-than-their-male-counterparts) or coaches who identified as gay or bisexual, while during the men’s tournament in 2018, there were no known gay players. There are also no Premier League male players who have publicly identified as LGBTQ+ but in England’s Lionesses squad alone, there are at least five players who are gay or bisexual. This discrepancy is likely due to women’s soccer having “historical roots in [challenging gender norms](https://www.thefa.com/womens-girls-football/heritage/kicking-down-barriers) and embracing diversity,” Stefan Lawrence, a senior lecturer in sport business management at Leeds Beckett University, tells TIME. “As a sport that emerged as a form of resistance against societal expectations, women’s soccer attracted people who were more open-minded. This inclusive environment created a space where ‘out’ players felt supported and valued, fostering a culture of acceptance and diversity within the sport.” That has meant less sponsorship funding and fewer structures, such as youth training academies. While this has limited the progress of women’s teams, it also means there are fewer rules and expectations that dictate what the space should look like. “Its existence is a political statement in itself. The struggle for gender equality and women’s rights is deeply embedded in the fabric of women’s soccer,” says Lawrence, referring to England’s [50-year ban](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jun/13/how-the-fa-banned-womens-football-in-1921-and-tried-to-justify-it) on women playing soccer in FA-affiliated grounds that was only lifted in 1971\. In recent years, there has been some progess on LGBTQ inclusion on the men’s side. In May 2022, Blackpool FC midfielder Jake Daniels became Britain’s first active professional player to publicly [come out as gay](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/news/article/jake-daniels-football-world-cup) since Justin Fashanu in 1990; the former Norwich City and Nottingham Forest player died by suicide eight years later. Adelaide United player Josh Cavallo and Sparta Prague’s Czech international Jakub Jankto had also previously come out. **Read More:** [_How the Women’s World Cup Evolved Into What It Is Today_](https://time.com/6289539/womens-world-cup-2023-history/) Despite this progress, it will take more than that to shift male soccer’s unruly culture. For Jess Keating, a women’s soccer fan who plays for [Goal Diggers FC](https://www.goaldiggersfootballclub.com/), a “non-ability womxn and non-binary football club” in London, women’s soccer has always provided her with a comfortable and accessible arena to enjoy her sport. Keating recalls attending men’s games where fans are [more likely to become disorderly](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/feb/18/the-shocking-rise-of-disorder-at-matches) and violent if they are unhappy with a result or make queer spectators feel out of place with bigoted language. “When I went to \[Women’s\] Euro games with my partner we would be able to celebrate together and hug or kiss in a football stadium… It’s really beautiful,” says Keating. “I’ve never had the feeling in women’s football that things could tip over into a frankly dangerous space,” she adds. Yet players fret that long-overdue recognition and financial backing could upend all this. A staggering [1.12 billion people](https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/womens/womensworldcup/france2019/news/fifa-women-s-world-cup-2019tm-watched-by-more-than-1-billion) tuned into the 2019 Women’s World Cup to watch the final between the USA and the Netherlands. Ahead of the 2021/22 season, the Football Association signed an annual £8 million ($10.4 million) [deal for three years](https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/wsl-revenue-grew-60-2020-21-season-broadcast-commercial-deals-study-2023-06-11/#:~:text=The%20WSL's%20broadcast%20deal%20with,separately%20from%20the%20men's%20game.) with Sky Sports and the BBC for broadcasting rights to the Women’s Super League; the deal was no small feat and has catapulted interest in women’s soccer. “It is crucial for the stakeholders in women’s football… to preserve the inclusive culture that has made the women’s game so special,” Lawrence, the sports lecturer, says. Still, Griffith is hopeful that the next generation of female soccer players will continue to uphold the unapologetic, political messaging of those who went before them: “Hopefully these women have laid the groundwork so that it moves forward in the same way it always has.” _This story has been updated from its original version._ ## Transcript Here comes the shot picture. Being part of this journey and getting to do this in a with esteem in like in landscape that were in right now with women sports in particular women's soccer. I'm just like you're just a part of living history. Now that were openly going into the World Cup. It's about winning and winning brings you? The other things that you want is not the other way around. What a goal from Megan Rapinoe and what a celebration to go with it. Think my contributions in this world cup will look very different than past World Cups. I think I'll be much more of a player off the bench on the field and you know, much probably use more situationally. I see Myra honestly is doing whatever we need to do to win. Woman's was literally billions of dollars of Public Funding whether it's stadiums or practice facilities, whatever whatever that may be. So we're not doing like rocket science here like we're playing a sport and were able to effect positive change on the world and so many different ways and use the team and the diversity of the team. Whether that's the racial diversity, our sexuality diversity, where we come from, like, and use that as a vehicle to effect positive change on the world, could have been doing that to achieve this and to be able to go into a world cup and know that not only, of course, you're fighting to win and that's the whole point. But you know, if that's going to be, I guess it appropriately, compensated off the field as nice. I hope it feels normal for the younger ones and they should, they should be, you know, hopefully looking at those bonuses. Like, yeah, I I deserve this because I ironed it. I feel like I have like a deep responsibility to do that. I think everybody has a responsibility to do, whatever they can in the most impactful way that they can to make the world a better place. I say that all the time but I really do believe that I have a microphone for so many other things to not use it. For the things that, you know, I care about other people care about, we're sort of all in this together and as much as we can leverage, every single thing that we can make the world a better place and we're a couple place for everyone, then I'm willing to do that. I think in general the transition for me is just very much like a human rights issue cuz we're not going to be able to stop trans people from being trans. Stop anybody from being who they are. Ultimately, it's just pulling back the right for someone to make your own decision about their own body in their own life. Like, nobody else has anybody else's life. So that's the washing-up trans rights. That's racial Justice, that's all of that is, is tied into that. And I think, you know, the progress that we have made is is great. But obviously were saying that that that can roll back so we have to stay vigilant that. Panama into the path of Irma. Where do I see myself in 5 years? Obviously, the soccer part, you know, who's coming to an end. So, I have a lot more space and time and freedom to do stuff, but I have more vacations. I plan on saying, yes to almost every Everybody asked me to go on. Fashion terms of just a career. I mean, I always say I want to be a mogul but like a mogul for women sports and 44. Good for so many people and things. A reason why this version of me is here and I have this incredible privilege and platform and I hope that I can like turn that into the rocket fuel for the next phase of everything. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6295823/womens-world-cup-queer-fans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6295823/womens-world-cup-queer-fans/"},"headline":"What Women's Soccer Means to Queer Fans","datePublished":"2023-07-19T19:18:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-14T19:56:10.000Z","description":"Women’s soccer has long been a more empowering space for LGBTQ+ individuals.","url":"https://time.com/6295823/womens-world-cup-queer-fans/","keywords":["World Cup","Soccer","LGBTQ","feature"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba4c2ebfe3022fb1/698a3ec986f68e42a36f29d2/women-soccer-lgbtq.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Armani Syed","jobTitle":"Syed was a reporter for TIME, based in the London bureau.","url":"https://time.com/author/armani-syed/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba4c2ebfe3022fb1/698a3ec986f68e42a36f29d2/women-soccer-lgbtq.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"women-soccer-lgbtq","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/world-cup/","name":"World Cup"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6295823/womens-world-cup-queer-fans/","name":"What Women's Soccer Means to Queer Fans"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Reports: Megan Rapinoe's Next Act","description":"Megan Rapinoe's Next Act","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QfPQ76MT/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-07-10T10:00:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QfPQ76MT.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6295823/womens-world-cup-queer-fans/","duration":"PT4M41S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6295823/womens-world-cup-queer-fans/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```