‘I used to feel so scared playing sports as an openly trans person’

Daisy Taylor felt like she finally belonged when she started playing for a local LGBTQ+ football club.

The trans woman from Loughborough never felt at ease in male-dominated spaces, something that became a tad more ‘obvious’ after she came out.

The LGBTQ+ inclusive Leicester Wildcats, a mixed club, helped her feel at home for a time. But the radio host soon realised something was missing – women.

Anti-trans campaigners feel that trans people, mostly trans women, shouldn’t play alongside cisgender women.

Governing bodies for rugby, athletics, netball, cricket and cycling have introduced bans to ensure ‘fairness and safety’. The policies say that sex assigned at birth can have an effect on athletic performance.

This debate reached a fever pitch at this year’s Paris Olympics when Algerian boxer Imane Khelif faced questions over her eligibility to compete in the women’s welterweight division.

Her win against Angela Carini of Italy drew attention to a decision last year by the International Boxing Association to disqualify Khelif, who has identified as female since birth, for ‘not meeting’ its gender eligibility test. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has repeatedly said the gold medallist has every right to compete in the women’s division and stressed it’s not a ‘transgender issue’.

‘The loud and constant narrative surrounding trans women and sport made me feel like I could never have that one thing that I needed, to be amongst my female peers,’ Daisy tells Metro.

‘It makes you scared to enter those spaces. You expect horrible backlash or worse, because that’s the picture that those people who want to deny you wish to paint.’

Daisy isn’t alone. LGBTQ+ people still feel unwelcome and unsafe watching sports, let alone playing them, according to new research from Stonewall.

One in four do not feel welcome in community sports teams, with roughly the same number of the 2,000 queer Britons surveyed by the LGBTQ+ charity and pollster Opinium feeling the same about live sports events.

About a fifth were discriminated against at a live sporting event in the last year, and a third feel they can’t pop to the pub to watch the game.

The figures were released as Stonewall’s annual Rainbow Laces campaign kicks off. It sees pro and local teams alike tie their boots up with rainbow laces for LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports.

‘That’s why we need everyone – whether you’re a top athlete or a casual gym-goer – to lace up and help make sport and fitness safe and inclusive for all. This is a game we must win,’ says Stonewall CEO Simon Blake.

Daisy now plays for Vicky Park Queens. The grassroots club for women and non-binary people plays outside the Football Association, meaning it doesn’t need approval to allow trans people to compete, as per the FA ‘case-by-case’ guidelines.

Even then, Daisy still changes into her uniform at home.

‘Sport,’ at any level, she says, ‘shouldn’t be a privilege just for those who fit into certain boxes’.

Jake Williamson, 26, agrees. He was kicked out of a football team in his youth because he is gay and has since heard the chant, ‘Chelsea rent boy’, too many times for his liking.

‘This is a key reason why I am quite outspoken about making a difference in sport,’ the Stonewall sports champion says. He’s also a champion of hyrox, a hybrid race involving running and fitness movements like burpee broad jumps.

He also wrote the book on homophobia in sport. Well, a dissertation.

‘Having been a season ticket holder at Chelsea, I ended up writing my dissertation on the policing strategies around Stamford Bridge, with the “rent boy” chant being apparent at most games against the rival games,’ the Birmingham local explains.

‘I even heard it sung at Chelsea Liverpool game this very season.’

Things are changing, slowly. Homophobic chants declined for the second season in a row, according to Kick it Out, from 43 reports in the 2021/22 season to 17 this year.

Racism, however, is a different story. One in three Black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBTQ+ people have experienced discrimination at a live sports game, Stonewall found.

Amazin LêThi has been there. She’s a true multi-hyphenate: Speaker, advocate, athlete, among other things. She’s also been the ‘first Asian LGBTQ+ athlete’ to do a fair few things, including being the first Asian LGBTQ+ athlete to appear in the Rainbow Laces campaign.

But the former weightlifter and competitive bodybuilder (yes, even more hyphens) knows she is ‘first’ in many of these fields for a reason.

‘Black and Asian athletes face compounded discrimination – from racism and sexism to homophobia – making the decision to come out an even heavier burden on their mental health,’ she says.

‘Growing up, I never saw anyone like me in sports – no Asian or LGBTQ+ role models to aspire to – which sent a clear, discouraging message: people like me didn’t belong in this space.’

When she got into bodybuilding, she was told she didn’t have the ‘“ideal” image of an athlete’. If her race and ethnicity weren’t ‘ideal’, coming out was out of the question.

‘These challenges, while painful, fuelled my commitment to break barriers and drive change,’ Amazin adds. ‘Representation matters – when people see someone who looks like them and shares their experiences, it gives them the confidence to dream bigger.’

Jahmal Howlett-Mundle, 27, is the kind of representation Amazin is hoping for. In 2021, he became the first openly bisexual semi-professional football player in the men’s game.

Growing up in New Cross Gate, south-east London, Jahmal got into footie after his mum recommended he play for a local team she read about in the newspaper. Soon enough, aged nine, he was scouted by Crystal Palace’s academy.

He spent well over a decade keeping his sexuality to himself. As much as he climbed up the ranks, the former Sheppey’s United player knows this held him back on the pitch.

And his life, too.

‘I used to worry so much about how I would be perceived by my family, friends and teammates which definitely kept me in my shell more than I needed to be for many years,’ he recalls.

Jahmal has received abuse on the pitch a couple of times, yet one perk of playing for family clubs is their strong policies on inclusion, even if they don’t draw the biggest crowds.

‘Last week, I had a teammate say that he’s proud of me for everything I’ve done up to now as I’ve given people a perspective of what it’s like to be an openly out player,’ the centre-back for the Kent club Sevenoaks Town says.

‘I know that I’m safe within my club and being reminded of that in ways like this will always bring me tears of joy.’

‘I’d like to think I’m doing my part by being a point of reference for other Black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBTQ+ people to see that grassroots and professional football is constantly evolving.’

Britons want more people like Jahmal. Half view LGBTQ+ sportspeople as positive role models. And it’s happening: At least 199 publicly out LGBTQ+ athletes took part in the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Times are changing, but Stonewall’s findings show that more work from the top to the bottom of the sporting world needs to be done.

As Jake says: ‘You can’t be what you can’t see so role models are so important. Imagine a top profile player was openly gay whilst you were growing up and it was accepted. The levels of bullying would go down. It would have a trickle-down effect, no doubt.’

Everyone, Daisy says, should be able to do something as simple as kick a ball, run along a track or lift weights, even if it feels the world is telling them they can’t.

‘Being part of a space where you’re included and protected and allowed to flourish is invaluable, and for trans and non-binary folk,’ she adds, ‘having these safe havens amongst the constant barrage of negativity is vital for our survival.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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