Women’s World Cup was milestone for LGBTQ+ players, community

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Hannah Wilkinson broke just beyond midfield, behind a pair of Norwegian defenders, locking eyes with teammate Jacqui Hand as Hand made a long run near the boundary.

In the 48th minute of the 2023 Women’s World Cup opening match, the New Zealand striker gathered a perfect cross from Hand and deftly floated a shot to the back of the net.

Wilkinson beat her chest, letting out a series of roars as she darted for the sideline. The Football Ferns packed into a huddle on the corner of the pitch and raucously enjoyed the score that led to their first-ever World Cup win in six tournament appearances, a surprising 1-0 decision over a group favorite in Norway.

New Zealand pulled off the upset in front of a 42,000-strong home crowd, the largest gathering for a soccer match in the country’s history. And it happened at Eden Park, home of the All Blacks, New Zealand’s revered national rugby team.

“We really wanted to inspire young girls across the nation, and I think we did that tonight,” captain Ali Riley said through tears after the win. “We showed that anything is possible.”

With New Zealand and Australia co-hosting the 2023 tournament, an opportunity to grow women’s soccer in a country long dominated by rugby was clearly within reach. Wilkinson’s impact on history, though, was twofold: She was one of at least 95 out members of the LGBTQ+ community participating in the World Cup, according to a count kept by the LGBTQ+ sports-focused publication Outsports.

Those players were far from an anomaly. Stars like Wilkinson and America’s Megan Rapinoe and South Africa’s Thembi Kgatlana, with her rainbow-dyed hair, were focal points on some of the tournament’s most eye-catching teams.

There also were players such as the Philippines’ Sarina Bolden, who scored the nation’s first Women’s World Cup goal and has an Instagram bio that reads, “i just wanna have fun an be gay.” And Ireland’s Katie McCabe, who scored a stunning Olimpico goal while she was making tabloid headlines back home as part of a purported love triangle involving a teammate and an Australian player.

The number of out LGBTQ+ players more than doubled Outsports’ count of players and coaches combined from 2019.

Those players were visible from the first whistle, as many among their respective fan bases had similarly thrown out any pretense of being something other than out and proud. Wilkinson and the New Zealand women traveled to Wellington for their second group match, where a fan-made sign sat in the stands, reading “Gay for soccer, gay for Wilkie.”

In contrast to many other mainstream sporting events, this felt like a milestone for the LGBTQ+ community.

Signaling Support

After FIFA banned the popular “One Love” armbands for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, the soccer governing body designated eight socially conscious options for captains to wear in 2023. But none of the options explicitly mentioned LGBTQ+ rights, and FIFA also specifically banned a rainbow armband. Kgatlana’s hair was one of many examples of players finding alternatives to show their support.

Riley, who identifies as straight, and other New Zealand teammates chose to paint their nails in alliance with the LGBTQ+ community. The captain wore the colors of the pride flag on her left hand and the trans flag on her right hand, both of which broadcast across the world when she placed her hands on her head during a TV interview, immediately following the win over Norway.

“The impact ended up being so much further reaching than I had even hoped, and I'm so glad,” Riley said, adding it was “common sense” to show support creatively in wake of the armband bans. “The messages that I received saying that people felt seen and loved and supported and valued – that was my intention.”

Riley explained that a young fan took special note of her nails. New Zealand mental health activist Jazz Thornton, with whom Riley has built a friendship, told her about a young girl admitted to an Auckland hospital following an attempted suicide.

Nurses entered the girl’s room after New Zealand’s win over Norway, and upon seeing her painting her nails, they asked what she was doing. The girl responded by saying she had seen Riley’s nails on TV, and it gave her hope. She didn’t feel alone anymore.

“It just was this perspective I needed to get outside of myself and results and (realize) that there is so much more to life than soccer,” Riley said. She learned the story after New Zealand’s tough loss to the Philippines. It’s “also a reminder of what we can do within our sports and our jobs and use our platforms and how it can really, really change someone's life.”

Riley has yet to meet the girl in person, but she hopes to do so through Thornton’s connections.

American Activism

The United States women’s national team enjoyed a dominant run through the 2010s that included an Olympic gold medal, two Women’s World Cup wins and two CONCACAF championships. Defender Meghan Klingenberg felt the high of 2015’s World Cup win, the first for the U.S. since 1999, but soon pivoted.

“When we won the 2015 World Cup, that was essentially the culmination of 23 little girls' dreams in one moment. Like, we're standing up on this podium, in front of the world, with confetti falling down, having a medal placed around our necks, smiling from ear to ear. And it was amazing,” she said. Klingenberg, now playing with the NWSL’s Portland Thorns FC, spoke in an interview following the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

“But I also knew very quickly after that moment, that we were not being paid the way that we should be paid.”

The USWNT received $2 million for winning the tournament, which was then distributed among players to equal roughly $70,000 each.

“But media rights holders – FIFA, U.S. Soccer, Canada – everybody else is making millions of dollars off of our win, and that's what we made. It didn't seem fair. It didn't seem right,” Klingenberg added. “We did all the hard work, and we're not the ones making the money.”

Members of the 2015 roster jumped into action, Klingenberg said. They retook control of their own likeness rights and began to sell them in ways they saw as more profitable, making money off their own brands for the first time. It was the start of a slow burn that led to the 2019 push toward equal pay, spearheaded by Rapinoe and other U.S women.

Amid the support for one marginalized group, female athletes, the USWNT also worked to support the LGBTQ+ community. Rapinoe famously said, “You can’t win a championship without gays on your team – it’s never been done before, ever. That’s science, right there!” after a 2019 World Cup quarterfinal win.

“I think that a lot of brands, especially U.S. Soccer, among other entities, have promoted straight, white-presenting, pretty women. So the femme-looking, straight, white girl next door as the face of U.S. Soccer, as the face of their club team, as the face of soccer in general,” Klingenberg said. “And so I think that the queerness of the sport has kind of been swept under the rug by the public and by the powers that were in charge. And fortunately, I think that's starting to change. But back in 2015, that was certainly the way that it was.

“Although there was a lot of acceptance within the team, there was a lot of acceptance within the community and the fan community,” she continued, “there really wasn't acceptance among FIFA, among U.S.Soccer, among club teams and the owners that put the money into the leagues.”

Klingenberg, Rapinoe, Tobin Heath and Christen Press created “re-inc” in 2019, a clothing line they used to strengthen their goals of both monetizing their platforms and advocating for marginalized communities. The company’s products are “designed for all gender identities and body types.”

Klingenberg credited “some really brave people” for helping start a shift in mentality, like Colin Kaepernick, Billie Jean King and Rapinoe. She also credited the Black Lives Matter movement for helping players find their voices.

“You know, this is me, and if you don't like it, then that sucks for you. Because I'm really awesome,” she said. “And I'd love for you to be a part of this with us, but if you're not, then that's alright, too. I think that shift started happening, you saw that in 2019, when 'Pinoe and the team took on the president and the small mindedness.”

Stories like Riley’s about the power of women’s soccer to spread hope and joy now permeate the international scene, while earnings for the 2023 Women’s World Cup skyrocketed. The 2023 champions Spain took home $4.29 million but also received $270,000 per player, making for a total of $10.5 million in prize money in comparison to $4 million in 2019. Each tournament participant was scheduled to receive a minimum of $30,000.

The 2019 Women’s World Cup “was so big, especially with the visibility of the U.S. women’s national team winning and (Rapinoe) fighting with (then-President) Trump. So I think that was a huge year for LGBTQ+ visibility,” said Lindsey Freeman, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. “It’s just the ad hoc, fun culture of women’s soccer that you’re seeing in this (2023) World Cup.”

Around the World

Spain’s victory last summer marked another milestone: the country’s first Women’s World Cup title. However, FIFA has since banned former Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales for three years after kissing star player Jenni Hermoso during the trophy presentation, allegedly without consent. Rubiales resigned from his post, while coach Jorge Vilda was also fired after winning the title.

Spain experienced turbulence during much of Vilda’s tenure, which began in 2015. Fifteen players staged a 2022 protest and refused to play for the national team, signing a letter that requested the Spanish federation create a more professional environment, though they held that they did not request his direct dismissal. Just one month after his 2023 firing, Vilda became head coach of the Moroccan women’s national team.

“Spain was a huge story, right? And then you feel like progress or change is never as linear as you want it to be,” said Freeman, who conducted research in New Zealand for a book she’s writing about the rise of women’s soccer since 2019. “Vilda was fired, (and) those of us in the women's soccer world had like a day of celebration, and then he resurfaces as the coach of Morocco, which is a disappointing thing.”

Among the greatest players in French soccer history, gay rights pioneer Marinette Pichon stepped away from the national team at just 31 years old in hopes of jolting the French federation toward supporting women’s soccer at a higher level.

Pichon led France to its inaugural Women’s World Cup appearance in 2003 but made the decision to retire from international play after France failed to qualify in 2007. She left as the all-time leading scorer for both the French men and women with 81 goals.

Pichon explained that she wasn’t being rebellious or disrespectful with her retirement, she was simply being honest about a lack of support for the women’s game. France is now ranked third in the world after a quarterfinal appearance in the Women’s World Cup, while Pichon said she has received recent assurances from the French Federation that more improvements are coming.

“I guess I was the only woman who spoke a lot about how the Federation needed to be more involved in the development of women's soccer,” Pichon said. “Because I went to the U.S. and I had the chance to play all over the world, (I could) show how we can make things better and how we improve ourselves on the pitch. I really thought at that time that we needed to push forward.”

Pichon continues to use her platform in support of other members of the LGBTQ+ community. Before publicly coming out, Pichon said she did not realize she was gay and felt something was “wrong” with her. But she has become extremely confident and public with her sexuality since a pivotal moment in her career.

As depicted in the 2023 French biopic “Marinette,” Pichon was surprised when a journalist asked her about her sexuality. She had a girlfriend at the time, and used the opportunity to take a stand.

“I wasn't prepared to answer, and in my mind it took me one, two, three seconds to answer him and say, 'OK, you know what, I don't want to be a liar in my life,'” Pichon said. “I was already showing my life with my love, and I don't want to be facing something 'wrong' during all my life. So I chose at that time to say the truth and say, 'Yes, I am. And there is no connection with soccer. I'm a good player on the pitch, and I'm gay on the side. This is my life. This is who I am and how I want to enjoy my life.’”

What’s Next

Ali Riley considered 2020 the year when she began to find her voice. After transferring to play with the Orlando Pride, she found teammates who invited open dialogue about the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and other conversations that would be “really hard to have” with other clubs.

Though Riley has Asian heritage, she said she is a white-passing individual. That 2020 season prompted her to do a lot of inward-thinking about racism toward Asians. And it led to her developing the voice she uses today on many issues, as both New Zealand’s captain and the captain of her Angel City FC club.

“When I started speaking about that, I think it was just kind of like a faucet was turned on and then I wanted to speak about not just me and my experiences, but the people I love and what I believe of how they should be treated and accepted,” Riley said.

Riley typically will wear a rainbow armband when she takes the field with Angel City. She said that, while she seems so open and comfortable as an ally now, it took time to get to such a place.

While pride was on full display for the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, Riley also admitted she couldn’t really compare the experience to her past World Cups because she simply didn’t pay attention to such messaging, a sign of her own privilege she had to recognize.

“Because I can't speak to the LGBTQ+ experience – and it's the same when I want to support my Black teammates, my Indigenous teammate – sometimes it can feel scary. Even just to admit ignorance feels scary,” Riley said. “It's just what I've learned is that effort and just trying to be better, trying to be supportive and asking questions can go so far, and it's so appreciated.”

Riley’s Angel City FC and Klingenberg’s Portland Thorns FC are part of an NWSL-wide trend of placing Pride Nights; Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Nights; and Juneteenth celebrations on promotional calendars.

“Everybody becomes more comfortable, especially as people live out and proud. And then they see these really beautiful, long-term, loving relationships between same-sex couples, and this is just normal,” Klingenberg said. “I think of our 18-year-olds, our 20-year-olds who have just grown up in this environment, and they're like, 'Oh, that's just the way that it is,' it's not even queer community anymore. It's just community.’”