Football, pride, and snobbishness: “The fields are ours too”
Lesbians, bisexuals, butch women, transmasculinities, and dissidents are transforming football and building safe, community-based sporting spaces for lesbians.
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Women's soccer is emerging as a space where lesbians—lesbians, bisexuals, butch, transmasculinities, and other forms of dissent—contend for much more than the ball. They also compete for visibility, identity, and the ability to play without fear. In a sport marked by machismo and heteronormativity, lesbians are not marginalized. They are at the center, building community and role models through their play and their passion for the sport.
More and more players are coming out publicly, with independent media outlets, collectives, and dissident tournaments highlighting these experiences. Feminist and queer fans have begun to occupy the stands, shattering the myth that football is only for cis-heterosexual men.
“Being gay in professional sports is already a political act”
The consolidation of women's soccer in recent decades has been thanks to the players themselves. They have had to speak out about their needs and the violence they experience. Their presence isn't just political on the field.
One of the most iconic figures is Megan Rapinoe, the retired star of the United States national team. Rapinoe was instrumental in her team's 2019 World Cup triumph. She has also been a powerful voice for equal pay for soccer players, LGBT+ rights, and access to sports for transgender people .
Rapinoe has said that "being gay in professional sports is already a political act." And in her case, it has also been a political act against the structures that sustain LGBT-hatred, racism, and sexism on and off the field.
This is how women's participation in football is growing
Women's participation in football is growing exponentially every year.
- In 2023, there were nearly 20 million professional soccer players worldwide.
- 2023 Women's Football report , 16.6 million girls and women footballers were counted worldwide that year.
- Fifty-nine percent of these are concentrated in Europe. The remaining 43 percent is distributed more heavily in Central and North America.
Football, dissent and resistance
In times of fascist governments, football also becomes an arena of symbolic dispute. Added to this part of the sports industry that continues to promote a narrative that limits diversity are recent policies that deny the participation of dissidents in sports, especially those with trans identities.
An example of this is the Trump administration's recently approved policy to deny transgender girls and women the opportunity to participate in sports . This also happened in the United Kingdom, where, after a Supreme Court ruling defined "woman" as a biological sex, the English Football Association banned transgender women from playing in women's leagues starting June 1, 2025.
In this context, various community initiatives and self-managed leagues have emerged to build safe, violence-free spaces. There, lenchitudes and trans people put their opportunity to play at the center and resist so that their human right to physical activity and sport is guaranteed. In Mexico, the organizers of the Lencha March held their first tournament, the Lencha Cup . The goal: to offer a place that allows for encounter and enjoyment, aware of the political burden involved in organizing, enjoying, and transforming spaces under the motto "the fields are ours too."
Juntes Narramos is a project by Malvestida , Volcánicas , GirlUp , Balance and Presentes to strengthen and amplify the voices of youth through narratives of diversity..
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