By Chantelle Billson
Copyright thepinknews
Manchester City footballer Kerstin Casparij has her sights set on supporting the queer community, after becoming a new patron of the LGBT Foundation.
Dutch star Casparij made her trans allyship clear earlier this year when she kissed a transgender-rights coloured wristband after scoring her team’s first goal against Everton in April.
She tells PinkNews that in the days leading up to the game, she had thought about how she could support the trans community, following the UK Supreme Court ruling that the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of a woman was based on biological sex.
After previously speaking out in support of trans rights on social media, she noticed a “mass unfollowing” which inspired her “to make a more-active gesture”.
‘If it was lesbians being targeted, the trans community would have fought for us’
“All I cared about was showing my trans siblings that I saw them, I cared for them, that I was there for them and that wherever I am, I will make sure that there is a safe space for them too,” Casparij explains.
“The trans existence within the queer community has always been such a prominent presence and I know that if it was the lesbian community that was being targeted, the trans community would have fought for us and stood with us, as they have done countless times before.”
Casparij, who can play as a defender or in central midfield, points out that attacks on trans women could also affect cis women around the world.
“It’s not up to a government to decide what a woman should look like and to which norms she has to conform,” she says.
“So, for all the cisgender women out there, I ask you one thing: please look out for your trans sisters, they need us now more than ever. Womanhood will overcome all.”
Asked about her reason for becoming a patron of the LGBT Foundation, a national charity that prides itself on having “health and wellbeing at the heart” of everything it does, she says it was the “hard-working and incredible people behind the scenes” who inspired her to join.
“They help so many queer people every day, week in, week out, with nothing but love and compassion. Seeing how much they give to the people within our community inspired me to do the same, on a larger scale than I initially imagined.”
She’s most looking forward to “refunding the women’s programme within the LGBT Foundation”, and will work with the charity to raise enough money to give back to queer women in the community, ensuring there are plenty of safe spaces for them.
“It will mean we have the ability to have free workshops for those who need or want it. This can range from the topics of sexual health, mental health [and] sobriety,” she said.
‘It inspires women to break out of the box’
The foundation’s This Is What A Woman Looks Like campaign, which celebrates the strength, beauty and diversity of women everywhere, was “refreshing” and helpful, she adds.
“In this day and age, the gender norms for women are quite intense, we get confronted with it multiple times a day through social media. Having a campaign like [this] is refreshing to see and I have no doubt it helps a lot of women accept and love themselves exactly the way that they are.
“It inspires women to break out of the box that is being created for us and to be authentically and unapologetically ourselves.”
The growing popularity of women’s sport, and football especially, made it important to have “clear values and advocate for ourselves and [one another]”, she notes.
“I want to be the role model and representation that I didn’t have as a child. I want the younger queer generation to know there is always a space for them if they attend our games and that there is a community that will open their arms to them.”
Casparij, who has been capped by her country 48 times, is in a relationship with Ruth Brown.
They met on Tinder and have recently opened up about their life together, in what Brown called achieving “the sapphic stereotypes”.
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