LOS ANGELES — Angel City FC defender Paige Nielsen was queer before the club celebrated Pride Night on Tuesday and played the Houston Dash to a 0-0 draw, and she will be after it. Just as Nielsen’s sexual orientation and identity will outlive the rainbow bandanas and henna tattoos of the evening, and the pomp of the marches during Pride Month, the 24-year-old’s club is committed to LGBTQIA+ inclusion indefinitely.

In April, Angel City hosted stakeholders from eight professional North American soccer teams to learn about and discuss LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and Nielsen and ACFC teammate Madison Hammond participated.

“Learning to be inclusive opened my own eyes,” Nielsen said. “I have a wife, and I didn’t even understand.”

Prior to the training, Nielsen didn’t think she had strong feelings about Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, for example. Then someone brought up that if a child’s parents were gay, under the law, the child would not even be able to talk about who their parents are.

“And I was like, holy crap, why didn’t I even think about that? I want to raise kids of my own,” Nielsen said.

Since the workshop, Nielsen has connected with some of the organizers on LinkedIn and plans to participate in more Play Proud trainings.

The week-long training was part of the Play Proud Initiative, which grew out of a conversation between ACFC Head of Community Catherine Dávila and Common Goal Executive Director Lilli Barrett-O’Keefe about a collective action effort to combat homophobia in soccer. All clubs and participating individuals — ranging from owners, players and coaches to club supporter group leaders and members — enter the workshops at different levels in their understanding and ability to make an impact. The idea is not to compare, but rather to share knowledge, experiences and best practices when it comes to creating a safe, welcoming and inclusive experience for all LGBTQIA+ individuals in soccer.

Angel City’s commitment to inclusion is what led Senior Director of Community Impact Chris Fajardo to join the organization, where he now collaborates with Dávila on the Community team. He estimates that ACFC has already put in 3,000 hours of training through this initiative, with much more planned for the future.

“This club has made such intentional moves to be inclusive and have it not be performative,” Fajardo said. “What I love to witness continuously, especially at game days, is how fans come in and engage in a community that expresses that. We’ve created something special, a space that’s electric.”

Dávila and her team are actively looking to incorporate as many marginalized identities into their club’s representation as possible. They also often find “low-hanging fruit,” as Dávila puts it, or easy things to correct. For example, the team discovered that adding pronouns to their email signatures would go a long way toward making non-binary and trans individuals feel comfortable and respected.

Fajardo pointed to relationships with the LA LGBT Center and the West Hollywood Soccer Club, the oldest LGBTQIA+ soccer club in Southern California, as ways ACFC is supporting the community beyond Pride Month. ACFC is working with the Center to support Youth Prom and a prom for senior members and to tackle food insecurity issues. As for the West Hollywood Soccer Club, ACFC is helping the organization organize their tournament in November.

Before coming to ACFC this offseason from the Washington Spirit, where she won the 2021 NWSL championship, Nielsen said she never knew a single club could make such a profound impact.

“I was like, holy crap, they stand for everything I believe in,” Nielsen said. “Then when I got here, I saw we had six different supporter groups, and the community initiatives we’ve done have been incredible.”

Nielsen, who grew up in Nebraska unaware of knowing a single queer person, did not begin to realize she fell somewhere on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum until a female friend kissed her in college. At the time, she identified as straight and had previously only dated men. For a while, Nielsen kept things platonic. Eventually, she realized her feelings were stronger than that and allowed herself to explore her sexuality.

The fifth-year NWSL veteran describes herself as an open book who has always believed that love is the answer to all questions. Yet, Nielsen only recently came to the conclusion that she needs to be vocal with her story.

“I didn’t think it was so important,” Nielsen said. “I was like, ‘Our world is changing. Everyone is going to love each other. We’re all humans,’ because I’m such a hippie. But people are reaching out to me and saying even Nebraska is changing because of the impact I’m making.”

Last week, Nielsen shared her coming out story and revealed how she met and fell in love with her wife on the Attacking Third podcast, which has been airing during halftime of NWSL matches on CBS. This has led to even more LGBTQIA+ people reaching out to her for support.

“I think making single, individual impacts can go very far,” Nielsen said. “Some people were very vulnerable with me and said they never told anyone before.”

She said her goal for the rest of the month is to respond to everyone who has reached out and talk to them about how to approach coming out if that’s what they want to do. Nielsen wants people to know that sexual orientation can be fluid and no one has the right to judge anyone’s journey. She believes that people coming out and sharing their stories will help others navigating their identities.

“Especially in sports, since we have a huge platform,” Nielsen said.

She credited soccer stars Abby Wambach, Ashlyn Harris and Megan Rapinoe for publicly coming out and making it easier for people like her to do so.

Allies, like ACFC team captain Ali Riley, have also made life easier for Nielsen. Riley asked her over lunch on Tuesday what she identifies as and whether she went back and forth between dating men and women.

“Just talking about that in a safe place to someone who is willing to learn about every individual is so important,” Nielsen said. “There aren’t a lot of safe spaces anymore, especially on Twitter and social media, and that’s where your allies on a team really help you feel safe.”

Fajardo, who is gay, also spoke about Riley’s allyship.

“Ali being so vocal is a brave thing,” Fajardo said. “We still haven’t come to a place, especially in sports, where individuals feel safe. To have somebody that has a platform, is open to being vocal and is so present makes such a difference. She’s creating space for people who could be allies to feel safe expressing that, and she’s showing for those that identity on the LGBTQ+ spectrum that people care and that there is space for them to be themselves. Since so many young kids look to her and other players, it’s an especially powerful statement.”

Riley is continually asking questions and learning so that she can be the best ally possible.

“When I look at my friends and teammates and think that they wouldn’t be treated or have the same opportunities as I would, it makes me so angry,” Riley said. “Particularly with trans kids and sports, I look at what sport has done for me and my life and to think that little kids are not allowed to play sports (because of their identity), it really breaks my heart.”

This is awesome. 💪💪💪 https://t.co/qGm7tPEgu6

— Paige Nielsen (@Paigenielsen) June 8, 2022

Like Nielsen and the ACFC Community team, Riley emphasizes that the fight for equality extends beyond the month of June. Still, she hopes that this month can be a time to highlight and celebrate the LGBTQIA+ women on Angel City, in soccer and in the NWSL, including the supporter groups and fans. This month, ACFC participated in the WeHo Pride Parade; next, they will take part in the L.A. Pride Parade on June 12 and Trans Pride from June 16-18 and have a few players volunteer at the Pride Picnic on June 26.

“And I hope that it can be that balance of a time to really fight, but also to celebrate,” Riley said.

At ACFC’s Pride Night on Tuesday, Mariachi Arcoíris — the first LBGTQ+ mariachi group in the world — performed the national anthem, bisexual comedian Lilly Singh led the ceremonial three-clap and special guests from the LA LGBT Center and TransCanWork were honored on the field. All evening, LGBTQIA+-centric music blared from the stadium speakers.

“I hope people feel seen, loved and welcomed here because I see them, I love them and I welcome them,” Riley said after the match. “I really hope that we can continue to show that, here at Angel City, everyone is welcome and we accept you for who you are. We continue to grow together and be an example for other teams, other leagues, and other sports.”

Joshua Fischman is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering Angel City FC and the Los Angeles Sparks. He has covered basketball for Vantage Sports and Hoops Rumors and served as co-host of “On the NBA Beat” podcast. Joshua received his master’s in Sports Media from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Follow him on Twitter @JJTheJuggernaut.

After an illustrious career for both club and country, Gotham FC and U.S. Women’s National Team defender Kelley O’Hara announced today via Kelley on the Street that she will be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year, making the 2024 NWSL season her last.

"I have always said I would play under two conditions: that I still love playing soccer, and if my body would let me do it the way I wanted to," O’Hara told Just Women’s Sports in the lead-up to her retirement announcement. "I realized a while back that I was always going to love it, so it was the physical piece that was going to be the deciding factor."

The 35-year-old will retire as a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and at least a two-time NWSL champion, depending on where Gotham finishes this season. Her legacy as a player is hard to fully encapsulate, and will forever run through some of the biggest snapshots in USWNT and NWSL history. 

In 2012, O’Hara played every minute of the USWNT’s Olympic gold medal run, after having recently converted into a defender. Her soaring goal off the bench in the 2015 World Cup semifinal is the stuff of legend. And her return from lingering injury to play in every knockout match of the national team’s 2019 World Cup win cemented a storybook international career. 

It was O’Hara who scored the overtime goal in 2021 to earn the Washington Spirit their first-ever NWSL championship, and O’Hara who returned to help see Gotham earn a title in 2023 after years spent in the trenches with the club’s previous iteration, Sky Blue. Her 15-year career spanned two professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. (she earned her first professional title in 2010 with WPS’s FC Gold Pride), as well as sweeping changes to the sport both on and off the pitch.

On the field, O’Hara has always been known for a motor that never quits, making the right flank her domain in attacking possession and defensive transition. In recent years, she’s also been celebrated for a competitive fire that raises the level of her teammates, whether she’s in the starting XI or supporting from the bench.

But injuries take a toll, a reality not always seen by the fans watching from home. "I've never taken anything for granted, and I feel like I've never coasted either," O’Hara said of her late-career success in the NWSL despite battling injuries. "I've always been like, 'I gotta put my best foot forward every single day I step on this field' — which is honestly probably half the reason why I'm having to retire now as opposed to getting a couple more years out of it. I've just grinded hard."

Recently, O’Hara has been sidelined at Gotham with ankle and knee injuries, and the situation motivated her to really prioritize listening to her body. "To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you.

"People don't see the doubt that's associated with injury,” she continued. "As athletes we feel a certain way, we perform a certain way, our body feels a certain way, we're very in tune with our bodies. And there's always so much doubt surrounding injury. It’s like, 'Can I feel the way I felt before?' The reality is sometimes you don't."

O’Hara didn’t arrive at the decision to move on from her playing career lightly. But once she began seriously considering making 2024 her final year during the last NWSL offseason, it felt right. "Once I was like, 'Alright, you know what, this will be my last year,' I have had a lot of peace with it," she said. "Truly the only thing I felt was gratitude for everything that my career has been, all the things I've been able to do and the people I've been able to do it with."

She said she’ll miss daily interactions with her teammates and all the amazing memories they’ve created, though she feels lucky to have formed relationships that go beyond sharing a locker room. "You're basically getting to hang out and just shoot the shit with your best friends every day," she reflected. "Which is so unheard of, and I just feel very lucky to do it for so long."

The Stanford graduate also mentioned that the NWSL’s suspension of regular season play in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic made her realize how much playing allowed her the space to simply be creative every day. The tactical elements of soccer provided O’Hara an outlet for problem solving and made use of her naturally competitive edge.

She’s now gearing up to channel her on-field intensity into her post-playing career full time, which is a new chapter she’s excited to begin. "I don't know if the world's ready for it, like the fact that I'm not going to be putting all of my energy into football all the time," she said with a laugh. 

O’Hara said she would like to stay connected to the game in some fashion, whether it be as an owner, coach, or member of a front office. She’s also interested in the growing media space surrounding women’s sports, having provided on-camera analysis for broadcasters like CBS Sports in addition to starting a production company with her fiancée.

"I just feel like I have a lot of passions, and things that excite me," she says. "And I do want to stay as close as I can to the game, because I feel a responsibility — and I'm not sure in what capacity — to continue to grow it."

A sense of responsibility to grow the game has been a consistent refrain for the USWNT and NWSL players of O’Hara’s era, who ushered in a new age of equal pay for the national team and collectively bargained protections for those in the league. The landscape for new players looks different than it did 14 years ago, in large part due to this pivotal generation.

"I feel an immense sense of pride around that, because I don't know if any of us knew that was gonna happen," she said. "We kind of, as things unfolded, took the next step towards changing what women's football looks like in this country and around the world.

"I'm really grateful to have been part of this era with the players that I was [with], not backing down and pushing and knowing that was the right thing to do."

Whatever the future holds, O’Hara is going ahead full throttle. It’s a piece of advice she’d also give to the next generation of professionals looking to make their own impact.

"Whatever you do in life, do it because you love it, and the chips will fall in place," she said. "If you love something, you're willing to do what it takes. You're willing to make the sacrifices, you're willing to handle the roller coaster.

"To me, it's simple. Don't do it for any other reason but that, and I think you'll be alright."

The Phoenix Mercury center spoke with Robin Roberts about her 10-month incarceration, reflecting on her poor living conditions and shaky mental state ahead of her May 7th memoir.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper," Griner told the ABC News anchor in last night’s 20/20 special. "That was the moment where I just felt less than a human." 

She also detailed some of her lowest moments during that time, saying with tears in her eyes that she went so far as to consider taking her own life on more than one occasion. However, the thought of Russian officials not releasing her body back to her family made her reconsider.

"I just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through," said Griner.

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In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court after Sheremetyevo International Airport police found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The cartridges were prescribed by Griner’s doctor for chronic pain back in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. In the interview, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she had a "mental lapse" while packing, and never intended to bring the cannabis products with her when she returned to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said. "Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen." 

She was later sentenced to nine years behind bars after her Russian attorneys advised her to plead guilty the following July. Griner was then sent to a remote penal colony where she was forced to spend her days cutting cloth to make military uniforms. From there, it only got worse.

"Honestly, it just had to happen," she said when asked about her decision to cut off her signature long locks. "We had spiders above my bed making nests.

"My dreads started to freeze," she added. "They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to survive."

Shortly after Griner’s initial arrest, the U.S. State Department classified her case as wrongfully detained, escalating its urgency within the government and calling even more attention to the situation. On December 8th, she was freed in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

While she told Roberts she was "thrilled" when she got the news, she was also very upset about having to leave fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan behind. She also continues to carry guilt about her arrest, saying "At the end of the day, it's my fault. And I let everybody down."

Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, hits shelves on May 7th.

"Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets," Griner told ABC News in an exclusive statement. "But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare."

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.