“When you feel like you’re seen as a human being on a team, it changes the way you play.” For Pride2021, Olympic bronze-medal winning goalkeeper Erin McLeod spoke with ByDavidSingh about the power of advocacy and allyship.
Erin McLeod became fully aware of the importance of nuanced language when John Herdman took over the Canadian women’s soccer team in 2011.
“That is probably the quickest way to make an assumption,” says McLeod, who came out over five years ago. “Then immediately, all the people who maybe don’t have male significant others feel like, ‘OK, I’m not seen here.’ … [On the other hand,] when you feel like you’re seen as a human being on a team, it changes the way you play.”
Sportsnet: The last year has brought about a quantum leap in terms of discussion and advocacy in all areas, including race, sexual orientation and more. What are your thoughts on the current climate and how far we’ve seemingly come since the beginning of 2020?You’re right — I think that there’s been fantastic progress as far as so many people are asking internal questions about race and sexual orientation and gender expression.
Yeah, definitely. It’s two-fold. What I realized when the Black Lives Matter movement started was that it was not OK to just not be racist. It’s about being anti-racist. Because not speaking up was also part of the problem. And I think from that I’ve learned to be more outspoken about every letter that falls in the LGBTQ+ community, and whether or not I fit into any of those categories wasn’t the point. The point is to fight against hate.
I think sometimes it can be challenging for allies if they don’t have someone in their circle or maybe there is someone in their circle, but they’re just too afraid because they’re not sure [what to say or do]. So I think there are small things allies can do, like putting their pronouns at the end of their email signature or use gender-neutral language. It’s great to raise money for causes like Athlete Ally and the Human Rights Campaign.
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