{"id":22647,"date":"2015-07-09T18:20:07","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T22:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/new-zealander-sophie-sills-on-being-queer-playing-womens-sport\/"},"modified":"2015-07-09T18:20:07","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T22:20:07","slug":"new-zealander-sophie-sills-on-being-queer-playing-womens-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/new-zealander-sophie-sills-on-being-queer-playing-womens-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealander Sophie Sills on Being Queer &amp; Playing Women&#039;s Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>New Zealander Sophie Sills on Being Queer &amp; Playing Women&#039;s Sport<\/b><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/images.huffingtonpost.com\/2015-07-07-1436295838-7428006-sophiesillsnewzealandqueersportillingworthimpolitikal.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"2015-07-07-1436295838-7428006-sophiesillsnewzealandqueersportillingworthimpolitikal.png\" src=\"http:\/\/images.huffingtonpost.com\/2015-07-07-1436295838-7428006-sophiesillsnewzealandqueersportillingworthimpolitikal-thumb.png\" width=\"570\" height=\"398\"><\/a><br \/> Sophie Sills is a 22 year-old student from Auckland, New Zealand. Queer, and a&nbsp;long-time&nbsp;footballer, as part of her&nbsp;Master of Arts in Psychology&nbsp;Sophie&nbsp;is conducting a study on if and how being LGBTQ affects players&#8217; experiences of playing <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">women<\/a>&#8217;s sport. I interviewed her <a href=\"http:\/\/impolitikal.com\/2015\/07\/06\/qa-sophie-sills-on-being-queer-playing-womens-sport\/\" target=\"_hplink\">for Impolitikal.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>What led to your interest in&nbsp;queer experiences in sport?<\/b><br \/> I&#8217;ve always been interested in queer issues, and I was thinking about what I could do for my Masters, chatting with people. They were like, you&#8217;re really into sports, why don&#8217;t you do something about that? That resonated with me, because I get a little bit of homophobia &#8211; not a lot but a little bit &#8211; in my own sports stuff. Out of all the ideas that I had, that was the one that seemed to be interesting and important.<\/p>\n<p><b>Do&nbsp;you play football&nbsp;in all-<a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">girl<\/a> teams or are they mixed?<\/b><br \/> Yeah, all-<a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">women<\/a>&#8217;s. It was mixed until I was 15 or so, because my club didn&#8217;t really have enough <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">women<\/a>, but now it&#8217;s split up, so all <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">women<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>When did you come out?<\/b><br \/> My coming out was long. It was probably from when I was about 19. It&#8217;s still ongoing, but I didn&#8217;t really ever officially come out to my teammates, some of them just knew. Because they were friends with me or whatever, so they knew.<\/p>\n<p><b>Because others&nbsp;aren&#8217;t aware you&#8217;re <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a>, do you think it affects how they are around you?<\/b><br \/> I think so,&nbsp;although&nbsp;I think they aren&#8217;t as unaware as I&#8217;m making them out to be. I think it&#8217;s just a youth thing &#8211; it&#8217;s the language that they use, saying <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a> [in a derogatory way] or fag. I don&#8217;t think they&#8217;re really against it or anything, I think it&#8217;s just their socialization.<\/p>\n<p><b>How does it make you feel when you hear people talk like that,&nbsp;even if they&#8217;re not consciously trying to slag you?<\/b><br \/> I think I&#8217;m such a political person, it annoys me on a political level as well as a personal level. But as my friend says, it&#8217;s hard for us, as queers, to <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=grq0&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">call<\/a> them out all the time, because then they just think that we&#8217;re offended because our feelings are hurt because we&#8217;re queer, but actually it&#8217;s a bigger thing. You get used to it I guess, and it doesn&#8217;t really affect you that much. You&#8217;re just sort of like, oh ok I don&#8217;t really want to hang out with you and I am annoyed at your politics.<\/p>\n<p><b>If I have to explain it to you&#8230;<\/b><br \/> Yeah, exactly!<\/p>\n<p><b>Have you or people you know been actively bullied or discriminated against in a sporting context?<\/b><br \/> To say it&#8217;s active is difficult. Because no one&#8217;s ever really like, oh you&#8217;re a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">lesbian<\/a>, you can&#8217;t play with us. No one&#8217;s like that, because no one really would say that to your face.&nbsp;But they might be thinking it, and sometimes it comes across a little bit that they&#8217;re thinking it. So I don&#8217;t know if there&#8217;s been anything active, I think it&#8217;s more that sometimes things happen, and you can&#8217;t really tell if people are being homophobic. For example, you&#8217;ve told someone you have a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">girlfriend<\/a>, right? You just drop it in the conversation, oh I&#8217;m doing this with my <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">girlfriend<\/a>. And then when they ask you about your day, how that went, they say &#8216;your mate&#8217;, or your friend instead of your <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">girlfriend<\/a>. Rather than the direct, you&#8217;re a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">lesbian<\/a>, you can&#8217;t sit with us or whatever. That sort of invalidating thing, almost.<\/p>\n<p><b>Do you feel pressured to spell it out for people? How old are you now?<\/b><br \/> 22.<\/p>\n<p><b>So it&#8217;s been two or three years that you&#8217;ve been going through coming out?<\/b><br \/> Yeah. In places like soccer &#8211; we were always quite a young team, so we never really talked about <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">boys<\/a> or <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">girls<\/a>, because we were just there to play. That was the environment, we were there to impress our coach and get on the top team or whatever. Now I&#8217;ve come through that long coming out I don&#8217;t really feel the need to prove myself.&nbsp;Sometimes people assume that you&#8217;re straight, and then you just correct them a little bit. But otherwise I just go about my day.<\/p>\n<p><b>Quite recently there&#8217;s been a lot happening around, I guess normalizing homosexuality really, with same-<a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/couples\/?mp_code=akftr\">sex<\/a> marriage being legalized in Ireland and the US for example. Do you think&nbsp;that&#8217;s changed how people are around you?<\/b><br \/> I&#8217;m not sure. It&#8217;s hard for me to tell because I&#8217;m so young, you know? My experience of change has been, coming from being 12 years-old, when everyone&#8217;s sort of weird about it. The only bullying I ever had was when I was 12, and we weren&#8217;t even sexual beings. But it feels like it&#8217;s changing society in the sense that it&#8217;s in the news a lot, so like you say it&#8217;s more normalized. Not even for <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a> people to be accepted, but to&nbsp;hear about things that are relevant to us on the news. I think people are just like, oh ok, that&#8217;s a thing that exists and then they just carry on with their lives.<\/p>\n<p><b>I guess that&#8217;s almost the worst part. The fact that a lot of stuff that&#8217;s still been in place, that has stopped <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a> people from living their lives as anyone else, has remained because change hasn&#8217;t been a priority for people who are straight. That actually really just sucks. Because it&#8217;s had really devastating consequences for a lot of people.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>So around 12 is when you started to become aware of being attracted to <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">girls<\/a>, and that&#8217;s when you started dealing with bullying?<\/b><br \/> I think so.&nbsp;I started to become aware of it almost because other kids would <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=grq0&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">call<\/a> me a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">lesbian<\/a> all the time. I didn&#8217;t want that, because it was associated with them bullying me, or teasing me for wearing tomboy clothes and stuff like that. I think 12 is the age where it started to become less acceptable to be a tomboy, and so that&#8217;s when I started to have to think about it. But I didn&#8217;t really think about it&nbsp;properly until I was a bit older.<\/p>\n<p><b>Do you have older friends that you&#8217;re able to talk to about your experience now?<\/b><br \/> As in, older friends that are <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p><b>Yeah, who have been going through this stuff at a different time to you &#8211; culturally and socially.<\/b><br \/> I don&#8217;t really have many older friends that are <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a>, but one of the things that springs to mind is&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;with my older teammates, when I was sending around the information for my study and I used words like queer and cisgender. They were like, what are those? I don&#8217;t understand those. They wanted to know. I think interest is&nbsp;expanding and people are less like, oh, that&#8217;s yuck.<\/p>\n<p><b>What do&nbsp;you hope to highlight with your dissertation, or find out?<\/b><br \/> I&#8217;m hoping to make LGBT experiences in sport more well known, more understood. I&#8217;m working with an LGBT charity as well. They&#8217;ve given me some money and asked me to&nbsp;put the research towards making some information for sports clubs, a little pamphlet type of thing, so they&#8217;ve got a resource that basically outlines what it&#8217;s like to be queer in sport. What sorts of things can come across as homophobia, and just sort of open up the conversation I guess, in places where it might not be brought up by queer people, or it might not be something that the team talks about. Just to even bring that up I think is a step.<\/p>\n<p><b>Have you included <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">men<\/a> in the study?<\/b><br \/> Sort of. I&#8217;ve tried to make it <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/offers.cam4tracking.com\/aff_c?offer_id=125&#38;aff_id=2778&#38;source=gfcsb\">trans<\/a>-inclusive, so they have to have played a sport that&#8217;s typically designated for <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">women<\/a>, but their gender identity doesn&#8217;t matter. At this point only <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">women<\/a> have responded, but it&#8217;s open to <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">guys<\/a> as long as they&#8217;ve had an experience playing in <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">women<\/a>&#8217;s sport.<\/p>\n<p><b>Do you have <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">male<\/a> or <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/offers.cam4tracking.com\/aff_c?offer_id=125&#38;aff_id=2778&#38;source=gfcsb\">trans<\/a> friends who have had bullying experiences&nbsp;in a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">male<\/a>-dominated sport?<\/b><br \/> When we were younger all the <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">boys<\/a> played soccer, and soccer for <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">men<\/a> has a stigma of being &#8211; in New Zealand anyway &#8211; the soft sport compared to rugby. So they all sort of had their sexuality accused basically, when they were quite young, and&nbsp;turned to rugby to be more manly, straight <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">men<\/a>. I think lots of them would get told that they were playing the <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a> sport, and they were going to turn out like <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">girls<\/a>. Or, you know, that they should pick up a &#8216;real&#8217; sport like rugby.<\/p>\n<p><b>By adults, or by their teammates?<\/b><br \/> Mostly by teammates, but when you&#8217;re quite young &#8211; I&#8217;m thinking 10 or 11 type of thing &#8211; kids just start to worry about their public image. It&#8217;s not directly from adults but I think it&#8217;s that idea in society that football is a soft sport, and the <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">men<\/a> fall down easily and rugby is the <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a>&#8217;s game. That&#8217;s part of New Zealand culture in a way. So it came from adults too, but not directly.<\/p>\n<p><b>Have any of your participants brought up&nbsp;a cultural, or&nbsp;ethnic&nbsp;or&nbsp;racial element?<\/b><br \/> I haven&#8217;t had anyone that&#8217;s not white come through so far, so that&#8217;s a little bit tricky.&nbsp;But in the literature&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;talked about how it&#8217;s very different if you&#8217;re black for example, because you have this stigma of being animalistic, of being biologically better at sport. On the one&nbsp;hand you&#8217;re a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">woman<\/a> and you&#8217;re not supposed to be as good as <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">men<\/a> at sport, on the other you&#8217;re black and so you&#8217;re supposed to be really, really good at sport. That comes through in Serena Williams, for example.&nbsp;When you&#8217;re really good at sport as a black <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">woman<\/a> you get called an ape, or unattractive. My participants haven&#8217;t come to me with that, but I think it&#8217;s definitely a part of it.<\/p>\n<p><b>What are your thoughts on Caitlyn Jenner&#8217;s transformation?<\/b><br \/> That&#8217;s quite a contested issue. There are some activists in our queer community here that are sort of like, it&#8217;s all good for Caitlyn but she&#8217;s rich, and she&#8217;s white. But no, I think it&#8217;s a very, very brave thing for her to do. Especially after having such a public career living as a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a>. I think having that representation in the media is a really important thing, just for kids to see that it&#8217;s ok, they can do it too if they want to. That&#8217;s what I think, really. We just need other people to be brave and to come out as well, and keep coming out until it&#8217;s a&nbsp;normal&nbsp;thing. That people aren&#8217;t talking about for weeks.<\/p>\n<p><b>Maybe this is cheesy, but do you have any advice for younger people who might come up against some of the issues you&#8217;ve faced?<\/b><br \/> It&#8217;s a bit cheesy back at you, but I would say just be yourself. You care so much when you&#8217;re a teenager and when you&#8217;re a kid about what other people think, but as soon as you get out of that school environment you&#8217;re like, oh this is what the adult world is like, I can just be whatever. So just get through I guess. Get through.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/impolitikal.com\/2015\/07\/06\/qa-sophie-sills-on-being-queer-playing-womens-sport\/\" target=\"_hplink\"><em>Read the interview at Impolitikal.com.<\/em><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>&#8212; This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/terms.html\/\">terms.<\/a> It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rc.feedsportal.com\/r\/233194537078\/u\/197\/f\/677065\/c\/35496\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/rc\/1\/rc.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/rc.feedsportal.com\/r\/233194537078\/u\/197\/f\/677065\/c\/35496\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/rc\/1\/rc.img\" border=\"0\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rc.feedsportal.com\/r\/233194537078\/u\/197\/f\/677065\/c\/35496\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/rc\/2\/rc.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/rc.feedsportal.com\/r\/233194537078\/u\/197\/f\/677065\/c\/35496\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/rc\/2\/rc.img\" border=\"0\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rc.feedsportal.com\/r\/233194537078\/u\/197\/f\/677065\/c\/35496\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/rc\/3\/rc.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/rc.feedsportal.com\/r\/233194537078\/u\/197\/f\/677065\/c\/35496\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/rc\/3\/rc.img\" border=\"0\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/da.feedsportal.com\/r\/233194537078\/u\/197\/f\/677065\/c\/35496\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/a2.htm\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/da.feedsportal.com\/r\/233194537078\/u\/197\/f\/677065\/c\/35496\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/a2.img\" border=\"0\"><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/pi.feedsportal.com\/r\/233194537078\/u\/197\/f\/677065\/c\/35496\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/a2t.img\" border=\"0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.huffingtonpost.com\/c\/35496\/f\/677065\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/mf.gif\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.huffingtonpost.com\/c\/35496\/f\/677065\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/l\/0L0Shuffingtonpost0N0Csarah0Eillingworth0Cnew0Ezealander0Esophie0Esill0Ib0I7747160A0Bhtml0Dutm0Ihp0Iref0Fgay0Evoices0Gir0FGay0KVoices\/story01.htm\" class=\"autohyperlink\">feeds.huffingtonpost.com\/c\/35496\/f\/677065\/s\/47fd3afb\/sc\/14\/l\/0L0Shuffingtonpost0N0Csarah0Eillingworth0Cnew0Ezealander0Esophie0Esill0Ib0I7747160A0Bhtml0Dutm0Ihp0Iref0Fgay0Evoices0Gir0FGay0KVoices\/story01.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealander Sophie Sills on Being Queer &amp; Playing Women&#039;s Sport Sophie Sills is a 22 year-old student from Auckland, New Zealand. Queer, and a&nbsp;long-time&nbsp;footballer, as part of her&nbsp;Master of Arts in Psychology&nbsp;Sophie&nbsp;is conducting a study on if and how being LGBTQ affects players&#8217; experiences of playing <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/?mp_code=akftr\">women<\/a>&#8217;s sport. I interviewed her for <a href=\"http:\/\/Impolitikal.com\" class=\"autohyperlink\">Impolitikal.com<\/a>. What &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/new-zealander-sophie-sills-on-being-queer-playing-womens-sport\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New Zealander Sophie Sills on Being Queer &amp; Playing Women&#039;s Sport<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New Zealander Sophie Sills on Being Queer &amp; Playing Women&#039;s Sport - GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/new-zealander-sophie-sills-on-being-queer-playing-womens-sport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Zealander Sophie Sills on Being Queer &amp; Playing Women&#039;s Sport - GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New Zealander Sophie Sills on Being Queer &amp; Playing Women&#039;s Sport Sophie Sills is a 22 year-old student from Auckland, New Zealand. Queer, and a&nbsp;long-time&nbsp;footballer, as part of her&nbsp;Master of Arts in Psychology&nbsp;Sophie&nbsp;is conducting a study on if and how being LGBTQ affects players&#8217; experiences of playing women&#8217;s sport. I interviewed her for Impolitikal.com. 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