Justine Lindsay speaks onstage at a Night of Pride with GLAAD and NFL on February 08, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Justine Lindsay has claimed she was fired from the Carolina Panthers’ squad. (Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for GLAAD)
Justine Lindsay has claimed she was fired from the Carolina Panthers’ squad. (Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for GLAAD)
The National Football League’s (NFL) first out trans cheerleader has claimed she was fired.
During an Instagram Live with Gaye magazine, Justine Lindsay claimed the firing was motivated by transphobia and the consequences of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The dancer, who joined the Carolina Panthers’ TopCats in 2022, making history as the NFL’s first trans cheerleader, left the team in August.
“I was cut because I’m trans,” she claimed. “I don’t wanna hear nobody saying: ‘She didn’t wanna come back.’ Why the hell would I not wanna come back to an organisation that I’ve been a part of for three years? That makes no sense. I was cut.
“I was devastated. It stung. I was hurt.”
She claimed her former teammates “know the truth” and that alongside the anti-trans legislation that followed Trump’s winning, a new coach was hired. However, she plans to stay in the spotlight and is developing a documentary and will compete in the Miss International Queen pageant, for trans women, next year.
Ahead of the start of the new NFL campaign, Lindsay revealed that she wouldn’t be returning for a fourth season, telling Outsports that she would be stepping away to focus on “pageantry work and community involvement”.
She went on to say: “Being in the NFL was a stepping stone to get me where I need to be. My focus is to educate and uplift the younger generation of leaders to focus on their dreams and goals. Don’t let a president who is delusional stop them from reaching their goals whether they are trans, African American, not American…”
She later told Gay Times: “I didn’t always feel I got the backing I was supposed to.”
PinkNews has contacted the Carolina Panthers for comment.
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