Soccer star Quinn wants to open the door for trans athletes at the Olympics

This profile is part of Queerty’s 2020 Out For Good series, recognizing public figures who’ve had the courage to come out and make a difference in the past year.

Name: Quinn, 25

Bio: A native of Toronto, Quinn is a Canadian professional soccer player who currently plays as a midfielder for Swedish club Vittsjö GIK, on loan from OL Reign.

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Quinn, who previously played for the Washington Spirit and Paris FC, won a bronze medal with Team Canada at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, and they’re looking forward to playing in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, as well.

Coming Out: Quinn publicly came out as transgender in a September 2020 Instagram to raise trans visibility online — and to help others feel community. “Coming out is HARD (and kinda bs). I know for me it’s something I’ll be doing over again for the rest of my life,” they wrote. “As I’ve lived as an openly trans person with the people I love most for many years, I did always wonder when I’d come out publicly.”

They continued: “Instagram is a weird space. I wanted to encapsulate the feelings I had towards my trans identity in one post but that’s really not why anyone is on here, including myself. So INSTEAD I want to be visible to queer folx who don’t see people like them on their feed. I know it saved my life years ago.”

View this post on Instagram

More of this ? in Tokyo ??. Excited to be back with the ?? fam !

A post shared by Quinn (@thequinny5) on Sep 30, 2019 at 12:32pm PDT

Making a Difference: In a follow-up interview with BBC Sport, Quinn said they hope to play in Tokyo for next year’s rescheduled Summer Olympics.

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“That was one of the reasons why I came out publicly, it’s because I want to be visible and I think the Olympics is a massive platform to have that visibility,” they added. “It’s my hope that I might be the first and that’s really exciting, but it’s also my hope that there are other people following in my footsteps and so I hope that it opens the door to other trans athletes being represented at the Olympics.”

Words of Wisdom:

I want to challenge cis folks (if you don’t know what cis means, that’s probably you!!!) to be better allies. It’s a process, and i know it won’t be perfect, but if I can encourage you to start then it’s something.
1) put your pronouns in your bio
2) follow/ listen to other trans/nb voices (@janetmock , @ashleemariepreston , @alokvmenon to name a few :))
3) practice using gender neutral pronouns with friends/ in a mirror
4) vote
5) start to catch yourself making assumptions about people in public/ bathrooms/ any space

– Quinn, on Instagram