Justine Lindsay has come out as the first transgender cheerleader in the NFL. She revealed the historic news via an Instagram post where she announced that she is now a Carolina Panthers TopCats cheerleader.
“Cats Out the Bag you see the newest member of the Carolina Panthers TopCats Cheerleader’s @topcats as the first Transgender woman,” she captioned a photo of her on the football field via Instagram.
When Justine Lindsay shared the news, she was “so scared.”
“There are some things you just can’t pin,” he told Buzzfeed News.
Despite his fear, he couldn’t care less about the criticism that would come.
“I just felt like when I posted it, whatever reaction I got from everybody, it didn’t matter,” Lindsay said. “Then my phone started blowing up.”
In his Instagram post, the North Carolina native gave a shout out to Chandalae Lanouette, the director of Topcats, who chose him to be a member of the Topcats squad.
“You are a special being that I truly appreciate thanks for taking a leap of faith in me to share your legacy with so many others,” he wrote. “This is a moment I will never forget and I can’t wait to show you all what this girl has to bring.”
Lanouette told Buzzfeed News that she was more impressed by Lindsay’s talent than she was by being transgender.
“My goal is to create a team of individuals who are absolutely on fire on the field but who are incredible human beings in the locker room, great friends, great people, and at the end of the day, you have to go through the door first to get there,” Lanouette said. .
Cheerleaders do community service and attend business conferences when they are off the field. Lindsay is excited that her visibility will help and encourage others.
“It’s big,” she said. “I think more people should see this. Not because I want recognition. It’s just to explain what’s going on in the world.”
Of course, Lindsay got the scary message and made sure to contact the people who believed she was “harming the organization.”
“The Carolina panthers organization is a great one, that supports all people white, black, yellow, trans, straight etc. at the end of the day me and 29 other members of @topcats make a fair and square squad,” he wrote in. Instagram. “So what if I 🏳️⚧️ so what do I prepare the way for the people under me who are afraid and afraid to take that step because it’s not easy to do when you have stupid people who make comments that don’t work. through a process like all of us.”
