Last year, Justine Lindsay made two of the biggest announcements of her life in one giddy Instagram post: She’s transgender, and she had landed herself a spot on an NFL cheerleading squad.
It was more than just a huge personal moment. In joining the Carolina TopCats, who cheer for the Carolina Panthers, Lindsay was becoming the first openly trans athlete in a space known for its problematic relationship with diversity.
There were highs and lows during her first year on the job. Triumphant performances. Coping with harassment, threats and abuse. But as she stepped onto the field for her second season last month, Lindsay was decidedly joyous about the chance to keep on performing.
“I love it. Wouldn’t change it for the world,” she told HuffPost in an interview on her 31st birthday.
For Lindsay, it all boils down to her lifelong passion for dance. That’s what got her here, and that’s her focus. But as a trans woman, following her passion also happens to thrust her into a new role as a trailblazer, providing much-needed visibility for her community amid an alarming rise in anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation.
“I’m just a regular person, but I just felt like, at the same time, I have a story to tell,” she said.
Off the field, some of Lindsay’s most treasured moments since dancing her way into the limelight have been interactions with people touched by her story.
“It really touches your soul because, you know, it’s bigger than me,” she said. “Everything that I do, it’s always bigger than me. It’s gonna help the next generation.”
Messages from the parents of LGBTQ+ kids, in particular, really hit home.
“They’re trying to navigate what are they going to do? How can they support their child?” Lindsay said. “So to get those messages, like those DMs in my phone saying, ‘Your story just really empowered me to be a better parent for my child,’ and just say, ‘thank you,’ you know, for my story ... It does something to you. It really does.”
“It just lets you know, wow, I’m really changing the world,” she added.
Lindsay came out to her family years ago and transitioned in college, but she kept it mostly under wraps when she applied for the TopCats gig, telling only her coach, Chandalae Lanouette, on the application.
In her March 2022 Instagram post, Lindsay announced the “cats out the bag,” revealing she was trans to her followers and new teammates.
Speaking to BuzzFeed News at the time, Lanouette emphasized that Lindsay was hired for her talent, not for making history.
“She’s a phenomenal performer, without a shadow of a doubt,” Lanouette told HuffPost last month. “And that’s kind of the point of our team. I want people on the team that just command you to watch them.”
“And that’s our job, on game day, is to make people watch us and to entertain them. And she could do that just by walking in a room,” she added.
Still, Lindsay fields negative comments questioning how she got the job.
“It stuns me and just surprises me how people have so much to say about a person without actually fully knowing them,” she said. “Honestly, it’s really sad.”
How does she deal with it? “Rise above it,” she said, using a catchphrase made famous by another trailblazing Black woman: “When they go low, you go high.”
In recent years, the NFL has sought to improve its reputation in a new social climate — and following repeated cheerleading scandals and lawsuits over the past decade involving allegations of misogyny, toxic work culture, discrimination, unfair pay and sexual harassment.
Some teams have made substantial changes, like actually paying cheerleaders more than minimum wage. Many squads have allowed men to join.
Other adjustments have been more subtle. Some teams have rebranded as coed dance squads, introduced less revealing uniforms or switched their names. More Black cheerleaders are wearing their hair natural, taking steps towards busting the white-centric beauty standards that have long plagued the industry.
“There’s still work to be done, obviously,” Lindsay — who has felt empowered to showcase an array of hairstyles on the job, from a bald head to finger waves to long-haired looks — said of diversity and representation in the league and across the sporting world.
“Putting the work in is actually sitting down and having conversations with the right people saying, ‘OK, how can we figure out a game plan so that everyone is accepted?’” she said.
The LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD found in a 2023 study that while acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community has reached record highs, there continues to be a significant lack of understanding and familiarity for trans and nonbinary people.
According to a 2022 Trevor Project survey of LGBTQ+ youth, 89% said seeing LGBTQ+ representation in film and television made them feel good about being who they are; 67% said the same of seeing out LGBTQ+ athletes.
“Seeing Justine step into this role has shown that transgender people are welcome and accepted on our teams, on the sidelines and in the stands, and belong just as they are,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement provided to HuffPost.
“Justine’s talent, visibility, and joy will always be something to cheer,” Ellis added.
In recent years, right-wing politicians have introduced hundreds of anti-trans bills across the country that seek to deny transgender people healthcare, education and other basic rights.
The way forward, Lindsay believes, is to put “people like myself and others in front of these podiums” and get talking about it.
“Instead of people just looking at us as human beings, they’re just automatically labeling us,” Lindsay said. “So I want to be able to get in front of these people and just say: Please relax. Be quiet. Let me say what I have to say.”
And that’s exactly what she plans to do. Lindsay’s mission is to share her story far and wide and empower others to be their most authentic selves — whether it’s through podcasting, vlogging or getting herself behind those podiums all over the country.
But most of all, she wants to continue dancing, “literally, until I can’t dance anymore.”