As we watched the ever-dominant North Carolina Courage rout the Chicago Red Stars in the National Women’s Soccer League Final in Cary, N.C., we wondered: which members of each team are members of our LGBTQ community?
So we checked, and found that there are three women on the Courage and three on the Red Stars who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Here they are in alphabetical order:
Tierna Davidson of Menlo Park, Calif., played for Chicago.
Abby Erceg of New Zealand, played for North Carolina, as did her girlfriend Kristen Hamilton of Littleton, Colo.
Sam Kerr of Australia played for Chicago, as did her girlfriend Nikki Stanton of North Bend, Ind.
Stephanie Labbé of Canada played for North Carolina.
And while we were at it, we thought we’d let you know who the other LGB players in the NWSL are, in alphabetical order:
Rachel Daly of England played for the Houston Dash.
Jessica Fishlock of Wales played for the Seattle Reign.
Adrianna Franch of Salina, Kan. played for the Portland Thorns.
Ashlyn Harris of Satellite Beach, Fla.. played for Orlando Pride as does her fiancee, Ali Krieger of Dumfries, Va.
Bianca Henniger of Mexico played for the Houston Dash.
Emma Kete of New Zealand plays for the Seattle Reign.
Chloe Logarzo of Australia plays for Washington, D.C. Spirit.
Joanna Lohman of Silver Spring, Md. retired this year from the Washington, D.C. Spirit.
Marta of Brazil played for Orlando Pride as did her girlfriend, Toni Pressley of Melbourne, Fla., who is battling cancer.
Christine Nairn of Annapolis, Md. played for the Houston Dash.
Kelley O’Hara of Fayetteville, Ga. played for the Utah Royals.
Megan Rapinoe of Redding, Calif. played for the Seattle Reign.
Kailen Sheridan of Canada, played for the NJ Sky Blue FC.
Meleana Shim of Honolulu, Hawaii played for the Houston Dash.
Congratulations to the NC Courage for their 4-0 victory over Chicago! It was the Red Stars’ first appearance in the NWSL final and for the Courage, the first win at home for any NWSL team.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to our eagle-eyed readers, we’ve added Kristen Hamilton of the North Carolina Courage and Nikki Stanton of the Chicago Red Stars to this list, after inadvertently leaving them off when we first published.
