THE PRIDE OF WALES
Pride Cymru returns this weekend, bringing its annual carnival atmosphere to Cardiff. To mark the occasion, Ruth Mosalski caught up with the three individuals who have topped this year’s Pinc List – recognising the influential LGBT+ people in Wales – Jess
WITHIN 24 hours of telling a mutual friend that I’d like to interview Jess Fishlock, we were on the phone.
She’d already told me by email she was “beyond proud” to have won top spot on our Pinc List and was gutted not to be able to attend Pride this weekend, but desperate for her mum and sister to attend in her place.
Football is life for Jess Fishlock – more than a job, it was a life-saver.
She’s been incredibly candid about her schooldays, saying they were “hell on earth” as she came to terms with her sexuality. And it was there that football came in.
“I don’t know if I would be here right now if I didn’t have it,” she has admitted.
Her thrice-weekly trips to football were what she needed to “survive”.
Fast-forward to the age of 32, she’s now Wales’ most-capped player, a Champions League winner and a role model.
The game she loves has changed plenty since she was a young player, but there is still a lot holding women back. Equality is still something she and her teammates in Seattle and Wales are fighting for.
In January she shared an image of her proudly holding her number 10 shirt for Wales.
To her left, the shirts read Ingle and Ward, to her right, Harding, James and Dykes.
“What a moment,” her caption read. “To many, this step for us is a step they probably don’t understand. But for us – a long 12 years of fighting and we finally have our names on our shirt.”
Finally, she and the other women who represent their country had their names printed on their backs.
Jess is a Seattle Reign player but, last season, she won a Champions League medal with Lyon.
“Women’s football now is very different to when I first started but, in some ways, it’s still the same.”
Finance is still a key thing – to make it a sustainable career, the players will hop between leagues, if the transfer windows allow.
Then, after the highs of victory, in July it was announced she was out for six months after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). But within days of her surgery in July, she was beginning the recovery process.
“I think within three months I’ll be running again and then it’s a case of getting back for the qualifiers with Wales.”
It’s meant Jess has been able to watch the USA team – some of whom are her team-mates – celebrate after winning the women’s world cup in a tournament which felt like a gamechanger.
“I am thrilled that they won it. I said all along that they would. I think they’re just so much stronger than any other team, physically and mentally.
“The beautiful thing about this national team is that all the women use their platform in such positive ways. They do the right thing and make such a difference.
“For me, that was another reason for them to win. I knew that if they were able to win, what they would be able to achieve would be far bigger than any
of the other nations. After so long, the tide is turning. We still have a really long way to go, but I think there are definitely strides being made.
“We have to keep making the right decisions.
“There are a lot more people who, even if they aren’t gay themselves, have an allegiance with the community and are allies. In the past, it just wasn’t like that, it was ‘this is your world and this is mine and they don’t combine.’
“But I think we don’t see that as much because people who are growing up now are making good decisions and the youngsters coming through that now... they’re safe.
“That’s always been the most important thing for me – how can we let them find themselves in a safe environment. And I think we’re starting to make real strides.”
Whether or not she expected to become a role model as a young girl in Cardiff, she’s become one. And she’s fiercely proud of being one.
When she recently offered one of her Seattle Reign Pride shirts in a competition, the response was overwhelming.
Last year she was at Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE for services to women’s sport and the LGBT+ community.
“When I got the message and it explained the two reasons were women’s football and services to the LGBT+ community, it was just so special. When your personal story comes into it, it really does just feel a bit more special.
“It means that everyone is talking about why you got it and that means they have to talk about LGBT+, everyone you’re speaking to, and that reach is suddenly massive.
“It’s all about more visibility.” Getting her MBE was a chance to share it with her family and friends, those who have “moulded” her. But as she becomes more well-known, does the role model label ever worry her?
“It’s never a burden because I think the message is too big and it affects way too many people for me to even begin to think that it’s a burden.
“I am only human and sometimes I make mistakes and do normal things.
“What the USA team have shown is that they have a platform that they can make changes. If you don’t use it then I feel you’re letting everyone down.
“I don’t want to be that person. I am very lucky to have a platform and I want to use it for positive things, to make changes.”
Jess is currently working on her autobiography with academic and former Wales footballer Laura McAllister.
“It’s going to cover everything,” she laughed. “Things that haven’t come out before.
“It’s been really hard to do in terms of letting everything out but I think, when it happens, it will be a one-off.”
Despite everywhere she’s been and everything she’s seen, Jess is still a Cardiff girl.
“There ain’t no place like home,” she laughed. “I can’t wait to come back later in the summer. It’ll be the longest I’ve been home for and not doing anything, so I am so excited.”