{"id":1463,"date":"2024-06-06T10:50:48","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T08:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/?p=1463"},"modified":"2025-04-23T16:12:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T14:12:05","slug":"jessica-millaman-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/jessica-millaman\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Millaman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The substitute bench wasn\u2019t her thing! \nJessica Millaman has made a name for herself.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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After being rejected in a women\u2019s team in her hometown, Chubut, she managed to make her voice heard throughout her country and reached the International Olympic Committee, changing the rules of sports in the whole world. A chat with the first trans hockey player in Argentina who managed to push the boundaries on the field<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How long has hockey been part of your life? How did it help and how did it hurt?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hockey\u2019s been in my life for as long as I can remember, because I had three older sisters who played it. That awoke a passion in me, which I started to cover up when I turned 10 and decided to respect myself, when I started understanding what was going on in me. Even though back then I didn\u2019t understand what a transition was (the process of changing one\u2019s gender), I stopped playing because I couldn\u2019t keep doing sports with men. I didn\u2019t feel like one. But two years later, my family\u2019s hate made me start playing again in a male team in Trelew, as an escape from the loneliness I felt behind closed doors. In that club, I met wonderful people, who really loved me for who I was. At school, in my neighborhood and everywhere else I was still called a \u201cfag,\u201d but now I was able to find some love and empathy. Living that gave me the strength to leave that sport for good, because I became aware that we were living in a society that wasn\u2019t even prepared to see us walking down the street by day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But still, you held on to hockey and now your struggle has become an example for all trans athletes\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How could I have imagined back then that many years later I\u2019d fight my way into changing the rules of sports as I did! (laughs)<\/em>. In 2014 I started practicing again in Club Atl\u00e9tico Germinal, in Rawson, with my new ID in my backpack. There was a rumor that they wouldn\u2019t let me compete because I was a trans girl. And that rumor was confirmed by the club\u2019s secretary, who couldn\u2019t even tell me what the honest reason behind this decision was. I didn\u2019t hesitate \u2014I grabbed the phone and called the president of the club that very second. I had a 40-minute conversation where I got to see very clearly all the phobia he felt for LGBTQI+ people, his transphobia, his hatred towards our community, and which ended up with this phrase:\u201cLook, do whatever you like, but as long as I\u2019m here, you\u2019re not playing!<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re already used to being discriminated against. Sometimes we even normalize it. But I felt empowered. I wanted to go back to hockey! So I decided, with the help of a friend, to record a video and upload it on Facebook. I had a hard time recording it, but I shook off my fear and pressed Enter<\/em>Three days later, it became viral in Argentina, and seven days later it was all over the world. I felt 80% of Argentina had come to my aid. People sent me photos from international newspapers where I was in the front cover. It was really hard for me to grasp what was happening, until right in the middle of all that media craze, my sister called me up and said: \u201cJessi, you talk on TV like you\u2019re in a supermarket. Do you realize you\u2019re making history here? \"<\/em>That\u2019s when it hit me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Through that process of liberation, did the feminist movement help?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a way \u2014not the movement, but a big percentage of CIS women who reached out and gave me their support through the photo campaign #TodxsSomosJessica (we\u2019re all Jessica). It gave me the notion that we were all together. There\u2019s a feminism that shuts trans women out, so I can\u2019t say I feel a part of it. And I don\u2019t have time to listen to what those girls think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe feminism is about going out to the streets every day, holding your head up high. Being confident. When I stop and think about everything I\u2019ve done on a personal and a social level, I feel I\u2019ve given a lot, so I feel I\u2019m on the right path, I\u2019m giving something to society, to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny human being needs company, needs a hand on their back, both when they fail and when they succeed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You\u2019ve managed to change sports history \u2014that\u2019s your legacy. Do you feel the way\u2019s been paved or is there still a long way to go for future generations of athletes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think just being able to be on the pitch, to enter a club and compete is a big step forward. However, there\u2019s still a long way to go. Unfortunately, most of the front offices in the clubs and sports institutions are full of chairmen who reject diversity. We clearly have to keep growing. A transphobic guy, a hater, got in my way and thought he could shut me up, just like it happens to most of us. But if I\u2019d talked to an empathic president, someone who had said, \u201cJessica, we\u2019ve never had a case like this. Could you come over so we can see how to handle the situation?\u201d<\/em>, I would have known I was talking to a man who makes good use of his chair. Why, in the face of the unknown, should we just say no? We have to make room for learning, turn ignorance into knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How do you feel visibility of trans people has made an impact on media, and not just sports media?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For any human being, it takes time and exposure to take in something new, to accept it or realize that it\u2019s OK. I think that\u2019s super important. I was 21 when I arrived in Buenos Aires, the City of Fury, the city that has everything to give and a lot to take. I went through a lot, I even slept on the streets, became an addict. I hit rock bottom, but I decided to follow my dreams, and I managed to be chosen as the face of DOVE in all Latin America. To keep dreaming makes you stronger. By then I was starting to believe there was no other use for trans women other than standing in corners. That was the biggest achievement and the greatest success of my life. It even helped me strengthen my relationship with my family. They finally believed in me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I managed to survive out of courage.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the aim of ensuring a certain amount of equality, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) requires levels of testosterone lower than 10 nmol\/L for at least 12 months before the first competition, and this applies to all female athletes, whether they\u2019re transgender or not. Do you think these kinds of restrictions are necessary?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I firmly believe that we always have to be in equal conditions if we compete against women. The IOC sets these requirements even when we transgender women do it because we want to, and not because somebody tells us to have hormone treatment. We believe we need it, we think it helps us, it brings us closer to femininity, or masculinity in the case of transgender men. We have to bear in mind that the IOC is international. And very few countries have Gender Identity Laws \u2014Argentina has been ground-breaking in that sense. So I think it\u2019s OK, because at least we took a first step forward. We\u2019re already inside the pitch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What they say about her\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIn my opinion, telling Jessica\u2019s story is eye-opening, it helps people understand we need our society to be more equal, and sports to be more inclusive and transmit certain values \u2014because Jessica is the one who succeeded. Today, you see her and she looks radiant. But how many people got left behind and couldn\u2019t keep practicing their sports, couldn\u2019t build a good relationship with their families? How many people have been beaten up or even killed out of transphobia? Jessica herself has been discriminated against, beaten almost to death. Listening to her story makes us open our eyes so that things can start to change. Meeting her, watching her face to face, has pushed my boundaries, transforming me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cecilia Carranza Saroli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In one word,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proud<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Acceptance<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highperformance athlete<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– - Dreaming<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Athlete and trans woman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Conviction<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a1El banco de suplentes no era para ella! Jessica Millaman se ha hecho un nombre. Luego de que le prohibieran jugar en un equipo femenino de su Chubut natal, consigui\u00f3 que su voz se escuchara en todo el pa\u00eds hasta llegar al Comit\u00e9 Ol\u00edmpico Internacional y cambiar las reglas del deporte en todo el mundo. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrevistas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3526,"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions\/3526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportfriendlyproject.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}