When East Lismore Hockey Club player Roxy Tickle had a photo of her taken after a sweaty hockey game this year, it sparked a journey that would lead her to helping shape national guidelines for transgender inclusion in sport.

Sworn unto secrecy until the national guidelines were officially released yesterday, Roxy has taken on an important role in ensuring that transgender sports players like herself get the acceptance and inclusion they need.

Read more about Roxy: Transgender woman Roxy Tickle gets fired up

Transgender acceptance

As a transgender woman, Roxy has struggled to gain acceptance in the world of women’s sport. She started playing softball in Lismore last year and this year, took up hockey with the East Lismore Hockey Club. She’s found nothing but acceptance from her teammates – but when it comes to other parts of society, changes still need to be made.

“I played hockey from 16-26 years old, but gave it up because I felt uncomfortable,” she said. “Two months ago when I joined the team, I felt so comfortable - my team enveloped me with love.”

Inspired

“My friend took a photo of me after my first hockey game looking happy in my skirt and top with my hockey stick,” Roxy said.

“I couldn’t walk for two days after the game. I was exhausted and sore – but Teddy, a local ACON manager with an interest in transgender issues saw the picture and was inspired by the emotion.

“At the time, a group of national sporting organisation members were formulating transgender diverse guidelines to encourage participation in sport- and Teddy recommended me to help out with them.”

Roxy then spent eight weeks in meetings with Hockey Australia to discuss and fine tune guidelines.which have also been adopted by seven other sports organisations - with another 11 preparing to join the national code.

New conversation

Roxy said the release of the new guidelines marks the beginning of a new conversation about inclusivity in sport.

“Now we have sporting organisations behind it, it will hopefully encourage more people with diverse gender and sexualities to participate in sport,” she said.

“It has never been illegal to do so - we just assumed we couldn’t.”

Pride in Sports

This week, Roxy went to the Pride in Sports awards in Sydney to represent Hockey Australia.

“This is definitely the start of something big,” Roxy said. “I have no idea of what’s going to happen now, but there could be an ongoing role in me being a voice and a face for inclusivity in sports.

“It started with getting into playing and turned into a desire to help people have the joy I experienced being involved.

“People shouldn’t be excluded from playing sport just because of diverse gender. Sport is life.”

Grand final

Last Friday, Roxy’s team East Lismore Hockey Club won the grand final in their match in Goonellabah.

The ABCs 7.30 Report cameras were there to film Roxy, so it was great that the team won. But for Roxy, it’s not about winning the game.

“When I said to the girls in the team ‘I don’t care if we win or not – I’ve already won by being able to play’ – they said ‘winning is what we do’.”