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I have broken three bones in my lifetime.

The first I broke while playing high school soccer. My toe. I never blamed my toe for breaking and a secret part of me was happy. My broken toe meant I didn’t have to wait to be picked last or hear the f-slur whispered on the bench. The culture of soccer didn’t just break my toe, it broke me as well.

But my toe didn’t stay broken for long.

When bones heal, they enter a phase where both soft and hard callous replaces the structure of the bone. This phase is denoted by peaks in type II procollagen and proteoglycan, core protein extracellular markers, effectively making the bone stronger. And so I founded my organization, Playing with Pride, replacing a broken bone with my own callous, healing myself by helping others who faced the same stigma. Extending a hand to other people who had experienced homophobia in athletics showed me just how many others had broken bones too. Speaking at a pride event for Gotham FC solidified this for me. Dozens of people came to the booth, and just like that, we were a community. Healing. Growing stronger, regaining confidence, and beginning to reclaim spaces on the field. – Beckett