LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''Joanie Evans''' is a British footballer, coach and campaigner for LGBT inclusion in sport. A founder member of Hackney Women's Football Club, the first openly lesbian football team in Europe, she has been co-president of the Federation of Gay Games since 2014. == Early life and football == Evans grew up in Birmingham, where she ran for her school and for West Midlands County as a teenager, and moved to London in the 1980s. She came out at the age of twent..."

2026-07-18T21:53:11Z

Created page with "'''Joanie Evans''' is a British footballer, coach and campaigner for LGBT inclusion in sport. A founder member of Hackney Women's Football Club, the first openly lesbian football team in Europe, she has been co-president of the Federation of Gay Games since 2014. == Early life and football == Evans grew up in Birmingham, where she ran for her school and for West Midlands County as a teenager, and moved to London in the 1980s. She came out at the age of twent..."

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'''Joanie Evans''' is a British footballer, coach and campaigner for LGBT inclusion in sport. A founder member of [[Hackney Women's Football Club]], the first openly lesbian football team in Europe, she has been co-president of the [[Federation of Gay Games]] since 2014.

== Early life and football ==
Evans grew up in [[Birmingham]], where she ran for her school and for West Midlands County as a teenager, and moved to London in the 1980s. She came out at the age of twenty-five, and took a recreation and leisure course at Westminster College which included football training; through a friend she found her way to Hackney Women's Football Club, and after half a dozen training sessions became its coach.<ref name="ofs">[https://outforsport.com/joanie-from-hackney-womens-football-club-and-the-federation-of-gay-games/ Joanie from Hackney Women's Football Club and the Federation of Gay Games], Out For Sport.</ref>

Hackney Women's Football Club, established in 1986, was the first out lesbian football team in Europe, and was outspoken about its identity at a time when players were warned that visibility would damage the women's game. Evans and her team-mates appeared in the 1991 documentary ''Running Gay'', directed by Maya Chowdhry and broadcast on Channel 4's ''Out on Tuesday''.<ref name="smlgbt">[https://sportsmedialgbt.com/im-proud-to-be-part-of-womens-football-history-joanie-evans-on-national-sporting-heritage-day "I'm proud to be part of women's football history"], Sports Media LGBT+, 2022.</ref>

In 1994 the club travelled to the [[Gay Games]] in New York as the first out team from Europe to take part. Evans has attended every Gay Games since, and won a gold medal at the 2002 Games in Sydney with the Amhurst Aztecs, a team drawn from players in Britain, Italy and New Zealand.<ref name="diva">[https://diva-magazine.com/2023/09/06/joanie-evans/ Joanie Evans: levelling the playing field on and off the pitch], ''DIVA'', 6 September 2023.</ref>

== Federation of Gay Games ==
Evans served as the Federation of Gay Games' director of diversity and inclusion and then as a board member, and in April 2014 was elected its female co-president. Until 2017 she was the only Black woman on a largely white board, and under her presidency the Federation's membership on the board widened to include representation from India, Mexico and Hong Kong alongside Europe and the United States.<ref name="diva"/>

As co-president, with Kurt Dahl, she signed the Federation's statement of 3 March 2016 ending seven years of negotiations with the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association over a proposed single combined event, the board having concluded that creating a new unified organisation carried too much risk.<ref name="ofs2016">[https://outforsport.com/federation-of-gay-games-ends-one-world-event-talks-with-glisa/ Federation of Gay Games ends One World Event talks with GLISA], Out For Sport, 3 March 2016.</ref>

She served on the executive committee of the [[London 2018]] bid to bring the Gay Games to London, and has since overseen the Games held in Paris in 2018 and, jointly, in Hong Kong and Guadalajara.

== Other work and recognition ==
Evans has worked at Stonewall Housing and as a legal adviser at a London law centre. She is a regular speaker on inclusion in sport, and became an ambassador for the heritage organisation Sporting Heritage in 2022.<ref name="sh">[https://www.sportingheritage.org.uk/content/what-we-do/ambassadors/joanie-evans Joanie Evans], Sporting Heritage.</ref>

She was among the top ten nominees for Outstanding Contribution to LGBT+ Life at the British LGBT Awards in 2019, and received the administration award from the Football Black List.<ref name="sh"/> [[Aslie Pitter]], a founder of [[Stonewall FC]], has described her as <q>one of my heroes</q>, adding that she should have been honoured long before he was.<ref name="sky">[https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12222420/football-in-the-time-of-its-a-sin-aslie-pitter-and-joanie-evans-share-memories-in-lgbt-history-month Football in the time of 'It's A Sin'], Sky Sports, February 2021.</ref>

== References ==
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[[Category:Sports]]
[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:Living people]]

Joanie Evans - Revision history