NFL’s First Trans Cheerleader Says She Was Fired
Justine Lindsay alleges she was cut from the Carolina Panthers’ TopCats due to Trump’s election and a coaching change.
Justine Lindsay, the NFL’s first out transgender cheerleader, recently revealed that she was fired this year, a decision she alleges was motivated by transphobia and Donald Trump’s election as president.
“I was cut because I’m trans,” Lindsay said in an Instagram Live with Gaye Magazine. “I don’t wanna hear nobody saying, ‘She didn’t wanna come back.’ Why the hell would I not wanna come back to an organization that I’ve been a part of for three years? That makes no sense to me. So I was cut. I was devastated. It stung. I was hurt.”
Lindsay, who made history as the NFL’s first transgender cheerleader when she tried out and made the Carolina Panthers’s TopCats squad in 2022, told the magazine that her teammates “know the truth” about the decision to cut her from the squad.
Earlier this year, in August, just prior to the start of the NFL regular season, Lindsay revealed that she would not be returning for a fourth season, but did not discuss being forced out. Instead, in a statement to the LGBTQ sports news website Outsports, she said that she would be taking time to focus on her “pageantry work and community involvement,” hoping to serve as a role model for other trans individuals.
“Being in the NFL was a stepping stone to get me where I need to be, and God is blessing me each and every day giving me the breath to do the work and change lives,” she said in the statement. “My focus is to educate and uplift the younger generation of leaders to focus on their dreams and goals. Don’t let a president who is delusional stop them from reaching their goals whether they are trans, African American, not American, etc.”
That same month, she provided more context in an interview with The Gay Times, in which she suggested that the decision to cut her from the squad was not based on merit.
“People around me were like, ‘You were the best one out there,'” she told the magazine of her audition for this season’s squad. “But, I didn’t make it to the final round. I didn’t always feel like I belonged. … So yeah, I was hurt. Everybody knew that I wanted to come back. I didn’t always feel like I got the backing I was supposed to.”
In her conversation with Gaye Magazine, Lindsay said that she believes two factors contributed to her departure from the TopCats squad: Trump’s second election to office and the hiring of a new cheerleading coach — with whom she didn’t see eye-to-eye — who had previously worked at another organization.
“I’m not throwing shade at the organization. I love them down. I appreciate everything they’ve done for me, but I just felt like I was done wrong,” she said.
While Lindsay noted that a few other cheerleaders who had previously been on the squad were also dismissed, she felt that those making the decision about her fate not only weren’t basing their decision on her audition or skills, but weren’t looking at the larger picture in terms of who she was inspiring by being a part of the squad.
“I had so many parents reaching out to me, even [during] my first year on the team,” she said, referring to the feedback she got from fans. “They were saying, ‘Oh I’m so proud of you,’ or ‘I have a trans son’ or ‘I have a trans daughter who look[s] up to you. Thank you for all that you’re doing.’
“It was a big slap in the face, not only to me, but for the youth,” she said of her firing. “And this was right after Trump [became] president.”
As far as the new coach, Lindsay noted that she had encountered her when she auditioned for another team’s cheerleading squad.
“I kind of knew exactly what her zhuzh was, so when she came over to our organization. … I was like, ‘Oh hell, here we go. I’m [going to] have to deal with the same mess that I dealt with two years prior.'”
Lindsay believes the TopCats organization decided to fire her before the new coach was even hired. She also contrasted the Panthers’ lack of support with the Minnesota Vikings, whose organization publicly celebrated the addition of two new male cheerleaders.
Lindsay said that while she has departed cheerleading, it’s not going to be the end of her time in the spotlight. She is currently developing a documentary and will compete in the 2026 Miss International Queen pageant, the world’s largest pageant for transgender women.
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