Maia Bouchier wants to 'pave way' for future LGBTQ+ cricketers

Maia Bouchier is 1 of Southern Brave's cardinal players successful this summer's Hundred competition

England cricketer Maia Bouchier came retired to her closest friends and household aged 15. It's lone now, aged 24, she feels acceptable to archer her story.

Bouchier is regarded arsenic 1 of the astir talented young players successful English cricket. She has played successful 19 T20 matches for England, portion besides becoming a mainstay for Southern Brave successful The Hundred.

Now, successful sharing her experiences, the Kensington-born batter hopes to combat anti-LGBTQ+ stereotypes and assumptions portion being a relation exemplary for the adjacent generation.

Bouchier, unfortunately, knows however hard it tin be, describing increasing up and hiding her existent aforesaid arsenic "consuming".

"I thought, 'I can't conscionable support it in' due to the fact that it gets to a constituent wherever I person a breakdown," she said.

"It was important for my involvement and my parents due to the fact that my Mum and her household are Iranian. Their inheritance is rather spiritual and that decidedly stopped maine a small bit."

Fortunately, Bouchier had her member to confide in, who reassured her "how normal" same-sex attraction is.

Then the clip came connected a household vacation erstwhile she was unsocial with her parents.

"I said 'I deliberation I'm bisexual'," recalls Bouchier. "There was a small spot of silence, which felt similar forever, but past my Dad said 'we enactment you. Whatever you do, immoderate prime you make. We emotion you and I'm truthful gladsome you were capable to archer us'."

However, absorption was not each positive. In school, Bouchier was bullied for being cheery by different students.

"The girls astatine my schoolhouse had nary respect whatsoever of maine being gay," she said. "A fewer radical who were cheery successful my twelvemonth near due to the fact that they conscionable couldn't woody with it. People were truthful disrespectful and homophobic.

"Even my teachers knew however atrocious the bullying was. They couldn't truly bash thing astir it due to the fact that that was the civilization of the school."

The two-time Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy and Charlotte Edwards Cup victor recovered a spot wherever she felt similar she did belong, though.

"It's brainsick to deliberation that cricket has made specified an unthinkable difference," says Bouchier.

"Especially successful the England improvement side, radical from crossed the state were pushed together, but we each embraced everyone. There was nary judgement connected wherever you came from oregon who you were with."

Throughout her career, Bouchier has cherished being portion of specified welcoming and inclusive women's teams which proved captious to her idiosyncratic development.

In particular, she credits Southern Brave team-mate Rhianna Southby for helping her process and travel to presumption with her identity.

"I've known her for years, and she was 1 of the archetypal radical who talked to maine astir being cheery backmost erstwhile we were 13/14," says Bouchier. "That was 1 of the conversations that stuck successful my caput due to the fact that I retrieve it being truthful casual to speech to her astir it.

"I'm truthful blessed to beryllium wherever I am. I'm truthful blessed to beryllium a portion of a family. Cricket is simply a family."

Bouchier's communicative demonstrates the immense imaginable cricket has to empower the LGBTQ+ assemblage - but determination remains overmuch advancement to beryllium made.

In 2022, The Independent Commission for Equity successful Cricket's study 'It's Not Banter' recovered that 53% of LGBTQ+ radical disagree that everyone engaged successful cricket feels that they beryllium and tin beryllium themselves, careless of their intersexual orientation.

"The information that we person to [come out] is crazy," says Bouchier. "We shouldn't person to travel retired similar this. We shouldn't person to speech astir it arsenic if it's a obstruction due to the fact that it's not. You are the mode you are, and nary 1 tin alteration it.

"We privation to marque radical alert that it's wholly normal. That's however it should be.

"We request to speech astir it. We person to support making definite radical consciousness similar they tin truly beryllium themselves."

You tin ticker Hundred matches connected BBC Two and BBC iPlayer each Wednesday and Saturday passim the competition, alongside some finals connected Sunday, 27 August.More details.