come out as transgender. “I’m coming out now,” Yokoyama said in an interview with former teammate Yuki Nagasato on her YouTube channel. “In the future, I want to quit soccer and live as a man.”Yokoyama explained in the interview that they were able to open up about their gender identity while living in the U.S.
thanks to their teammates and friends being more open to sexual and gender diversity. Yokoyama described feeling like they were under a great deal of pressure to conform and stay in the closet while living in their home country. “I would not have come out in Japan,” they said.
Now they intend to be out and live their truth moving forward, while also helping to raise awareness for queer and trans people back home.