How do you tell a nuanced story about the first professional football player to come out as transgender, a story that respects both who she was as a nationally-recognized male athlete, and the woman she is now?
For this profile of Maven Mauer, reporter Jana G. Pruden sought to bring readers deep inside Maven’s transition from an acclaimed football player fashioned in the image of Conan the Barbarian, to a woman living her best life in a small town in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.
Amid a growing backlash against trans people, Maven’s journey was an opportunity to show readers the challenges many trans people face while coming to be their authentic selves.
The resulting feature, Her Turn to Play, was one of Pruden’s most-read of the year, bringing readers intimately inside Maven’s journey, to understand her fears, her vulnerability, and the courage that led to a profound transformation of her life, and herself.
Pruden spent several days with Maven, building trust that allowed Maven to share her story fully for the first time. Pruden approached the profile in a way that would allow anyone — including the very macho world of football players and fans — to get to know Maven as a person, and understand the life and death reality that led to her transition.
As Pruden writes, “No longer living as Mike could mean losing everything: wife, family, home, friends and all the privileges a man possesses in this world. She would be the first professional football player to come out as trans, and one of only a handful of players to come out as LGBTQ+. As a trans woman, Maven could face marginalization, scrutiny and threat, all for a chance at happiness. And maybe, one day, the contentment that had always eluded her.
It was a gamble, but it wasn’t a choice. It was a matter of survival.”
