The year so far has been one of the most difficult in recent memory for the LGBT+ community.
An extraordinary rise in abuse has helped foster age-old negative attitudes towards those still continually fighting to be heard. Taking the brunt of much of that hate has been those in the transgender community, with their very existence becoming one of the leading battles of the culture wars.
But there is one football team which is leading the way when it comes to promoting joy for the transgender community - TRUK United, who are making history for giving a space to trans men and women to play the beautiful game.
Last year, TRUK became the first club in the world to field a team solely made up of transfeminine people. They followed that feat up in March by being the first in the world to also field a team made up solely of transmasculine people.
The team was founded by Lucy Clark two years ago, after she came out as the world's first openly transgender referee. Clark now runs TRUK, which she describes as a full-time job, and is under no illusions as to the importance of the club.
Speaking exclusively to Mirror Football, Clark said: "I have a message pretty much daily from people wanting to play for us. We've got 227 players all over the UK that want to play for us.
"So it's amazing. The plan is to have at least a five-a-side team in every county in the UK. So we've got that visibility. It just baffles me, people travel from Scotland to London to come and play a football match.
"We had three guys come down from Glasgow on a plane. People will travel the length and breadth of the country to play for TRUK and it's just mad. We've sold our kits worldwide. I could list 30 countries where we've sold our kits.
"Pretty much every state in America. All over Europe. It's just great that the whole world has bought into TRUK and it amazes me. It's just crazy that all these people around the world have heard of us and support us."
TRUK's work has been widely recognised, being crowned Grassroots Team of the Year at the FootballvHomophobia Awards. While Clark has welcomed those awards, she has insisted that TRUK's mission is purely focused on providing a safe space for the LGBT+ community.
"It was always about doing the best for TRUK and the best for our community, it was never about people round the world knowing us," she added.
"It was about doing things for our community and giving people a space to play football. That was what it was all about. You just think it's little old TRUK, just a little football team, it's humbling to win these awards and to see the work that we're doing is being recognised.
"But that is never what it was all about. Trans people are getting a rough time and there's noisy people that hide behind fake accounts. We get a battering.
"For us to get that bit of positivity out there. It's just about doing things for our community and showing we should be here, we should be able to play sports and look at us because we're loving it.
"Sport should be for everyone. It's great for your physical health and your mental health. That's why it's important for TRUK to be there so people can play this sport and enjoy it."
TRUK's five-a-side team recently won their league, one which is totally inclusive and has trans players in other teams, and will next season enter the GFSN, the UK's national LGBT+ inclusive football league, for the first time.
And Clark believes that the only way is up for TRUK United, with their games now streamed live around the world as they continue to combat the hysteria around trans rights.
"People will see the joy that we're having. For the transmasculine team, for them guys, it was never about the result. People come from all over the UK, they met in the changing rooms," Clark said.
"It was for them to go out and actually play against a team that they're meant to play. They're guys and they should be playing against men. A lot of [transmen] come to us and say 'I shouldn't be playing against women, I need to play against men'.
"So for them to actually go out and do that was just the most euphoric moment for them. For many of them, it was their first chance to show that that's where they belong. They scored the most amazing goal and had the most amazing celebration.
"And the whole night was just full of trans joy, which was totally and utterly amazing. And the transwomen team, we're playing against people we should be playing against. The joy for everyone, these nights and these occasions are just spectacular because it's never about the result. It's just everyone getting together."
The whole reason why LGBT+ inclusive teams such as TRUK United remain so important can be demonstrated by one father's recent message to TRUK.
Clark picks up the story, saying: "There's a tweet we put out the other day that I shared to our players. A guy in Canada had bought a shirt with name and number and then he put a tweet out saying it was for his trans son who is nine-years-old.
"His trans son who is captain of his football team and is smiling from ear to ear. He lives in Canada and might not be old enough to play with us yet but he kicked off the season with a winning goal and there he was in his full TRUK kit.
"And you just think we've shown to this young lad on the other side of the world that he can be himself and it's ok and he can play the sport that he loves."
