Transgender player Emily Rowe is happy to back playing the game she loves.

Growing up as a boy in country Victoria, Australia, Aussie rules football used to be the masculine mask that transgender woman Emily Rowe could hide behind.

"Football for me was a way to affirm a male identity that never truly belonged to me," she says.

She played in junior and senior football teams across southern NSW and northern Victoria.

LUIS ASCIU/THE AGE Plenty of raibow colours on display.

Before each match she would say to herself: "OK I've got to man up, and play footy again."

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"It was never really an enjoyable experience," Rowe said.

LUIS ASCUI/THE AGE Emily Rowe and LGBTQI advocate and former footballer Jason Ball.

When she hung up her football boots in 2012, before she transitioned, Rowe thought she would never play football again.

"I was getting older, and it was becoming more challenging," she said.

"But when I started my transition 12 months ago, I started to think ... it's been part of me for so long, there's no reason why I should have to give it away."

LUIS ASCUI/THE AGE ven the barbecue was adorned with rainbow-hued balloons.

This year, Rowe joined the Shepparton Bears Women's Team and became Victoria's first openly transgender footballer.

"Now, for the first time in my life, I'm playing football for the pure joy of it," Rowe said.

"When clubs like the Shepp Bears can embrace players like me, it makes me feel like I've got a whole new family again."

LUIS ASCIU/THE AGE Supporters fly the rainbow flag at St Kilda's Peanut Farm Reserve.

Rowe spoke at the Southern Football Netball League's Pride Cup on Saturday, and said the league's pride round was a chance to continue the conversation about diversity in sport.

"I'm a footballer, who just happens to be a transgender woman," Rowe said.

"Everyone should be allowed to play sport regardless of their gender and sexuality. [The pride round] starts a conversation, the ball keeps rolling and then other leagues will want to get involved."

A rainbow 50-metre penalty line greeted hundreds of players, fans, and LGBTQI advocates at Saturday's game between St Kilda City and St Paul's football clubs.

They are among 100 football teams and 32 netball teams celebrating the SNFL's pride round this weekend, proudly donning rainbow jerseys and shoelaces.

Held the weekend after the government announced a voluntary postal survey on same-sex marriage, the issue was on the minds of many at Saturday's cup, including former footballer and LGBTQI advocate Jason Ball.

"When I came out in 2012, I was a lone voice, I did that to start a conversation in the AFL, and I could never imagine we would be seeing rainbow 50 metre lines on 20 football grounds," Ball said.

"When I think about what we're going to be subject to over the coming months, I think about that rainbow 50 metre line and I know it's going to help.

"It's going to send a message to a young footy player, to know they don't have to choose between a game they love and being themselves."

SNFL chief executive David Cannizzo said the league's motivation behind holding the round was to counter discrimination. "Everyone should be safe and welcome to be themselves within our league," he said.

East Brighton Women's football player Isabelle Catrice, who identifies as queer, said the rainbow round "really opens up that discussion to being open to everyone".

"It says to the LGBTQI people 'You are not alone, you are not isolated, it might be really scary right now, but there are communities out there that support you'," she said.