Melissa Ray (born 25 April 1984) is an
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
player who represented
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
at international level.
Ray made her
Football Ferns début as a substitute in 9-0 World Cup qualifier win over
Cook Islands
The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...
on 9 April 2003,
and finished her international career with eight caps to her credit.
Ray was one of the first New Zealand LGBT+ citizens to marry her then partner, Tash Vitali, after the
Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill
The Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand, which since 19 August 2013, allows same-sex couples to legally marry.
The Act was proposed as a member's bill by MP Louisa Wall in May 2012, and ...
entered into law. The wedding made international news, but the marriage ended a year later.
[Collins, Simon. (16 July 2014)]
''Same-sex marriage pioneers split''
''New Zealand Herald
''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand.
It has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand ...
.''
References
External links
*
1984 births
Living people
New Zealand women's international footballers
New Zealand women's association footballers
Women's association football players not categorized by position
Same-sex marriage in New Zealand
21st-century New Zealand sportswomen
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