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 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who represented

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at international level. Ray made her

Football Ferns The New Zealand women's national football team, nicknamed the Football Ferns, is governed by New Zealand Football (NZF). The New Zealand national team qualified for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, held in China in September 2007, sending the t ...

début as a substitute in 9-0 World Cup qualifier win over

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

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 wa ...

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 of all newspapers ...

.''

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 {{NewZealand-women-footy-bio-stub