Wagga-born transgender woman Kirsti Miller spoke up amid news that seven Manly Sea Eagles players will sit out this week's key Thursday night game on religious grounds after the club introduced LGBTQIA+ 'pride' jerseys.

The one-off rainbow colouring addition to the Sydney club's jerseys began a national conversation about introducing an official pride round to the NRL season, an idea Miss Miller described as "absolutely awesome".

"Pride rounds are celebratory in nature," she said.

According to Miss Miller, such a round of games would help NRL-barracking members of the queer community feel supported, seen and welcome.

"When I went to the inaugural pride game with the Sydney Swans, that was the first time that I actually felt safe as a trans woman at a game of football," she said.

"It shows these young queer, gay, lesbian and trans people that, 'hey, we're accepted here'."

Miss Miller, who played first grade rugby league in the Wagga region until leaving at 24, believed a pride round would have a far reaching impact.

"This type of thing is going to save lives in the end," she said.

"It's going to let kids be who they are at an earlier age and adults as well.

"It's not a token gesture."

In a recent Twitter post, Miss Miller recalled travelling from Wagga with her father to watch the 1977 grand final at the age of 12, already knowing then she was trans.

"If we had pride games in 1977 it could have saved me another 23 years of hurt," she wrote in the post.

Miss Miller said she remembered wanting to be honest with her father on that day 43 years ago.

"I wanted to tell dad, 'hey dad, I'm a girl' - but I didn't, so I had to sort of man up at the football," she said.

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"I'm in the crowd and I'm hearing people yelling out 'poofter' and all this type of stuff, homophobic language.

"That just showed me that I can't come out or I'm going to be ostracised or alienated or bashed."

Jerseys like the ones Manly will don on Thursday show encouragement and acceptance for not only fans but for potential players, Miss Miller said.

"Every time that someone from our community sees someone achieving or doing something for the first time, it opens up the dreams for others to be able to achieve that as well," she said.

Ending her St George Illawarra Dragons fandom in 2018 due to the club's attempted signing of Jarryd Hayne amid sexual assault allegations, Miss Miller said she had now found a new team.

"I'm a passionate Manly supporter now and I'm so proud of them," she said.

"I wish I was [at Thursday night's game] and I'd be feeling so safe and welcome."

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