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Rueter and Yang: PSG, NC Courage Pride incidents show need for deeper understanding – The Athletic

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Ahead of PSG’s May 14 match against Montpellier, the two clubs and all of France’s top two divisions decided to wear rainbow numbers on the back of their jerseys. It’s hardly a new action in 2022, as more teams around the world don Pride-themed warmup tops or jerseys with each passing season.

In fact, Ligue 1 did the same thing in 2021 in honor of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. The jerseys would later be auctioned off to donate funds to “associations fighting against homophobia.” While each shirt would be a collector’s item, it’s hard not to wonder just how much the public would chip in to get a one-of-a-kind shirt donned by Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi or Ángel Di María.

But PSG midfielder Idrissa Gueye declined to play, citing “personal reasons.” Even after the Senegal international’s decision launched a spike in homophobic reaction on social media and news forums, PSG and Ligue 1 took no public action. It’s far from the only example of a soccer club’s attempt at LGBTQ+ visibility/outreach having unintended consequences. 

As Pride events beyond the soccer pitch have become normalized (and sanitized) parts of society in the United States, Canada and sections of Europe, it seemed like a no-lose proposition. For a massive club backed by state-run Qatar Sports Investments during a year in which their nation’s impending World Cup has come under scrutiny, any positive press is welcome.

What they and those who ask “why do we still need Pride nights?” overlooked, however, was that a person’s orientation has not been universally accepted in the way that varying eye colors are.

Rather than donning rainbow numbers, Gueye went so far as missing the matchday roster entirely. He cited “personal reasons” for his unavailability; when he failed to partake in last May’s gesture, he chalked it up to illness. While the French football federation asked for clarification on his absence, he has remained silent.

Following Gueye’s decision, hundreds of thousands of tweets were sent brandishing the hashtag #WeAreAllIdrissa in support of him. Some, like CF Montréal striker Kei Kamara, framed their support as being in defense of free speech and a person “exercising their freedom and human rights.” Other users saw it as a gateway to tweet outright homophobic thoughts, including the endorsement of violence toward queer people.

Several noteworthy public figures were among those praising Gueye’s decision, including Senegalese president Macky Sall (“His religious beliefs must be respected,” Sall wrote in reference to Gueye being a practicing Muslim) and former Egypt international Mohamed Aboutrika, who has called homosexuality a “dangerous ideology” on the basis of his interpretation of the Qur’an and Islamic teaching. This, even as modern scholars question if the Qur’an says anything condemning same-sex attraction. In fact, 29 Senegalese players were part of their Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 teams’ match day squad the same weekend as Gueye’s non-participation. 

When Kamara’s tweet was met with backlash among MLS followers, he attempted to play both sides. “Naw you guys are taking this the wrong way now,” a follow-up read. “if you have (been) following me longer than today you will know I stand for 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝑬𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚, and 𝑷𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒆, so that includes the #LGBTQ 🌈 so don’t get it twisted. Y’all just need to see some players and treat them as humans.” Kamara had never previously tweeted anything using the terms “LGBT” or “LGBTQ.” His only tweet using the word “gay” came in 2011: “I just got the “am not gay but I like ur look” and a drink offer. Uhhhh?????”

At this stage, social justice messaging is increasingly intertwined into sports and many facets of life in the United States. Still, Gueye’s incident doesn’t happen in an international vacuum. The USL Championship (the U.S. second division) had reported incidents of players uttering homophobic slurs on the pitch in 2020 and 2021. This winter, the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage caught backlash for signing Jaelene Daniels (neé Hinkle), who withdrew from a U.S. women’s national team camp in 2017 due to reservations about wearing rainbow numbers. 

As the reaction to Gueye’s missed match and Daniels’ signing have shown, society has not yet moved past the discourse about why these demonstrations and changes are important, particularly in such a culturally relevant venue as sports. And as Gueye faces zero repercussions from PSG or Ligue 1, it leaves the rainbow numbers initiative feeling devoid of purpose. In some cases, Pride demonstrations have been relegated to empty gestures without a vital education component — a dangerous step that shows sporting organizations may have missed the point altogether.

While it’s easy to try raising money or awareness on the backs of the marginalized, educating players and fans alike on the why factors takes more intentionality. The fact is that recent years have seen a spike in anti-queer and anti-trans legislation. Thirty-six states have introduced anti-trans legislation in the first four months of 2022 alone. Per Vice’s reporting, nine states “have passed 18 laws barring transgender and non-binary children and adolescents from getting healthcare, using gender-appropriate facilities, and/or participating in sports.” In total, the states proposed 156 bills in four months that would limit the rights of transgender and non-binary people.

Outside of the halls of government, members of the queer community still face hardship. According to The Trevor Project, LGBTQ+ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers — and at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds. The Human Rights Coalition began tracking the number of hate crimes toward transgender or gender non-conforming people in 2013 and recent years have brought a spike in those numbers. 2020 was the most violent year on record with 44 fatalities, then 2021 brought a further increase to 57 killed. 

There’s a reason Pride nights still matter — but for teams to make an actual impact, simply swapping out the numbers on their jerseys may not be enough. 

Players protesting anti-homophobic and transphobic actions like Gueye aren’t just playing abroad. One of the most prominent examples in U.S. soccer in recent years was Daniels (née Hinkle), who refused to wear a rainbow number on her USWNT jersey in June 2017, choosing to withdraw from the team. In June 2018, Daniels went on religious TV program “The 700 Club” in an interview filmed at Courage facilities, where she said, “I just felt so convicted in my spirit that it wasn’t my job to wear this jersey.” Courage owner Steve Malik said in a tweet in May 2018 that “faith acted on in personal conviction harming no one else deserves respect just as much as creating a welcoming environment for all.”

Daniels left the Courage after the 2020 season, calling it a “retirement” at the time. But the Courage brought her back in December 2021, a move met with such negativity that the club felt it necessary to apologize to fans, saying, “We are very sorry to all those we have hurt, especially those within the LGBTQIA+ community.” In the original statement, which no longer appears on their website, it listed steps it would take to “remedy the harm.” 

Then in May 2022, after the Courage played the San Diego Wave, Merritt Mathias made an impassioned plea to fans, recognizing that “fan support has wavered.” 

“I don’t think we’ve done a great job of (supporting the LGBTQ+ community) in the past years. And that is fair. I don’t think that has been any secret. We didn’t have a Pride Night for three years. We didn’t wear a jersey. Everyone knows all these things and I think bringing back Jaelene (Daniels) was a decision made by the club and as a player who is part of the community, you have to work through those struggles but that is what a team is about. You have to be able to embrace people of all different religions, of all different views, of all different backgrounds.”

The spectrum of fan reactions played out in microcosm on Heather O’Reilly’s Twitter recently, and just as in 2018, they were not by any means unified or monolithic. In a display of well-meaning allyship, O’Reilly offered to buy 100 tickets to the Courage’s July 15 Pride Night match, and to meet up with fans before the match and have a drink. 

Replies ranged from grateful acceptance to outright scorn, with some wondering why the money was being directed to North Carolina’s front office rather than charitable donations. O’Reilly replied to one fan, “I’m really sorry you have been hurt deeply. It sucks. I am attempting to build a better future the best way that I know how at this point,” and to another, “It really sucks that they made people feel like this (including myself).” O’Reilly crystallized what many fans might be feeling at the moment: “It might not be the best way. I don’t know.” 

The mixed reactions — O’Reilly’s seemingly earnest search for a solution, the multitude of responses from both O’Reilly and fans saying “I don’t know what to do” — show the conflict between corporate behavior and individual responsibility writ intimately personal. 

Pride is not the only arena where fans feel tugged between wanting to enjoy something personally meaningful, but not wanting to support the sometimes objectionable actions of the owning entity. Fans may hear Merritt Mathias’ heartfelt desire to have them return to games, to support the players, to understand that there are players at the Courage who want them to feel safe and welcome; at the same time, they understand that some of the money they pay for a ticket goes into the pocket of an owner who created this dysfunctional situation of Daniels’ return in the first place.  

Gotham FC is another club that recently had trouble navigating the line between business and community support. The club sold “Protect Trans Kids” shirts earlier this year, in the wake of Texas governor Greg Abbott directing state officials to treat gender-affirming care for children as child abuse. The club earned criticism for initially announcing it would only be giving a portion of the proceeds to The Stonewall Gives Back Initiative, before quickly saying it would donate 100% of the proceeds instead. 

“I do think we pivoted as quickly as we could to ensure that it was more about awareness,” said Gotham FC chief business officer Andrea Pagnanelli on a call with The Athletic. “I think it’s a lesson that you won’t see again from Gotham, that’s for sure.”

In the process of mistake and correction, Gotham’s imperfect but seemingly sincere ongoing efforts at inclusiveness and allyship illustrate how front offices might grapple with marrying the search for corporate sponsorship dollars with club philosophies around DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).

“We could not do what we do without taking into account (our diverse roster),” said Pagnanelli. “We have the number one diverse roster in the NWSL in the number one diverse city. A lot of our fan base does fall into the LGBTQ+ community. Seventy percent of our fan base is women. And so I think what it allows us to do is actually just walk more authentically through our branding campaigns, our activations and our goals collectively on both sides.”

While tickets for Pride Night are one way to financially back institutions supporting LGBTQ+ causes, they’re arguably less popular than merchandise transactions. It’s become increasingly common to find teams, supporters groups and soccer-related outfitters selling rainbow-emblazoned shirts and scarves during June. 

In these cases, it’s important to verify that a seller is going to direct some or all proceeds to organizations supporting the causes the purchaser intends to back. The impact stretches further when organizations pledge to send all proceeds to charitable causes instead of “a portion,” or when an entity names the specific benefactors of their donations. 

MLS caught flack for not mentioning any donations with its 2022 Pride warmups release, but the league issued a separate press release stating it would make donations to Athlete Ally and You Can Play, two organizations working to make sports more inclusive and less discriminatory toward the queer community. Still, the amount donated is unclear, and the fact that fans had to scour through the league’s media landing page to find that information shows why specificity matters in these cases — especially as MLS teams continue to partner with organizations like Chick-Fil-A, which has a history of supporting anti-LGBTQ+ causes. 

In the NWSL, multiple clubs have formed Pride Month partnerships with local and national LGBTQ+ organizations. Among others, OL Reign spotlighted local LGBTQ+ owned businesses like The Barber Collective, the Washington Spirit partnered with LGBTQ+ youth advocacy group SMYAL, the Orlando Pride auctioned autographed shirts to benefit LGBTQ+ support network Zebra Coalition, and the Courage — yes, the same Courage that hired Daniels — hosted a Pride festival and sold merchandise with proceeds going to LGBT Center of Raleigh. 

All of these partnerships show the range of investment that clubs might put into their Pride efforts, financially and culturally, and also demonstrate how clubs can work to embed themselves in their communities. Raising the money, then giving it to a local organization that knows how to make those dollars work best seems to be one of the better responses to leveraging Pride month to promote the club.

Working on Gotham’s outreach, Pagnanelli said the club spoke to multiple LGBTQ+ organizations, including the New Jersey Pride Chamber of Commerce, to try to get an understanding of the priorities for their membership bases, and how Gotham players could add to any events to help extend these organizations’ reach. The club is also partnering with Athlete Ally and its Playing for Pride campaign, with 100% of proceeds from the Playing for Pride merchandise going to Athlete Ally.

When asked if she could give a breakdown of how proceeds are calculated against costs so consumers could get a better idea of just what percentage of their dollar actually goes to the named cause, Pagnanelli demurred on an actual figure. But she did say, “In regards to the term ‘proceeds,’ I think for us it was just easier to go with ‘all’…. Any business organization, the costs of goods — we partner with Soccer Post — and their labor to make that happen, but there’s nothing else above that that goes into it.”

Gotham FC players and staff also joined the New York City Pride March on June 26, and, of course, the club’s Pride night was hosted June 4. 

“When it comes to how those theme nights specifically came to life,” said Pagnanelli, “it would be, one, disingenuous of us to not ensure that the voices of our players are louder and, two, that they’re reflected in what we’re doing as an organization.”

“We don’t do anything in a silo or bubble,” she said. “We are very active in meeting with the (Gotham) players’ council, and understanding what they also got as part of this really interesting growth chapter for Gotham as a club and I think it’s the NWSL as a whole.” 

The players’ council, which is a Gotham-specific group as opposed to a subset of the NWSL Players Association, meets once a month so that the club can give players an overview of new partners and investors, preview what’s upcoming, and ask the players what’s important to them that the club should know about. 

That last point is particularly important. Players like Gueye and Daniels may not be universally backed for their stances, but it’s fair to question whether an athlete has a responsibility to conform to a club’s corporate requests. If there isn’t a pulse-reading of what a player is comfortable with or how they feel about a demonstration, there should at least be supplemental education about why an employer is asking its staff to participate. 

No matter the method, incorporating calls for inclusivity into the sports arena isn’t a simple exercise. It’s hard to fold social progress into 90 minutes of competition and, in general, it’s hard to champion a cause about which someone knows little. But if sporting bodies are going to look to profit off of the LGBTQ+ community’s struggles during June, that comes with a responsibility to do the work. Just saying “gay” isn’t going to move the needle, nor is requiring players to wear special gear without ensuring they understand the importance of the action. 

It’s easier to replace the usual jersey numbers with a technicolor alternative than it is to live up to the responsibility of being a public organization that has influence over a devoted following. That prominence can bring opportunities to champion causes and back the marginalized in a way that few individuals can match. If a player’s defiance is interpreted by others as an excuse to voice further hatred against the group being supported, as was the case with #WeAreAllIdrissa, it can do more harm than good. And if a team does nothing to educate players on the front end, or reprimand them when they stand in opposition of equality, it sends an even more cynical message — that these demonstrations are hollow actions more focused on padding the bottom line.

(Photo: Brad Smith / ISI Photos)