A push from two conservative Muslim teams to keep Pride out of the World Cup, a team forfeiting its game rather than donning Pride gear, and players inscribing Bible quotes on Pride gear make up the latest protests athletes are taking against Pride celebrations. It’s a clash of societal support for a marginalized group and personal religious beliefs.
Egypt and Iran will face off Friday night in Seattle for the FIFA World Cup, the same day the city kicks off its Pride weekend events. FIFA responded by requesting no official festivities be held inside Lumen Field, but said Pride flags are allowed in the stadium.
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“General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026 Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code,” FIFA said in a Thursday statement to ESPN.
The countries said Pride conflicts with their religious and cultural traditions, a similar stance that athletes in the U.S. took this year in California and Pennsylvania.
Both Egypt and Iran are nearly exclusively Muslim countries that have either outlawed homosexuality outright or via “debauchery laws.”
One of the most well-known erupted during the San Francisco Giants’ June 12 game, which coincided with the team’s Pride night celebration. Players were given baseball caps with the team’s logo colored in the Progress Pride flag.
Three players inscribed attributes to the Book of Genesis on their caps. The scripture involved the rainbow and its symbolism in Christianity. Pitcher Landen Roupp said during a postgame press conference that he wrote it to show he believes in the message behind the scripture.
“That’s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that, and I’m thankful we live in a country where we have the freedom to believe what we want,” he said, according to NBC Sports Bay Area.
But his intentions weren’t well-received by some LGBTQ+ fans.
Rainbow Families Action, a San Francisco-based support group for transgender youth and their families, shared remarks from a 58-year-old queer Giants fan who said they always felt supported by the team in its various celebrations. That changed with the Pride Night controversy.
“Today, we feel abandoned, not only by the players but by the organization,” the fan wrote.
The Giants’ Pride Night celebration also fell on the 10th anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub massacre, where a man killed 49 people in an Orlando LGBTQ+ club, California State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said.
“The players could have displayed this passage any night of the year but chose to do it only on Pride Night,” Wiener, who is running for outgoing U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat, said.
Pride nights draw protests, criticism
The protests happened throughout June, but for Seattle, questions about whether the city would celebrate Pride didn’t start until Egypt and Iran were selected in December to play there.
Both teams appealed to FIFA to halt Seattle’s Pride celebration during the World Cup game, but weren’t successful. Seattle Pride said in a December statement that the city has hosted Pride celebrations for more than 50 years.
The controversy hasn’t fazed the city.
“We see this as an opportunity to introduce the world to what it looks like to live in a place where the LGBT community is a protected class,” Hedda McLendon, senior vice president of legacy at Seattle’s World Cup committee, told The Guardian.
In Pennsylvania, a professional baseball team forfeited a game on June 18 after it noticed several players refused to wear a planned Pride Night jersey. The York Revolution didn’t want to force players to wear something they weren’t comfortable with, according to a statement.
Pride Night celebrations continued at the ballpark sans the game. The team called the players’ actions “inconsistent” with their vision and made a $10,000 donation to a York LGBTQ+ center.
Can the relationships be rebuilt?
The rift between some Giants players and the city’s LGBTQ+ community widened after former player Aubrey Huff went on a homophobic rant, insisting that the community doesn’t watch baseball and calling them “wastes of sperm.”
The player was once banned by the Giants from attending a 2020 ceremony honoring the 2010 World Series championship team, which he was on, according to ESPN.
The dissenting players have the support of Vice President JD Vance, who wrote on X in response to a post about the protest that since “Trump won we don’t have to do this anymore.”
MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred wrote in a letter to U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that the three players who wrote on the caps received non-disciplinary warnings about altering apparel and equipment. He added that the players’ association has agreed to contract terms that players cannot alter their uniforms or equipment.
Steven Bracco, a gay man and longtime Giants fan, wrote an open letter to the team that was published June 16 in LGBTQ+ sports news site Outsports. He sought for the team to host a forum on how to move forward, especially as the Pride flag originated in San Francisco, made by artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, according to the National Park Service.
“Your team and its leadership’s actions have ruined the LGBTQ+ community’s connection to the Giants,” Bracco wrote.
The Justice Department referred the case to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for an investigation into whether the league violated the players’ rights to freedom of religion and speech, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote on X.
As for Seattle, Seattle Pride Executive Director Patti Hearn told Reuters that the Pride flag is a human rights flag and queer people are everywhere. She’s looking forward to the events despite Egypt and Iran’s opposition.
“I think that if we can provide the opportunity for the world stage to see and experience what it feels like to be in a welcoming and inclusive place … I think that’s great,” she said.
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