As the 2022 FIFA World Cup in anti-LGBTQ Qatar draws near, the U.S. men’s soccer team is saying gay and trans rights in a not-so-subtle way.
The team’s Qatar training facility has been decked out in the colors of the Pride Progress Flag, which include the rainbow colors, black and brown to represent people of color, and pink, light blue and white to represent trans, gender non-binary, intersex and those across the gender spectrum.
Additionally, the team’s crest has been redesigned to match:
At the United States’ MNT World Cup training ground in Doha were the players, staff and federation have shown solidarity with LGBT community by redesigning the crest in rainbow colours. More @TeleFootball pic.twitter.com/HeTU6o3ZEY
— Sam Wallace (@SamWallaceTel) November 14, 2022
The logo dates back to the team’s 2020 “Be The Change” initiative to bring attention to important social justice issues, and the message couldn’t be clearer in Qatar, where same-sex sexual acts are illegal, and queer people face regular abuse and harassment by officials.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The re-designed crest will not appear on players’ jerseys during games, but it’s the boldest team statement we’ve seen yet on the ground in the country.
“When we are on the world stage and when we are in a venue like Qatar, it is important to bring awareness to these issues and that is what ‘Be the Change’ is about,” head coach Gregg Berhalter told reporters on Monday.
“It is not just stateside that we want to bring attention to social issues, it is also abroad,” he added.
Related: Here’s the damning new report Qatar doesn’t want the world to see
Long known to be hostile towards LGBTQ people, Qatar has been positioning itself on the world stage as a welcoming place for players and fans. In stark contrast, a recent Human Rights Watch report documented the heartbreaking reality many gay and trans Qatari citizens face on a daily basis.
HRW said it “documented six cases of severe and repeated beatings and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody between 2019 and 2022.”
Knowing the world is watching, Qatari World Cup officials have said LGBTQ soccer fans will be welcome, though access to lodging and health care, as well as the threat of danger, have caused many fans to decide not to attend.
It sure didn’t help that Qatar World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman went on German TV last week and called homosexuality a “damage in the mind,” either.
With the first games scheduled to begin on Sunday, here’s a rundown of celebrities and athletes who’ve used their platforms to speak out against the country’s human rights record:
Dua Lipa
View this post on Instagram
Contrary to some recent reports, Dua Lipa will not be opening the World Cup with a performance of her hit song, “Physical.” After the fake news started circulating online, the pop star put out a statement making her position crystal clear: “I will not be performing and nor have I ever been involved in any negotiation to perform. I will be cheering England on from afar and I look forward to visiting Qatar when it has fulfilled all the human rights pledges it made when it won the right to host the World Cup.”
Leon Goretzka
View this post on Instagram
Soccer star Leon Goretzka will compete in the World Cup on the German team, but the longtime LGBTQ ally hasn’t shied away from speaking his mind about the host nation. After the Qatar Wold Cup ambassador called homosexuality a “damage of the mind,” Goretzka responded, “This is an image of a man that comes from another millennium,” adding, “It leaves you speechless that something like this can be said by a World Cup ambassador shortly before a World Cup.”
Melanie C
View this post on Instagram
During an appearance on the podcast Not My Bagg, singer-songwriter and former Spice Girl Mel C said that Qatar’s anti-LGBTQ attitudes make her “very uncomfortable.”
Meanwhile, her former bandmate’s husband, David Beckham, took a massive paycheck to promote Qatari tourism, describing the country as an “incredible place.” In an interview with the Daily Mail, Mel said, “It’s difficult. David is a friend, and everybody has to make their own choices. I understand people want to talk about sport being able to change culture, but when there’s so much money involved, it’s tricky.”
She elaborated in a subsequent interview with Attitude, saying, “It’s greed. [People profiting from the World Cup] can try and spin it that they’re there to make change, but it’s bullshit. It’s about money.”
Joe Lycett
https://t.co/FqoC3hSFM8 ? pic.twitter.com/EPLVNwmnvV
— Joe Lycett (@joelycett) November 13, 2022
Queer, British comic Joe Lycett deployed an even more pointed criticism of Beckham’s partnership with Qatar, posting a video to his social media challenging the soccer icon to cancel his ambassador role. “You’ve always talked about football being a force for good,” he said. “With that in mind, I’m giving you a choice. If you end your relationship with Qatar, I’ll donate this ten grand [approximately $12,000] of my own money, that’s a grand for every million you’re reportedly getting, to charities that support queer people in football,” he said.
“However, if you do not, at midday next Sunday, I will throw this money into a shredder just before the opening ceremony of the World Cup, and stream it live on a website I’ve registered called BendersLikeBeckham.com.
“Not just the money, but also your status as a gay icon will be shredded.”
Beth Mead
View this post on Instagram
English pro soccer player said in no uncertain terms on BBC Radio 4 that she won’t be “backing or promoting” this year’s World Cup in Qatar due to the country’s laws against homosexuality. “It’s disappointing in the sense that there’s no respect on a lot of levels, even though it’s a game of football,” she said, adding, “Although I’d be cheering for the boys who are going to play football there, from the minute it was announced I thought it wasn’t the best idea.”
Harry Kane
Harry Kane will wear a rainbow One Love armband at this year’s World Cup in Qatar in a stance against discrimination ? pic.twitter.com/8K4h6cin1q
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) September 21, 2022
The captain for the English men’s team has pledged to wear a rainbow armband throughout the tournament in Qatar, along with other team captains from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Wales.
The OneLove campaign aims to “use the power of football to promote inclusion and send a message against discrimination of any kind as the eyes of the world fall on the global game.”
Josh Cavallo
View this post on Instagram
Josh Cavallo, who last year became the only current top-tier male professional soccer player in the world to come out, has been a vocal critic of this year’s host city decision.
“I know personally, if I go there, I will be protected because I’m in the public eye,” Cavallo told CNN.
“But it’s not me that I’m worried about. It’s those ones that are messaging me. It’s those people that aren’t in the public eye that are scared to even be themselves and walk the streets.”
“To see that we’re heading to a country that’s criminalizing people like myself … It’s quite concerning,” he added.
Oliver Bierhoff
Oliver Bierhoff, a former soccer player and national team director of the German Football Federation, said in June that Qatar’s laws against same-sex relations are “completely unacceptable.”
He criticized FIFA for awarding the competition to the country without first addressing its rampant human rights abuses.
“What award criteria for a World Cup does FIFA actually apply?” he asked. “Because awarding a tournament is the sharpest sword to push for the necessary change.
“This has to happen before the award and not after, otherwise you have no leverage left to enforce it.”
cuteguy
David Beckham took money to promote this garbage country that hates us? And his wife Not-So-Posh Spice still is struggling in the fashion world with her crappy designs. She was recently on WWHL and of course Andy Cohen never asked her about this and what she thought about her husband being a traitor. Andy Cohen does more harm than good for the lgbtq+ community
cantouchthis
Why don’t you do something instead of expecting everyone else to protect you? #thatsnottheirjob
Den
In what way is cuteguy “expecting everyone else to protect him”? Pleaser be specific, and use your brain in constructing an answer. Your comment has to be one of the stupidest I have seen in weeks. As bad as that breeder-creep neoprene.
It amazes me how many people use their brain to store vocabulary words but cannot imagine what else it might be good for.
Cam
It was found out that Quatar got the cup through bribery. The event should have been cancelled. As for the U.S. team …….”The re-designed crest will not appear on players’ jerseys during games, but it’s the boldest team statement we’ve seen yet on the ground in the country.”
If they aren’t putting it on the Jerseys I really don’t want to hear about it because it will be unseen.
Neoprene
CammieGirrl- Just FYI. Every World Cup for about the last 30 years has been awarded by way of bribes. FIFA is corrupt. Think of FIFA like you do ELLEN.
There’s still time for me to buy you a plane ticket to Qatar so you can show everyone what real protests look like. Let’s just go with a one way ticket though, OK?
Man About Town
Melanie’s publicist isn’t exactly doing a bang-up job if all she has to say about this is that it makes her “very uncomfortable.”
Neoprene
Dua Lipa won’t be performing. Phew. Silver linings.
Go Leon!
Den
Personally I don’t think much of her output, but I am willing to bet her philanthropy and advicacy far exceeds yours, if you are even philanthropic in the slightest. Also willing to bet that even with the same level of filtering and tuning she uses, people would laugh at you performing anything.
Damn ugly twit you are! Inside and out.