When Pride meets prejudice
Korbin Albert, the USWNT, and the state of LGBTQ rights in women's sports.
Late Sunday afternoon, I attended the North Carolina Courage’s game against the Chicago Red Stars. It was a really fun game — the Courage finally found the back of the net after two months of offensive struggles and won 3-1. It also happened to be the Courage’s Pride game, so rainbow flags were everywhere, there was a pre-game drag show, and the team had multiple fundraisers for the local LGBTQ community. Despite the sweltering heat, it was a great day.
And yet, I watched the game with a queasiness in my stomach and cognitive dissonance front of mind.
Part of my discomfort had to do with the club itself. I was credentialed for the game, so I was sitting in the exact spot where Jaelene Daniels infamously gave an interview with the 700 Club saying that she refused to wear a Pride-themed jersey when she was a member of the USWNT because she doesn’t support LGBTQ rights.
Yes, that interview was given in 2018, and the USWNT call-up in question was in 2017, but that doesn’t mean it’s ancient history. Daniels retired in 2020, but then, in 2021, she came out of retirement and the Courage re-signed her. Fans were furious with team ownership, who released a statement saying they were “sorry to all those we have hurt, especially those within the LGBTQIA+ community,” but stuck by their roster decision. Daniels appeared in 19 games with the team in 2022 before they declined her contract option for the 2023 season, effectively ending her career. For some Courage supporters, that wound is still fresh.
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In part, my discomfort came from the state I live in. North Carolina isn’t Texas or Florida; it has a democratic governor and is, if you squint, purpleish. But make no mistake about it: Every single day there are politicians from North Carolina fighting tooth and nail to take away rights from the LGBTQ community; just last year North Carolina enacted its own version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
But mostly my discomfort came from the current state of LGBTQ rights in women’s sports, and women’s soccer in particular. As former athletes and women’s sports advocates are using the guise of protecting women’s sports to push anti-transgender laws and policies, the USWNT, which has been such a safe haven and beacon of hope for the queer community, is refusing to hold midfielder Korbin Albert accountable for her homophobic and transphobic social media activity. On Wednesday, Albert was named to the Olympic roster and new head coach Emma Hayes implored fans to “embrace” her because she’s a “tremendous human being.”
It feels like as more mainstream attention and capital comes into women’s sports, the comfort of people with bigoted beliefs is being prioritized over the inclusion and safety of LGBTQ fans, coaches, and players, and I hate it. So much.
As I sat at the game on Sunday, Tobin Heath’s words ran through my mind: “Is that the point we’ve gotten to, where we feel like the progress has been made and now we have a Pride night and we wear rainbow jerseys and that's enough?”
Heath’s comment came on the RE-CAP Show, the podcast she hosts with her girlfriend and fellow soccer star Christen Press. Both are long-time fixtures on the USWNT who have been out for the past couple of years battling injuries.
Last week on their show, they decided to address one of the most pressing issues on the current team: Albert.
This spring, it was revealed that Albert had liked or shared a string of anti-LGBTQ posts online. The posts derided the term “cisgender” and the use of pronoun preferences, said that being gay or “feeling transgender” was something wrong and that God needed to save those people, and even mocked USWNT and LGBTQ icon Megan Rapinoe for hurting her ankle during her final NWSL game last year, implying that God purposefully hurt Rapinoe.
After being called out by a few USWNT teammates, including the now-retired Rapinoe, Alsuppobert issued an apology on her Instagram stories, saying, “I truly believe that everyone should feel safe and respected everywhere and on all playing fields. I know my actions have not lived up to that and for that l sincerely apologize.” The post did not, however, specifically denounce the views she shared or provide any inkling that she had changed her opinions.
Since then, as far as I can tell, Albert has not spoken to the media. USWNT captains Lindsey Horan and Alex Morgan issued a statement before the SheBelieves Cup in April, calling Albert’s social media posts “disappointing” and emphasizing that they did not uphold the standard and integrity of the USWNT. But again, when asked about specifics about how the team responded and whether there were any repercussions for Albert, Horan, Morgan, and anyone else speaking for the team referred to “internal discussions.”
As Press noted on her podcast, that’s a hard thing to stomach because “the likes, tweets, TikToks, Instagrams, those are external so I think to a certain extent it needed to be handled publicly.”
When Albert has taken the field for the USWNT over the past few months, there have been audible boos. For many, her inclusion on the Olympic roster felt like a punch in the gut; after all, even based on talent alone, she was on the bubble. The decision reminds me so much of the Courage’s choice to help Daniels come out of retirement in 2021 — an unnecessary move that some queer fans understandably internalize as a sign of just how little they are valued by one of the few institutions in this country that has made them feel accepted and seen.
To make matters worse, everyone involved with the USWNT seems far more concerned with safeguarding Albert’s feelings than with addressing the harm she caused.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, USWNT forward Trinity Rodman offered support for Albert, saying, “she’s on the US women’s national team and we’re going to be her teammates and support her. When she comes on the field, she’s just like everybody else wearing that number and playing for our country, and she’s working her butt off to do so.”
Hayes, who is headed into her first tournament as the head coach of the USWNT, told reporters on Wednesday that Albert has “had a really, really tough time” due to the criticism she faced, and called her a “lovely person” who is “spending time working on herself.”
Here’s the thing. I don’t doubt that Albert can be friendly and nice to her teammates and coaches. I’m sure that she has many redeeming qualities, and that the past few months have been tough. She’s only 20 years old, was likely raised in a conservative environment, and should absolutely be given space and grace to learn and grow. And no, everyone on a team does not have to politically agree on every single thing. But if you publicly showcase opinions that dismiss and degrade the humanity of the LGBTQ community, a community that includes your teammates and fans and coaches? That’s not something that should just be swept under the rug, and asking people to do that is insulting.
Honestly, I’m less bothered by Albert as an individual than I am by the USWNT as a collective. Women’s sports are always political, we know that, but for decades the athletes were encouraged, implicitly and explicitly, to try to make women’s sports more palatable by conforming to more traditional notions of femininity. This meant placing an emphasis on whiteness and straightness, and keeping anything that might be deemed more controversial behind doors. But over the past 10 years, we’ve seen activism move from the wings to center stage in women’s pro soccer and basketball in the United States. As the players have found their voices fighting for racial, LGBTQ, gender, and pay equality, their leagues have gained power and prominence. It’s been invigorating. It’s been inspiring. But it’s also important to remember that it’s not indelible. Progress isn’t permanence. It’s up to the individual athletes in this generation to keep it going.
“The US women national team has stood for re-imagination, progress, equity, change, equality, inclusion, diversity, all the things. We haven't always got it right, we certainly haven't, but at our best we tried,” Press said. “And as the team changes what the team represents will change unless those values are protected.”
Right now, it does not feel like protecting those values is a priority for the USWNT. And that is a tangible loss, especially when we live in a world that continues to use the veil of protecting women’s sports to attack trans kids. The trans legislation tracker says that in 2024 alone, 44 anti-trans bills have passed in 16 states across the country. These bills do everything from removing LGBTQ educational resources from schools to banning gender-affirming care for children. In April, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics banned trans women from competing, and some fear a blanket ban from the NCAA is coming next. Just this week, a prominent county in Long Island, New York passed a law that bans women’s and girl’s sports teams from using public sports facilities unless they ban all trans girls and women from competing on their team. These laws are pushed by people who actively dox, harass, misgender, and bully trans youth, because fairness isn’t the point, but cruelty is.
Only time will tell what happens next. Eventually, Albert is going to have to directly face the media and speak for herself. Right now, the right-wing media ecosystem that has spent years hating on the USWNT thanks primarily to Rapinoe’s outspoken advocacy, is picking up Albert’s story and painting her as a martyr. Is she going to pull a Carli Lloyd and lean into that? (There’s certainly plenty of money and opportunities to take advantage of if she does.) Or will we actually hear and see evidence of this growth that people have been alluding to happening behind the scenes? I certainly hope it’s the latter. I do believe people can learn and change.
But either way, this Pride month has served as a stark reminder that the fight for equality is far from over.
This was well written. I appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks for this, exactly how I've been feeling today.