The U.S. Soccer Federation announced that it is partnering with LGBTQ+ charity You Can Play Project for the sixth consecutive year to “celebrate and support the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month in June.”
As part of the partnership, the U.S. women's and men's teams will wear Pride-inspired, rainbow-themed, numbered uniforms during matches in June. Autographed uniforms from each member of both teams will be auctioned through the U.S. Soccer Association on Friday, May 31, with all proceeds going to the You Can Play Project, which works to “foster a safe and inclusive environment for the LGBTQ+ community,” U.S. Soccer said in a press release.
One of the auction pages that was set up is for U.S. women's national team midfielder Corbin Albert, who shared anti-LGBTQ+ content on social media and later apologized earlier this year after receiving pressure from former and current U.S. women's national team players, including Megan Rapinoe.
“I want to sincerely apologize for my behavior on social media,” she wrote on Instagram in March. “Liking and sharing offensive, insensitive and hurtful posts was immature and disrespectful and was never my intention.”
Albert, 20, is a midfielder for Paris Saint-Germain, a French first division women's soccer club. She played for the U.S. Women's Soccer National Team in the CONCACAF World Gold Cup and SheBelieves tournaments and was recently called up to training camp for new head coach Emma Hayes' first match under the helm.
Albert's videos, which include preaching that homosexuality and “transgender feelings” are wrong in Christian places of worship, attracted widespread attention from female soccer fans but were not unusual for his profile.
Among Albert's posts on her TikTok profile was one from the Fourth of July weekend of 2023, in which her family members took turns saying “USA pronouns,” with Corbin also joining in the video. The post is no longer visible on her profile.
“I am truly disappointed in myself and deeply apologize for any hurt I have caused my teammates, other players, fans, friends and anyone who was offended,” she wrote after a Champions League match in March. “I truly believe that everyone should feel safe and respected, anywhere, on any playing field. I know my actions fell short of that standard and for that I am truly sorry. It is an honor and privilege to play this sport on the world stage and I am committed to working harder in the future.”
Albert is currently on the U.S. Women's National Team roster for friendlies against South Korea in Denver and Minnesota.
The U.S. Women's National Team will face South Korea on Saturday, June 1 in Denver, Colorado.
Has the USWNT ever addressed LGBTQ+ rights?
In addition to its six-year partnership with the You Can Play Project, the USWNT has long supported transgender rights, both individually and collectively, particularly longtime captain Becky Sauerbrunn. During the final game of the 2022 SheBelieves Cup in Texas, all players wore wristbands taped to them that read “Protect Transgender Kids.” The action came on the same day that Texas Governor Greg Abbott called on state officials to report parents of transgender children to Texas authorities, calling “selective gender transition procedures” “child abuse.”
Sauerbrunn has also written an opinion piece for a Missouri newspaper in support of allowing transgender girls and women to participate in sports, and opposes proposed “Protect Women's Sports Acts.” She is also an ambassador for Athlete Ally, a nonprofit LGBTQ+ advocacy organization.
Jayleen Daniels (née Hinkle), who previously was largely sidelined from playing for the US women's national team after expressing her anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs, refused to wear the rainbow kit.
Daniels was selected to the U.S. women's national soccer team in 2017, two years after she posted, “This world is moving further and further away from God… All believers can do is continue to pray,” shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the legal right to marry.
Daniels declined to play in these games because they were played during Pride Month and the team was scheduled to wear rainbow numbers for the first time in these games.
In an interview with The 700 Club, Daniels explained her decision to decline a call-up to the U.S. Women's National Team in 2017, saying she “felt strongly in my heart that it wasn't my job to put on this jersey.”
In contrast, Albert has not turned down a call-up to the U.S. Women's National Team and has not publicly stated her intentions to do so, and the auction site said she plans to continue attending U.S. Women's National Team camps and wearing the rainbow-themed jersey.
Daniels continued to be called up to the senior U.S. women's national team after 2017, including to training camp for the 2018 Tournament of Nations under former head coach Jill Ellis, but she was left out when the tournament roster was announced.
Daniels also chose not to play in Pride matches for her club team, North Carolina Courage, in 2022 after the club chose to re-sign her despite significant backlash from fans.
(Photo: Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
