Exclusion in the name of inclusion

Women’s sports have long counted large numbers of LGBTQ-identifying individuals among their fans.

Perhaps, then, when fans show up to women’s sports events wearing apparel or carrying signs expressing that male athletes shouldn’t compete on the same courts or fields as women and girls, LGBTQ fans fear their turf is being invaded. That, in turn, may explain why they feel comfortable demanding that those who dare express such views cover up their offensive messaging—no matter how innocuous—or be forced to leave the premises.

Portland is the latest city where security reportedly targeted fans wearing clothing suggesting that women’s sports should remain exclusively female. Eight women attending the Sept. 6 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) match between the Portland Thorns and the visiting Washington Spirit got the proverbial boot. Some wore apparel from XX-XY, a brand dedicated to preserving women’s sports for those with XX chromosomes and excluding those with XYs. Others wore shirts bearing messages like “Save Women’s Sports” and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights” (a play on 1980s pop icon Cyndi Lauper’s song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”).

The Thorns later claimed that the women were removed for “distributing unapproved materials,” as reported by the conservative-leaning website OutKick. Amy Sousa, one of the ejected women, called the Thorns’ explanation false, telling OutKick that the only materials she and others in her group brought with them were printed copies of the codes of conduct for the NWSL and Providence Park, the Thorns’ home venue. Sousa also said she and her group only shared the printed materials among themselves.

Providence Park wasn’t the only place that kicked out Sousa and her fellow soccer fans on Sept. 6: The Sports Bra—a pub WORLD profiled in 2023 that is devoted exclusively to showing televised women’s sports to its patrons—ordered them to leave, too.

“There are people that are in here that are uncomfortable with those shirts,” a bespectacled, septum-pierced, ski-cap-wearing Sports Bra waitress holding a beer tells Sousa and her group in a video posted on X. Prominently displayed in the background is an LGBTQ Pride flag.

“If I have to call authorities to get y’all removed, I will,” the waitress says. “But I don’t want to do that.”

The Thorns responded to Sousa’s videos with the standard nonsense about how the soccer team is dedicated to “fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment” for all fans in attendance. The Sports Bra, meanwhile, responded defiantly: “Our mission is to support, promote, and empower girls and women in sports, and to be clear: Trans girls are girls, and trans women are women,” the pub declared in a meme posted on Facebook. “We will always support and celebrate them at the Sports Bra. We do not tolerate messages or conduct that demean or exclude the very community we exist to serve and celebrate.”

The words “do not tolerate” were in all-capped, bright pink letters.

“Apparently, tolerance has a dress code,” a conservative social media commentator known as Patriotic Peach said about the Sports Bra incident in a video on Facebook.

“Do you guys remember that one story where someone was wearing a Pride flag T-shirt and they went into a restaurant that had the American flags and they asked them to leave because they were making others uncomfortable? Oh, wait—I don’t either, because it didn’t happen.”

Sadly, Portland isn’t the only city where girls and women have been targeted for championing the cause of their own sports. The Women’s National Basketball Association suspended Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton for five games for berating teenage girls who openly supported Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who dared stand up for female athletes this summer. At an Atlanta Dream game against the visiting Fever, security made a mother and daughter cover up their XX-XY T-shirts.

High-profile individuals have even found themselves in LGBTQ fans’ crosshairs: Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, America’s foremost advocate for keeping male athletes out of women’s sports and the mother of a baby girl, brought a sign to a Fever road game against the Minnesota Lynx that read, “Sophie, thank you—a girl mom.” Arena security reportedly told Gaines to put her sign down.

“There were no fewer than 1,000 signs in the arena. Most with trans paraphernalia,” Gaines posted on X. “The only person who was told to put her sign down by WNBA officials was me. Wonder why.”

Enes Kanter Freedom had it worse: The 6-foot-10 retired NBA center sat courtside at a Fever game against the Chicago Sky wearing a black T-shirt that read: “Woman. Noun. Adult Human Female.” After Freedom cheered a Cunningham 3-pointer, Sky guard Natasha Cloud, an open lesbian, instigated a shouting match that ultimately got Freedom ejected—and later banned permanently—from Chicago’s Wintrust Arena. Freedom has since sued both the Sky and the arena over the incident.

“I’m just tired of the 99% constantly having to rearrange our lives, our language, our safe spaces to make the 1% comfortable, all because it might hurt their feelings,” Patriotic Peach said.

Agreed, ma’am. Agreed.