Members of Seattle’s LGBTQ community say they hope Friday’s World Cup «Pride Match» between Egypt and Iran, two countries where homosexuality is criminalized, can be an opportunity to change minds.
Seattle enjoys its reputation as a welcoming place, and Pride flags are visible throughout the city all year round. June’s Pride weekend is one of the largest in the United States.
So ahead of the World Cup draw in December, it was only natural that local organizers labeled the city’s June 26 match as a ‘Pride Match’.
Then the draw took place – and the two teams that would play the match were Egypt and Iran.
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Egypt’s Football Association has urged global football governing body FIFA to prevent Pride-related activities, arguing such events conflict with the Muslim-majority country’s cultural and religious values. The governing body in Iran, where same-sex relationships are punishable by death, has lodged an objection with FIFA.
But in Seattle, there’s no doubt the Pride Match will go on as planned.
“In three weeks the World Cup will come and go,” Hedda McLendon of the local World Cup organizing committee in Seattle told Reuters. “The Pride celebration … has been happening this weekend for more than 50 years.
“It’s going to happen this weekend, it’s going to happen long after the World Cup.”
Some in the city’s LGBTQ community had mixed feelings about the participants, said Jon Cairns, 49, manager of local LGBTQ+ club Kremwerk.
However, Cairns said his own view was that it provided a platform to promote acceptance that only the biggest sporting event in the world could provide.
The Pride Match is “a host city initiative” and is separate from FIFA. | Photo credit: Getty Images
The Pride Match is “a host city initiative” and is separate from FIFA. | Photo credit: Getty Images
“My response is: let’s have them,” he told Reuters. “International sport has historically been one of the greatest agents of social change and individual rights and freedoms worldwide, including in the US”
He cited black American sprinter Jesse Owens’ four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s 1968 protest as moments when «only international sports could reach such a large audience.»
“They are not going to turn off the World Cup on state TV in Iran or Egypt to block a Pride flag in the audience,” Cairns said.
The Pride Match is “an initiative of the host city” and is separate from FIFA, a spokesperson for the football governing body told Reuters.
Egypt and Iran’s involvement in the Pride Match is not the first time the World Cup has struggled with major differences in attitudes between hosts and visitors.
In Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup, the emir said visitors must “respect our culture” when asked about homosexuals attending the tournament.
FIFA threatened yellow cards for captains wearing the ‘OneLove’ armband, citing rules that conflicted with political slogans. Teams including England and the Netherlands, which had planned to wear the armbands to protest Qatar’s laws against same-sex relationships, abandoned the plan.
For Ryan Webster, a 40-year-old lifestyle manager who was at Kremwerk the weekend before Pride, the ‘Pride Match’ in Seattle was a chance to show solidarity with people in countries where their sexuality was banned.
“I choose to believe that this is our moment to give the members of the LGBTQ community who come from those countries the opportunity to celebrate themselves in their entirety, which they might not otherwise have done,” he said outside the club, which will host a viewing party for Friday’s match.
Inside, ‘Venus Fengz’ lip-synced to Cher’s ‘Believe’ before introducing fellow drag artists on stage, clapping and cheering from a raucous crowd.
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Fengz, who only wanted to provide their stage name, said Pride coinciding with the World Cup would provide more visibility, pending perhaps some new audience members.
“I think it’s always great for us to be able to share space and places with people who don’t have the same experiences as us,” they told Reuters.
“Sometimes you just have to be the bigger person and show grace where you can and know that everyone is a human being who learns (from) different experiences, but it can also get difficult – because you’re on the short end of the stick and always have to explain yourself to people who don’t grow up with the same worldview.”
Published on June 24, 2026
