Do Pride-themed jerseys belong in professional sports?

Soccer player Mohamed Camara will miss the first four games of the next Ligue de Football Professionnel season due to his faith-based decision to cover a patch on his jersey promoting LGBTQ rights.

The patch was part of the French league’s annual campaign against anti-LGBTQ discrimination. It featured the word homophobia, which had been crossed out, according to The Associated Press.

Ahead of his team’s May 19 game, Camara, who is Muslim, covered the badge with white tape and refused to participate in a pregame photo in front of a banner carrying the same message.

At least two French leaders criticized him on social media that night and called for him and his club, Monaco, to face sanctions.

“Homophobia is not an opinion, it’s a crime,” Aurore Bergé, the French minister of equality, wrote on X, according to The Associated Press. “And homophobia kills. There must be strict punishment for Mohamed Camara.”

Meanwhile, officials in Mali, where Camara is from, defended the player’s right to free speech, while club leaders said he was making a personal choice that didn’t reflect the beliefs of the team.

“Mo did this for religious reasons,” said Monaco’s general manager Thiago Scuro, according to The Athletic. “It’s a very sensitive subject at all levels, because we also have to respect all religions. But as an organization, we are very sad about this episode and we want to make it clear that we do not support this.”

In its statement, the Mali Football Federation said, “It is important to remember that players are citizens like any others, whose fundamental rights must be protected in all circumstances,” according to The Telegraph.

Over the federation’s objections, the Ligue de Football Professionnel imposed a four-game suspension on Camara, which he will serve at the beginning of next season.

LGBTQ rights in sports

The Camara saga in France is the latest in a series of conflicts stemming from sports leagues’ efforts to promote LGBTQ rights.

In the United States in recent years, hockey and baseball players have been criticized for refusing to take part in all or part of Pride-themed games, even when their refusal stemmed from their religious beliefs about marriage, as the Deseret News has previously reported.

For example, some NHL writers and fans argued that Ivan Provorov should have stayed on the bench during a January 2023 game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Anaheim Ducks after he refused to wear a “Pride night” jersey during warmups.

In 2017, former U.S. Women’s National Team member Jaelene Daniels faced similar pushback from commentators and fans for refusing to play in games featuring rainbow-themed jerseys, according to The Athletic.

Daniels did not face repercussions from the USWNT nor from her regular club, which re-signed her in 2022 over the objections of some fans, the article said.

U.S. Soccer has continued to celebrate Pride month in June and partner with LGBTQ rights groups throughout the year.

This year, “the U.S. women’s and men’s teams will wear jerseys with rainbow-themed numbers inspired by Pride during the matches in June,” The Athletic reported.

Like U.S. Soccer, the Ligue de Football Professionnel in France has persisted with its efforts to reduce anti-LGBTQ discrimination despite related drama.

“This is the fourth consecutive season that professional clubs in France have been invited to use rainbow-colored numbers, armbands or patches on their shirts to support the LGBTQ movement. Each year, similar controversies arise,” per The Associated Press.

Pride nights in the NHL

Unlike those soccer leagues, the NHL decided last season to avert future controversies by doing away with themed warmup jerseys.

While hockey teams can still host special nights for fans, players are no longer obligated to participate.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said last summer that the new policy would eliminate distractions.

“What happened last year was that the issue of who wanted to wear a particular uniform on a particular night overshadowed everything that our clubs were doing,” he said, according to NPR.