World Cup’s first official Pride Match is happening at Lumen Field in Seattle between Iran and Egypt and the two visiting countries aren’t happy about it
The 2026 World Cup’s first official Pride Match is happening Thursday at Lumen Field in Seattle between Iran and Egypt, and if you’ve been reading TLL since December then you already know exactly how I feel about this because I wrote about it the day it was announced and I’m not backing off a single word of what I said then.
The idea was to celebrate LGBTQ+ inclusion and give the tournament a moment of unity, which is simple enough on paper except for the small detail that the two nations selected for this historic event are countries where being gay can get you killed.
Iran has documented cases of torture, public execution, and brutal public humiliation of LGBTQ individuals where getting outed can literally be a death sentence.
Egypt isn’t much better with systematic persecution and imprisonment of anyone who doesn’t conform to the government’s view of acceptable sexuality. These were the nations chosen for the Pride Match and honestly, the dark comedy of the selection hasn’t faded one bit in the six months since the announcement.
The Egyptian Football Association sent a formal request to FIFA asking for the celebration to be cancelled almost immediately after the December reveal and Iran was pissed about it too, formally requesting that FIFA prevent any “ceremonies or promotional activities” in support of the LGBTQ community at the match.
First World Cup Pride Match Incoming
I covered all of this in December and my position was clear then. This is America. We are the host. We set the tone and we set the rules. We can do whatever we want both inside and outside a World Cup match because this is the land of the free and the home of some gays and that’s how this works whether Iran and Egypt like it or not.
The Qatar Hypocrisy Alone Should End This Debate
Before anyone from Egypt or Iran or their supporters starts lecturing the United States about respecting cultural and religious values at a World Cup, let me remind everyone what happened four years ago in Qatar.
The host nation pretended to be welcoming and then spent the entire tournament policing beer, clothing, intimacy, public behavior, and any hint of independent journalism. They banned alcohol sales after promising the opposite, interfered with a $100 million Budweiser sponsorship deal like it was nothing, restricted fan travel, monitored visitors through required geolocation apps, forced civilians into mandatory labor, and banned public broadcasts of matches in certain areas.
The fan village was literally shipping containers in the desert where people were told there was no sex unless married, no affection in public, no alcohol, and certainly no LGBTQ+ representation.
It was a complete embarrassment that violated every promise Qatar made during the bidding process and nobody from the international community did a damn thing about it because FIFA’s money was already deposited and the contracts were signed.
Did Egypt complain about Qatar forcing its beliefs on millions of visitors? Did Iran file a formal request with FIFA to prevent Qatar from imposing its cultural values on the tournament?
Of course they didn’t because they were perfectly comfortable with another country dictating behavior to visiting fans when the laws being enforced aligned with their own beliefs. They had zero problem with Qatar telling the world how to dress and who to love and what to drink, but the United States designating one match as a Pride celebration during Pride Month in an American city is somehow a bridge too far that requires FIFA intervention.
Spare me the lectures on respecting cultural values from countries that didn’t say a word when Qatar turned the World Cup into a theocratic summer camp with shipping container accommodations.
The hypocrisy is so thick you could build a wall with it and these nations know exactly how fraudulent their complaints sound, which is why they’re running to FIFA for help instead of making their case to the American public directly.
This Is America
The World Cup has always been a showcase of the host nation because when you host you spend a fortune on stadiums and infrastructure and security to show the world who you are, and this time the tournament is in North America where the party is massive and everyone is welcome regardless of who they love or how they identify.
The United States will have zero issues hosting the World Cup because you can date whoever you want, hold hands with whoever you want, celebrate however you want, and enjoy the games without the government monitoring your geolocation or banning your beer or telling you that public affection is a criminal offense.
Egypt can get lost with their request to cancel the Pride Match and if they keep complaining then the host committee should go ahead and designate every match Egypt participates in as a Pride Match until they get the message that visiting nations don’t get to dictate American cultural celebrations on American soil during an American-hosted tournament. Iran can get lost too because a country that executes people for their sexuality doesn’t get a seat at the table when the conversation is about which cultural values should be represented at a sporting event.
I said it in December and I’ll say it again right now: I have never stood this close, shoulder to shoulder, with my LGBTQ brothers and sisters and honestly it feels great when the alternative is siding with governments that torture and execute their own citizens for who they love. America first. We are not bending the knee to Egypt, Iran, or anyone else over a Pride Match.
….But I Do Think the Whole Thing Was Designed to Be Provocative
Here’s where my position gets complicated because while I fully support America’s right to celebrate Pride Month however it wants at the World Cup and I fully support telling Egypt and Iran to pound sand with their complaints,
I also think the Seattle host committee specifically chose Iran vs. Egypt as the Pride Match because they knew it would generate exactly this kind of confrontation and I’m not entirely comfortable with using the World Cup as a vehicle for cultural warfare even when the cultural warfare is directed at countries whose human rights records are genuinely horrific.
If Seattle wanted to celebrate Pride Month at the World Cup, they could have designated a USMNT match or literally any other game on the schedule. They chose the match between two Muslim-majority countries where homosexuality is criminalized because that pairing maximizes the political statement and generates the most attention, which feels less like a genuine celebration of LGBTQ inclusion and more like a calculated provocation aimed at countries whose views make them an easy and politically safe target.
The LGBTQ community represents about 7 percent of the American population and their rights are a piece of American culture that deserves recognition and celebration, but the idea that this specific piece of American culture needs to be showcased specifically during the match between two countries that will find it the most offensive is the part where the genuine celebration crosses into deliberate antagonism.
You can support LGBTQ rights completely, which I do, and also think that choosing Iran vs. Egypt as the vehicle for that support was a decision made by people who wanted a confrontation more than they wanted a celebration, which I also do.
I also like what Tim Dillon was saying earlier this week on Joe Rogan
My Broader Position Hasn’t Changed
Keep politics, religion, and sexual identity out of sports because the World Cup is supposed to be the one month where the entire planet comes together to watch football without every match turning into a referendum on which country has the most progressive social policies.
I don’t want to hear about politics at a baseball game, I don’t want religious messaging at a football game, and I don’t want the World Cup to become a battleground for cultural debates that have nothing to do with who can kick a ball into a net.
When a country like Iran that executes people for being gay tells the United States that we can’t celebrate Pride Month at our own World Cup in our own stadiums in our own cities, the “keep politics out of sports” position takes a backseat to the “this is America and we don’t take orders from authoritarian regimes” position because there are some things more important than keeping the peace and basic human decency is one of them.
The Pride Match is happening tomorrow in Seattle and Egypt and Iran can either deal with it gracefully or make a scene that will generate more attention for the cause they’re trying to suppress, because asking FIFA to cancel a Pride celebration on American soil is the kind of demand that unites every American regardless of their personal views on LGBTQ issues since nobody in this country wants to be told what to do by foreign governments on our own turf.
Enough of these nations and their oppressive laws. If you cannot extend basic human decency to your own people, you should not be dictating anything to the rest of us, and that goes for Egypt, Iran, Qatar, and anyone else who wants to tell America how to run its own World Cup.
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