It’s no exaggeration to call these pro athletes some of the best in the world. June marks both Pride Month and the end of the first third of the NWSL’s 2021 season, back to its typical schedule after an off-kilter pandemic year. I hope that we’re creating an atmosphere where people feel comfortable.” “Women’s soccer is more likely to be an LGBTQ-friendly or safer space. “I think, for the women’s game, it’s a little bit more diverse in the types of people that come out ,” Turner says, comparing the crowd turnout to that of men’s soccer and other men’s sports. A mix of folks ambled by: parents and children, hyped youth soccer teams, millennials wearing local band shirts, embracing couples. Meanwhile, Olivia Rodrigo’s anti-teenage-doldrums screed “brutal” blasted over the speakers as Jessica Turner and Mary Pruter-vice president and president, respectively, of the Courage’s supporters’ group The Uproar-surveyed the incoming crowd, beckoning newcomers over to a pregame picnic. In the dirt parking lanes around the stadium, fans in Pride gear helmed trunk-propped pong games as the black and brown and pink, blue, and white stripes of “Progress” Pride flags intermingled with the North Carolina state colors and crest.
The June 26 match, which fell on the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL’s) annual Pride Night, felt like a rainbow swirl of a rejoinder. They had come out to see the North Carolina Courage take on the Portland Thorns at Cary’s Sahlen’s Stadium. Just eight miles from the State Legislature, where last month Republican lawmakers introduced a bill targeting transgender athletes’ participation in school sports, a large crowd began to gather on Saturday night. Pride Night at an NC Courage match | Photo by Brett Villena