Pro women’s soccer players Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis, who are in a same-sex relationship, announced that Mewis is pregnant with their first child in an Instagram post on Sunday.
Just one day later, the team who Kerr plays for, Chelsea FC, released a statement addressing alleged “abuse” that the players received after the announcement.
“There is no place in society for any form of discrimination and we will not accept any abuse directed towards our players, staff or supporters,” the statement read, per Reuters. “We are extremely proud to be a diverse, inclusive club that celebrates and welcomes people from all cultures, communities and identities.”
Chelsea women’s team manager Sonia Bompastor addressed the allegations during a news conference on Tuesday.
“This is just unacceptable to have these kind of comments, especially in our world in 2024,” Bompastor said at a news conference ahead of Chelsea’s game against Celtic in the Women’s Champions League. “That’s just crazy for me to understand how people can react like this.”
During a team news conference on Tuesday, England women’s football manager Sarina Wiegman was also asked about the alleged attacks by a reporter.
“It is very, very disappointing,” Wiegman said of the alleged abuse.
The initial post announcing the pregnancy is now blocking off any new comments. However, previous comments on the post remained.
Multiple comments that are still under the post inquired about who the father of the baby is. Many of the responses to those comments have brought up the possibility of IVF, while others have lambasted the users who posed the question for even asking.
International soccer institutions have made frequent efforts to combat homophobia among the sport’s fans in recent years.
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In May, France’s sports minister called for football club Monaco to be sanctioned after one of its players, Mohamed Camara, covered an LGBTQ support message on his jersey during the team’s final league game.
French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra called Mohamad Camara’s actions “unacceptable” and for “firm sanctions” against both the player and the club.
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.
“Homophobia is not an opinion, it’s a crime,” Aurore Bergé, the French minister of equality, wrote on X. “And homophobia kills. There must be strict punishment for Mohamed Camara.”
Camara missed the first four games of this year’s Ligue de Football Professionnel season.
In October, the German professional soccer club VfL Wolfsburg disciplined player Kevin Behrens after he refused to autograph a gay pride shirt and made comments considered homophobic toward a fan who requested it.
The player allegedly refused to sign a Wolfsburg shirt that featured a rainbow logo for the LGBTQ pride flag. Behrens also allegedly said, “I won’t sign that gay [crap],” according to multiple reports.
Behrens has since apologized for the incident.
In 2021, all Mexico national team fans were banned from attending the team’s World Cup qualifiers after fans used a Spanish chant that included a word that is recognized as a gay slur. The team was forced to play its home qualifiers in an empty stadium and had to pay a fine of $73,000.
Mexican Football Federation President Yon De Luisa acknowledged the chant was a long-standing tradition for the team when she addressed the fan ban in a press conference that summer.
“For many years, that was the debate for us at the Mexican federation,” De Luisa said. “That is no longer a debate. If it is discriminatory, we should avoid it.”
FIFA announced its own disciplinary code to combat offensive chants by spectators in July 2019. According to the code, officials are expected to give one warning to spectators if offensive chants are used, but if they continue, officials must abandon the match, and players are sent to the locker rooms.
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