On Sunday, U.S. Women’s Soccer team will compete against Norway in the International Friendlies, but defender Jaelene Hinkle wasn't with them.
There is growing speculation that U.S. Soccer’s gay-pride jerseys caused the outspokenly Christian player to withdraw from competition.
U.S. Soccer announced on May 26 that their players would don rainbow-lettered jerseys in June to commemorate Gay Pride month. This is another part of the organization’s "You Can Play Project," an initiative to promote equal treatment of LGBT athletes.
Now, many are speculating that it was the gay-pride promotion that caused Hinkle to withdraw from the tournament for “personal reasons.” Hinkle’s various social media accounts reflect her strong Christian faith. After the Supreme Court’s same sex marriage decision in 2015, Hinkle tweeted:
This world is falling farther and farther away from God... All that can be done by believers is to continue to pray.
— Jaelene Hinkle (@JaeHinkle_15) June 26, 2015
The 24-year-old player for the North Carolina Courage’s Twitter bio reads, “If you live for people’s acceptance, you’ll die from their rejection.” If her Christian convictions did cause her to turn away from the honor of playing for the national team, she is certainly living by those words!
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