Gotham FC, Detroit City among North American clubs working toward genuine inclusivity with Common Goal

While Gotham FC defender Sabrina Flores describes her upbringing as being “traditional,” it may be unique to many fans of her current employer.

Born in Livingston, N.J., she is the daughter of parents who immigrated to the United States. Her mom is from Romania, while her father came from Mexico. Her twin, Monica, plays left back for Monterrey and the Mexico national team (Sabrina has represented the U.S. at the youth level and Mexico at the senior level). As they worked to meld together the lessons and lifestyles from their own formative years, topics related to queerness and the LGBTQ+ community seldom surfaced.

Inevitably, a human’s real-world learning curve will extend far beyond the years spent living in their childhood home. For Flores, however, it was a subtle self-realization over the past few years in particular that has radically changed how she views her industry and the world as a whole.

“I lived for the majority of my life kind of locked up inside of myself,” Flores told The Athletic. “I just thought things were normal and whatever, but I truly didn’t even get to understand who I was as a full human being until like two years ago, as crazy as that sounds. Getting to understand me as a person in terms of sexual identification and who I am and what kind of partner I want to have in my life was life changing for me. It opened up so many doors to so much more happiness and freedom in my life.”

Recently, Flores has become closer with her identity as a gay woman. Praising Gotham’s “very inclusive and welcoming” club culture, she’s been able to finally get a sense of belonging and empowerment about this part of herself which is still so new. 

And, refreshingly for any of us who have felt a need to “come out” in the past, it didn’t take a formal conversation with her teammates to find that moment of being seen.

“That was the best part about it,” Flores said. “I’ve been surrounded by this culture in Gotham where everyone’s included. You find all different sorts of people in the locker room and no one cares what your sexual identity is or where you’re from or whatever. Everyone is just looking to be a loving and good person. When I started to have a relationship with a same-sex partner, it never was a big thing. I just was like, ‘Hey, do you want to meet my girlfriend?’ or, ‘Hey, she’s gonna come around’ and it was just normal. No one asked me questions. Everyone was just happy that I was in a relationship and super supportive, just like if I had a heterosexual relationship.

“I honestly don’t like labels in general. I just think that people shouldn’t be labeled as humans, but I identify as being gay and I guess whatever that entails. The whole coming out thing speaks to how this culture was in the past. It had to be a big deal, but I actually feel like in the environment that I’ve been in at Gotham, I’ve never, like, come out, I just feel like I’m becoming more fully myself, if that makes sense.”

Flores describes herself as being a private person. Being able to let her teammates in on this part of herself in such a casual way only further validated both her decision to be herself as well as her comfort speaking about it publicly. 

“This topic is really important and holds close to my heart because of that, because I don’t think anyone should ever feel closed off, or have limitations in their life just because of how they identify,” Flores said. “Whether it’s LGBTQ or race, gender, whatever it may be, I don’t think that should ever be something that limits someone from achieving their dreams and their potential. I’m not the most open about it, but I now understand and fully resonate with the idea that inclusivity and diversity is very important to ultimately being happy in life.”

Gotham FC is one of eight clubs from the NWSL, MLS, USL and the Canadian Premier League participating in the Play Proud program, an educational opportunity run through Common Goal. 

Founded in 2018 and prominently supported by Megan Rapinoe, Play Proud originally began working at a grassroots level, collaborating with then-New York City FC program director Lilli Barrett-O’Keefe to educate local youth clubs on LGBTQ+-related topics. 

The organization has set an ambitious goal to work with 50 clubs across the United States, Canada and Mexico before the 2026 men’s World Cup comes to North America. Counting the current cohort, Play Proud has already worked with 17 clubs across 16 markets. The markets that are represented by the first two sessions show a focus on those cities that will host World Cup matches, as well as those in communities that are currently seeing an uptick in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, with a particular recent surge in transphobic laws being presented by state-level politicians.

Barrett-O’Keefe recalled that one group she worked with directly in that initial grassroots approach was made up of a dozen teenage girls. As conversations progressed and the ice was broken, eight of those 12 participants felt comfortable coming out to her as queer. Then, as they geared up to celebrate the end of the session, a jarring reminder of the work ahead reared itself.

“At the end of the year, the coach said he’d make a rare exception and allow them to ‘invite their boyfriends’ to the cookout,” Barrett-O’Keefe said. “I just looked around and I saw everyone’s faces. I could just sense that they looked up to this coach and to hear him say that … I always say there’s no such thing as a microaggression. Every time that we feel triggered, it feels macro.”

In January 2020, Barrett-O’Keefe began working as Common Goal’s USA executive director and now serves as the head of the Play Proud program. The curriculum looks to help give clubs the tools to foster genuine inclusivity in all areas of their operations to go beyond throwing rainbows on merchandise for social clout and a quick buck. Each participating club has sent at least three representatives to this year’s summit in Seattle to ensure participation from people involved in club/sporting operations, their relationships with their supporters and fans, and their off-field dealings with organizations in their community.

The program is financially supported by Adidas as well as players committing to donate one percent of their salaries to the cause. Ultimately, the aim is to ensure that inclusivity isn’t just a buzzword and that cause-based promotions aren’t cynical acts of lip service.

“A lot of people have found homes in soccer and in supporters groups for various reasons,” Barrett-O’Keefe said, “whether that’s relating to their race, socioeconomic class, gender identity, or sexual orientation. For us, we want to ensure people that can’t find a home elsewhere, for whatever reason, that they feel safe in the stadium at these respective clubs and that they can see themselves represented both on the field at that club and also at their front office.”

Even with a club like Gotham, which gets strong marks from its current roster, it’s important to embody capable defending and play on the front foot. The club is one of two NWSL participants in this year’s cohort, joined by the KC Current, after Angel City FC and the San Diego Wave were involved in 2022. Gotham’s representation in Seattle includes members from the club’s front office, supporter reps from Cloud Nine and their partners at South Bronx United, which uses soccer as a vehicle for social change.

“I think it’s super important,” Flores said of the club’s involvement. “It’s one thing to say that you’re an inclusive club or sometimes practice those concepts, but it’s another thing to make it habitual and a lifestyle and part of what’s normalized, to the point where we hopefully don’t even have to have these programs because it’s not different than anything else. I think being proactive is the best thing that we could do.

“The more inclusive that a workplace environment is, the better people can perform at their job. Whether it’s on the team and the front office or in the community, if we can continue to foster an inclusive environment, I think it’ll just make our entire community a happier, better, more productive place — physically, mentally, emotionally and in all those aspects.”

Of course, not every professional club is as hospitable about rostering non-heterosexual players. A survey conducted by Out on the Fields found that 73% of gay, bisexual and straight people believe it is not safe for LGB people to come out in youth sport environments. Nearly 90% of LGBTQ people in 2019 believed homophobia and transphobia remain current problems in sport. Reflecting on their own lives, 80% of gay, bi and straight people had witnessed or experienced homophobic behavior in sport.

That’s where the educational component of Play Proud is especially important. Barrett-O’Keefe, Common Goal, and session facilitators from Impact International, Inside Inclusion, Stonewall UK and HTVB work to run workshops that feature discussions and presentations from leading LGBTQ+ athletes and advocates, as well as interactive sessions aimed at promoting inclusive leadership. In total, the program has a chief focus on not just helping participants feel more confident in their allyship, but also empowering them to bring that skill set into their communities.

“I also have a strong belief in how detrimental cancel culture is to society,” Flores said. “I think that some people might have the right heart, but may say something that might be wrong, but they don’t know. They want to be loving and kind. I think giving grace to people and not like canceling them just because they misspoke or whatever is important. I think that goes across the board and just being kind and full-hearted, to be the best person you can, and then help other people be who they need to be.”

As relationships between American soccer clubs and their supporters go, few can match the level of synergy found at Detroit City FC. Founded in 2012, the club began selling non-share “units” in 2020 to allow fans to invest in the club, with sales exceeding one million dollars. 

With a finger firmly on the pulse of its fan base, City has felt empowered to operate in a progressive manner. In 2014, the club became the first at any professional level in American sports to wear a uniform in support of LGBTQ inclusion in a regulation match. Last summer, the club ran its annual Prideraiser in support of the local Ruth Ellis Center, which serves the needs of runaway, homeless and at-risk lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. Working with the organization, club co-founder and chief creative officer Alex Wright spoke about how they were able to organize a truly singular event at halftime of a game.

“A few years ago, we were proud to host a naming ceremony at halftime,” Wright said. “As part of changing your name legally, there has to be a public aspect to it. It’s basically like no different than back in the day where you’d have to go to the town crier and say something. At halftime, we said their names and then that was followed by an amazing dance performance of voguing young people. That’s what we’re about.”

That level of support, assuming it’s sustained, could be pivotal to creating a safe space for transgender and gender non-conforming people. 

Forty-four states have introduced a total of 387 pieces of anti-trans legislation since the start of 2023, according to Track Trans Legislation’s website. Most commonly, these proposals focus on healthcare, schools and education, youth athletics and drag performances. Of the home states to clubs participating in Play Proud, four (Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico and, most relevantly for Detroit City, Michigan) have bills like these under consideration. According to The Trevor Project, LGBTQ+ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers — and at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds. 

As its name implies, the Play Proud program does focus on topics relevant to the LGBTQ+ community. However, one important tenet of the curriculum is to provide tools to foster inclusivity in the community as a whole. Vitally for Detroit and other clubs, those lessons will be transferable across other areas of diversity. 

“This is a 100-hour program — there’s 100% focus on LGBTQ+ inclusion, but our identities are not black and white,” Barrett-O’Keefe said. “They’re complex and they’re fluid. We need to ensure that clubs are nuanced and are able to be welcoming for all different types of people, regardless of their various backgrounds. We use this as a lens to discuss identity, power and privilege at a wider scope.”

One chief focus of Play Proud is to help clubs better embed into their community to ensure all levels of their operation are representative of those who may support them. Census data shows that 77.9 percent of Detroit residents are Black or African-American, well above the current national rate of 13.6 percent. Despite this, Wright and Barrett-O’Keefe both cited that the Detroit City fan base skews predominantly White.

“We do a lot of city mapping of the supporter section,” Barrett-O’Keefe said, “their stands, the players on the team, the staff and the front office. Are they representative of the communities that we’re in? Is my club in a primarily Black community but my supporter section is all White, cis-gendered people? Let’s think about that. Where are our stadiums based, how are we providing transportation and access? How are we getting information out to communities? Are we translating our content? Really take a step to pause and think about how accessible our game is not only to the LGBTQ population, but also to communities that our cities are in.”

While the club has long been national leaders in queer inclusivity and representation, they see this program as a way to hold themselves accountable in all areas of inclusivity.

“We are already working hard to become more of an organization that both internally and externally has our games reflect the community in which we’re based,” Wright said. “I think there’s some intrinsic challenges to the nature of the game, like who’s playing it, who’s attracted to it, who grew up with it, and then the established sports that are already existing in our community. There’s all these drivers that are kind of churning as we enter into the space, but none of those are compelling enough to be an excuse to not have a more diverse and inclusive supporter base and organization.”

Wright will be one of Detroit City’s participants in the sessions, joined by club chief of partnerships T.J. Winfrey. They’ve already worked to make the club more representative of Detroit’s citizenship by partnering with Black Star, a program striving to accelerate the growth and popularity of soccer in Black American communities. 

“If we’re talking about growing our fan base, how can you have that conversation without supporters included?” Wright said. “I truly believe that there are things that the club can do to support our supporters; it’s give and take. The positive conflict of that relationship sustains an organization over time.”

Next week, we’ll have a follow-up on the Seattle Sounders’ participation in the program after the club hosts this year’s summit.