Pride Jersey Sales Benefit Rainbow Center in Tacoma
OL Reign’s 2020 Pride Match, presented by Boeing, at the NWSL Challenge Cup may not have served as the gathering and celebration that fans have come to look forward to every year, but it still provided the chance to support the South Sound’s LGBTQ+ community. The club’s team-signed Pride jerseys, complete with rainbow numbers, were sold off on the OL Reign online store for $249.00 each and raised over $6,000 for the Rainbow Center in Tacoma.
“It’s really important that we still celebrate Pride,” OL Reign midfielder Jess Fishlock said. “When I heard that our game against Portland would be the Pride game, it put a massive smile on my face because it’s important that you still send these messages. Even though you can’t be out in a massive crowd doing the Pride walk and what it stands for, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do the things that we’re doing. You can still send out the message. You can still have a Pride match. You can still do all the things that we do related to Pride. You can still do the things that we’ve done the last eight years. It warms my heart that even though we’re in this environment, we still felt that it was important to dedicate the jerseys and the game to Pride.”
The Rainbow Center is a non-profit that aims to educate, advocate and celebrate on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community in the South Puget Sound. In addition to organizing the annual Tacoma Pride Festival, Rainbow Center provides an education program for employers and individuals to help understand the challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community and how to be good allies, which has informed thousands of people in the past two years.
The organization is a vocal advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. It works with lawmakers, helping shape legislation that will affect the community, and collaborates with government officials to help them understand the issues that members of the community face.
Rainbow Center also provides tangible resources and support for the LGBTQ+ community, providing mental health vouchers and legal assistance for LGBTQ+ people who have been the victims of hate crimes, discrimination or harassment. During the extra hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rainbow Center has also provided support of food vouchers and rental assistance for members of the LGBTQ+ community who have lost their jobs or homes.
Troy Christensen, The Rainbow Center’s executive director, was thrilled to receive OL Reign’s support.
“It was a boon for us,” Christensen said. “We were not only excited about the donations, but we were excited that OL Reign selected us, that they knew enough about who we were that they wanted to provide support. That’s probably even more important than the cash donation. Don’t get me wrong, we’re incredibly grateful for the donation, but knowing that there is some part of the OL Reign organization that loves our population as much as we love them was a great thing for us, because we have some die-hard fans of the club.”
Christensen said that the funds from the donation would be dispersed into the Rainbow Center’s advocacy wing, including providing rental and food assistance, as well as helping fund staff outreach programs.
For the Rainbow Center OL Reign’s openly LGBTQ+ athletes provide another critical element of support for its mission – visibility.
“It’s a huge assistance (to have publicly out athletes),” Christensen said. “I can stand at a podium and talk all day long, but people don’t see me the same way that they might see an athlete or an actor. Having people who have a large scope of influence makes a huge difference to the work that we do. Having someone who has a celebrity status means that people are listening. They may listen when we talk, but they might see us as just trying to advance our own self-interest. When it’s an athlete who says it, their self-interest is in athleticism and their career in it. It doesn’t look self-serving. It really can help people begin to accept that there are people who are different from them who are still good, loving, caring, successful people. We need to recognize that that’s the case and stop treating them poorly.”
Asked what people can do to help support their LGBTQ+ neighbors in the South Sound, Christensen pointed to two things they can do right away.
“First off, they can vote,” Christensen said. “Our world could be going one of two directions in the upcoming election. I think voting to make sure that people are protected and that people are seen is more important than ever. Fans need to know that. The second, is that if they know anyone who is LGBTQ, they’re often isolated to start with. During this pandemic, they’re isolated even more so. If they have anyone that they know and care about, I’d encourage them to reach out to them and see how they’re doing. If they’re in the South Puget Sound, refer them to us if they need some resources or help.”