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If you want to be one of us, you are. It’s an ethos the Rose City Riveters—and the nonprofit 107ist that organizes both the Riveters and the Timbers Army—have tried to embrace since the Portland Thorns’ first season in 2013.
But what happens when somebody who’s welcomed in tries to exclude others?
The Riveters gave a clear answer this month: that welcoming space does not extend to bigotry. They showed as much when they had stadium staff relocate a man from the supporters’ section of Providence Park after learning that he was attaching racist and transphobic flyers and wristbands to trans flags in the North End before Portland’s March 29 home match.
The flyers falsely alleged that several African-born NWSL players are not women. (None of the players in question played for the Thorns—or for their opponent in the March 29 match, for that matter.)
The Thorns front office is still reviewing the incident, but the Riveters have already taken a hard stance on the issue.
“We have no wiggle room on transphobia in our spaces,” Tina Ettlin says.
Ettlin is a prominent figure in the North End, stationed near the field with half-red, half-black hair and an Iron Front flag. She’s been a capo—someone who leads chants in the fan section—for the Thorns since 2017, serves as the Riveters’ steering committee representative on the 107ist board, and is the Riveters’ representative at the North American Independent Supporters Council.
She’s also staunchly committed to making the North End an inclusive sanctuary for Thorns fans—and that means no tolerance for bigoted messaging. “We’re not going to subject our other members to somebody like that within our spaces, ever,” she says.
And the Riveters didn’t. The 107ist board reviewed the incident, found that the man distributing the flyers had been posting similar messaging online—as well as in the Providence Park men’s room—and unanimously decided to annul his 107ist membership. “The decision to revoke his membership was pretty easy, to be completely honest,” Ettlin says. “He was head-to-toe in Riveters gear. He put it directly onto trans flags. It was targeted. And we just don’t deal with that shit.”
It feels good to see the Riveters taking this kind of stand, especially when anti-trans hysteria is so prevalent in the women’s sports landscape—and the federal government is actively seeking to deny rights to trans individuals. Against Racing Louisville, the Riveters displayed a trans flag front and center, alongside a banner declaring that trans people belong in sports.
“I’m still blown away by it having been a thing,” says Hailey Hunt, a capo for the Riveters and longtime Thorns fan. “If he can’t be here and be civil and be respectful and nice in a community who openly is supporting of trans people, gay people, everyone, if you’re going to make this place a hateful place, you need to leave.”
This isn’t the first time this year that something like this has happened in the NWSL. Inflamed in part by the author J.K. Rowling in the U.K., soccer fans have spread malicious rumors about several players from the Global South. Just five days before the flyering at Providence Park, another fan was reported to stadium security at NJ/NY Gotham’s home opener for “hateful language directed at Barbara Banda,” according to a release from the club. A week and a half later, the team announced it had revoked the person’s season tickets and banned them from future Gotham matches and events.
But outside of losing his 107ist membership, the Portland fan’s fate is still up in the air.
The Thorns front office said it was conducting a full review of the incident in question. In a statement to Willamette Week, the club acknowledged, “an individual violated Providence Park’s Fan Experience Guidelines by distributing unapproved materials within the stadium,” and emphasized that “our priority is to foster a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for every fan at Providence Park.” A club spokesperson could not provide further information or a timeline for resolution by press deadline.
The NWSL, too, has weighed in on the uptick in bigoted speech with a new statement displayed during recent matches leaguewide. “The NWSL is proud to be a welcoming, respectful and inclusive league for all,” it reads. “Discriminatory language and behavior based on race, sex, gender identity and/or sexual orientation have no place in our game and will not be tolerated in our venues.” The league writes that violators may face penalties, which can include being removed from the stadium and barred from future matches.
The Thorns front office is new this year, so I’m willing to give it at least some benefit of the doubt on its extended silence. There’s pressure for the Thorns to get this right—and not to amplify hateful messaging in any response they do share.
But I can’t help looking at the swift response (and transparency) of NJ/NY Gotham to a similar instance and at the Riveters’ immediate assertion that someone disseminating racist and transphobic flyers should not be in their space. Optics aren’t everything, but a statement of solidarity with some of those who are the most politically targeted in this country right now isn’t meaningless, either.
“While we hope this is an isolated incident,” the 107ist wrote in an email to their members, “we remain vigilant and committed to addressing any future occurrences of hate, and it is on every one of us to stamp it out.”
There’s no ambiguity there. I hope the Thorns front office—in whatever actions it takes or statements it makes—can put forth a message that says the same.
NEXT MATCH
vs. Orlando Pride
4:30 pm Saturday, May 3
Providence Park