In May, U.S. Soccer announced that both their men’s and women’s national teams would be wearing jerseys with rainbow-colored numbers on them for the month of June. The campaign is in partnership with “You Can Play Project,” to support LGBTQ pride month.
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Upon hearing the decision, Jaelene Hinkle—who plays defense for the North Carolina Courage—withdrew herself from the U.S. roster, citing “personal reasons.”
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The 24-year-old was called into the national camp to play friendlies against Sweden and Norway this month, but removed herself from the matches following the U.S. Soccer announcement.
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Jaelene proudly displays her declaration of Christian faith on social media. Though it is unclear as to whether or not her faith is what determined her decision to withdraw, previous posts from the soccer player would suggest that to be the case.
Her Twitter proudly cites Colossians 3:23 in the bio tagline; “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”
She also writes, “If you live for people’s acceptance, you’ll die from their rejection.”
Jaelene has not spoken exclusively about her beliefs in regards to the You Can Play partnership with U.S. Soccer. But in 2015, on the day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, the soccer player took to Instagram.
Rather than throwing a fit about the events that had changed America forever that day, Jaelene SHOWED what Christianity looks like. She posted a photo of the gay-pride logo, converted into a cross.