Houston's LGBTQ+ community had mixed emotions as Qatar hosts World Cup
on Friday as drag queen Jacklyn Dior raffled away sex toys, moderated a game called"Jingle Balls" and hosted soccer trivia all within a 10-minute span. But toward the end of the show, Jorge Molina — president of Space City Pride FC, the LGBTQ+ soccer club hosting the event — took the mic to offer more sober remarks.
He also held a moment of silence for the victims of the Club Q shooting last weekend, when five people were killed and 18 more were injured after man with an AR-15 style rifle opened fire in the Colorado Springs gay bar — a reminder that LGBTQ+ people were under attack at home, too."It's fantastic to see straight, gay, lesbian, women men come out here and just join together to enjoy what we love, which is soccer," Molina said.
For Zachary Stewart, one of Space City Pride FC's founders, the idea that the international soccer community would speak up in support of gay rights on a world stage was unthinkable, as a kid growing up in rural Pennsylvania.
Space City Pride FC went through various iterations in the years since Stewart moved to Houston, but began to pick up traction in about 2018, organizers say. They recently changed their name from the Houston Haycocks to Space City Pride in an effort to fulfill their mission of being"Houston's inclusive soccer club for the LGBTQ+ community."
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