When U.S. Soccer first introduced Pride number kits in 2017, Tierna Davidson hadn’t yet received her first senior team call-up.
So, as a young queer fan and youth National Team player, Davidson watched the USWNT and USMNT suit up in jerseys that celebrated her community.
“It felt really appropriate for the team,” Davidson said. “The team has historically always been a beacon for the queer community and to wear the numbers just felt really fitting. ... I think they were probably one of the first sports teams to do that. I feel like I hadn’t seen that in sports before.”
It wasn’t long until Davidson got a chance to wear the number herself. After winning an NCAA title later that year with Stanford, the defender earned her first cap in January 2018. She started the first six games of the year before Pride month rolled around, and made her seventh appearance in the June international window.
She remembers the special moment, the moment she got a chance to showcase the rainbow-styled number on the back of her jersey. It also came with a victory in a 1-0 win against China PR in Sandy, Utah.
“It just felt so important to be able to represent myself, to be able to represent other queer individuals, and be able to celebrate that,” Davidson said. “But also just to feel the gravitas that the queer community has in our team and the importance we all felt to represent them. I think especially at the time I first wore the Pride jersey, there was a lot of representation on the team, so it was just fun, almost a community builder. It was like a Pride party on the field.”