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What It's Like Raising a Gay Pride Banner at the Russian World Cup

Di Cunningham, the co-founder of a UK group for LGBTQ soccer fans, hopes to raise her Three Lions Pride banner at every England match in the notoriously homophobic country.
All photos courtesy of Di Cunning / Three Lions Pride

When Di Cunningham brought her rainbow banner to Russia, she wasn't sure what would happen.

Cunningham is the co-founder of Pride in Football, an alliance of LGBTQ soccer fan groups across the UK, as well as the co-founder of Three Lions Pride, a group of LGBTQ England supporters.

This year, the soccer fan traveled to Russia with four other Three Lions Pride members to support England as it fights for a place in the finals of the FIFA World Cup. But they also had another mission: to hoist their rainbow banner at matches to represent LGBTQ soccer fans everywhere.

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Russia is notoriously hostile to queer people. Though homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993, its 2013 anti-gay propaganda law has been used to target LGBTQ activists. In 2017, the Russian republic of Chechnya reportedly set up concentration camps to detain and torture gay men.

As the World Cup kicked off last week, a French supporter and his companion were beaten up in St. Petersburg. LGBT rights activist Peter Thatchell was also detained for protesting Vladimir Putin's inaction on Chechnya near the Red Square in Moscow. (He was later released.)

FIFA's anti-discrimination advisors, the Football Against Racism in Europe Network (FARE), even warned LGBTQ fans visiting Russia against participating in political protests and to avoid public displays of affection.


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Cunningham was feeling understandably nervous about taking the Three Lions Pride flag into the first England match on Monday. The banner is a rainbow version of the Three Lions insignia associated with the team, and has been fully backed by England's Football Association.

"We had spoken to FIFA officials early in the day, and they had made it very clear that this was fine to take in," Cunningham said. "They wanted it to be displayed, they wanted there to be a signal of LGBT+ inclusion, as part of the World Cup."

There were some "exchanged glances" when Cunningham's bag was searched ahead of entering the stadium in Volgograd. The main steward in charge of the routine baggage checks, she says, "seemed really conflicted."

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"Obviously [they're] on instructions to be welcoming, and he felt that he had to challenge the banner," Cunningham explained. "He was very polite and said he'd talk to his supervisor."

The banner in the stadium.

After a nervous wait of 15 to 20 minutes, the Three Lions Group group was let in with a big smile and the words, "Please, go in, there’s nothing wrong."

Once in the stadium, they hung up the banner and were immediately swamped with support from other England fans. "People were coming up and saying, 'Well done,' and some said 'Thank you,' which was awesome. So that was spectacular—we had hugs and high-fives."

The rainbow banner even appeared in a photograph posted by the official @England Twitter account. People in Russia have also responded well to the banner, Cunningham says.

After it appeared on Russian TV as part of the football broadcast, the receptionist at her hotel stopped her as she was checking out. "She raised her hand in the air as if she was holding a flag and was waving it back and forth," Cunningham says. "She had this huge smile on her face, and she reached out to shake my hand!"

On Saturday, Cunningham and the Three Lions Pride group will travel with their banner to Nizhny Novgorod for England's second qualifying match. They plan to continue flying the rainbow flag at all the matches they attend, and a trip to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup is also in the works.

Like Russia, Qatar has also been criticized for its homophobic policies. Homosexuality is illegal in the upcoming host nation, and is punishable by one to three years in jail.

"We just thought, 'We need to go to these countries,'" Cunningham says. "If [FIFA] confer on us some kind of safety—some kind of security—through organizing the tournament, then we should take advantage of that and make sure that visibility and that message goes around the world and goes to the host countries too."