USWNT star Davidson says Albert’s anti-LGBTQ messages ‘affected her’

United States women’s national team star Tierna Davidson said teammate Korbin Albert’s anti-LGBTQ messages ‘affected her personally’, while her Paris Olympic cohort has ‘gone through a lot of learning’. 

In March, Albert came under criticism after sharing an anti-LGBTQ social-media post to her TikTok.

The 20-year-old had previously shared a Christian sermon to the account, which discussed how being gay and ‘feeling transgender‘ is wrong. The posts resurfaced this week, sparking backlash led by US soccer legend Megan Rapinoe.

The retired player shared a post to her Instagram story addressed to ‘the people who want to hide behind “my beliefs”‘ telling them to ‘wake TF up!’

Davidson is openly gay, and got engaged to girlfriend Alison Jahansouz last March. 

‘I think it’s a difficult situation that has obviously affected me personally given what she was speaking on,’ Davidson said on ‘Good Game with Sarah Spain’. ‘I think that it is something that you have to learn as a young player, especially with the platform that you’re given is your beliefs or how you choose to express certain things is very public and people do look and listen.’ 

‘Whether or not it’s something you grew up with, or it was instilled upon you from a young age, and you might not know better, it is something that can hurt other people,’ Davidson continued. ‘I think that she has gone through a lot of learning since then and she has to continue to do that, as we all do as humans.’ 

‘We have to learn from what we do in our lives and how people react to it and understand the hurt that we can cause. I think that its difficult because as a team, we have always wanted to be very welcoming to all of our fans, to all players that walk through the locker room.’

‘To have that in our space, is very difficult. But you know, I have always believed in the ability for people to learn, and for people to change and to evolve, and that sometimes requires a very difficult experience which I think this is that moment for her.’

‘The ball is in her court for that. … It was difficult for me when it first happened and its been hard to hear how fans have been taking it because I feel like I want to represent the queer community really well on this team. I want to have fans feel really welcome and feel that they can see themselves on this field, in this team.’

‘I don’t want there to be any sort of feeling that they’re not welcome here. … I’m not someone that’s going to meet any sort of hate with hate, she is one of my teammates and I respect that and I respect her as a player.’ 

Davidson and Albert are two of the 18 women’s soccer players on Team USA, hoping to better a Bronze medal finish at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.