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On June 13, at Qatar’s World Cup match in Santa Clara, California, Dr. Nas Mohamed — a physician and the first openly gay Qatari to seek asylum in the U.S. after fleeing state persecution –– stood in the stands alongside California State Sen. Scott Wiener. That day, the two posted a joint statement to Instagram, calling on FIFA and sponsors to “stop looking away” from the persecution of LGBTQ people around the globe.

The statement did not name Qatar or a single sponsor, and did not include a concrete demand.

Philosopher Judith Butler, whose foundational work on performativity underlies much of contemporary LGBTQIA2S theory, was direct when asked about the action, saying: “‘To address’ an issue is not the same as naming and condemning that issue: it is a non-committal obfuscation, but not a performative speech act, strictly speaking … What you are describing is a non-committal gesture, the agreement to talk about something in vague terms.”

For six days after the match, U.S. and global media remained silent on the “gesture.”

“The disconnect with the media is intense,” Mohamed told me. “Arabic coverage is none, like none of this ever happened.”

Gaza Soccer Player Who Dreamed of Competing in World Cup Can Now Barely Watch It

Yet where the statement failed to land, the images did. Posts documenting Mohamed’s presence at the match, shared by Tariq Aziz –– a Saudi human rights activist whose content has been actively suppressed by social media platforms in compliance with Saudi government censorship requests –– reached over 12 million views in the Arab world, despite receiving almost no coverage in Western or Arab-language media.

After a week of minimal coverage primarily in LGBT outlets like Attitude and Outsports, the Associated Press published a story that was swiftly syndicated by dozens of local media outlets. Though Arab-language media largely ignored it, the story ultimately reached U.S. audiences.

“I think we need to be careful not to simply apply a Western lens of LGBTQ advocacy to this moment,” Phillip Picardi, founder of Them and editor-in-chief of Playboy told me. “I trust that Dr. Nas is bringing his own lived experience and understanding of the LGBTQ community in Qatar to this moment, and I hope it lands with the impact he intended.”

The question of what LGBTQIA2S advocacy should look like in 2026 is not hypothetical; it is being actively contested. Wiener’s World Cup stunt, and his broader status as a subject of controversy among Bay Area queer activists, reveal shifting understandings of what activism and solidarity should look like.

“We are coming down from our peak of societal acceptance as a movement,” said Picardi. “I think the community felt really concerned that our movement and our activism was getting co-opted and diluted — and so, when the dollars started to dry up, the community went to work.” Some of that work has been rewarded.

The Gender Liberation Movement, which spearheaded a U.S. Capitol bathroom sit-in resulting in the arrest of 15 activists, including Chelsea Manning, protesting Republican efforts to prevent transgender women from using women’s restrooms in the Capitol and House of Representatives, recently received funding from Ariana Grande’s nonprofit. LGBTQIA2S leaders at Jewish Voice for Peace have called explicitly for divestment from Israel and a ceasefire. The bolder advocacy Picardi describes exists; it just rarely shares a stadium with a sitting state senator.

San Francisco Cultural Districts

San Francisco is a historical capital of LGBTQIA2S activism, and it remains a potent frontier for radical queer political action. San Francisco’s........

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