‘Hateful and Intolerant’: UMass to Hold ‘Pride Day’ While Hosting Liberty University Football Team

The University of Massachusetts is planning to hold an LGBTQ Pride Day on the same day that the Minutemen host the Liberty University Flames in a football game.

UMass made the “special announcement” on Twitter in a 37-second video featuring techno music and a uniformed player wearing a large gold chain with a cross dangling from his neck, standing in a room lit by rainbow colors associated with the LGBTQ community. It ends by showing how to get tickets for the Oct. 8 game.

Although several users applauded the move online, several social users also responded negatively to the school’s announcement and the imagery in the video, implying it was in bad taste to taunt a school for its Christian beliefs. 

“Wow, how hateful and intolerant,” one user replied. 

“Maybe you should have more pride in your football program and improve your 2-29 record since 2019,” a user said. 

Another user commented, “Would @UMassFootball attack the MUSLIM faith like this? Probably not. Their virtue signaling wouldn’t allow it. Any Christians/Catholics still supporting UMASS financially, might not be aligned correctly.”

One user who claimed he lived near Liberty University said he saw no hate against LGBTQ people from Liberty students. 

“I live near LU. When LGBT activists hold protest around the school, students bake them cookies and give them bottled water. There’s no hate on the part of LU. But I’m guessing a lot of hate will be thrown at LU when they play UMass. We’ll see who the real bigots are,” the user wrote. 

Liberty, which started as a Baptist college under founder Jerry Falwell in 1971, is a conservative, evangelical university in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Christian school is one of the largest private, nonprofit universities in the nation, and the largest university in Virginia. Liberty offers more than 700 unique programs of study from the certificate to the doctoral level. Over 450 programs are offered online. 

The school has an enrollment exceeding 130,000, including 40,000 military students and more than 700 international students. 

Utilizing its world-class infrastructure and Christian faculty, Liberty’s mission, according to the school’s website, is to Train Champions for Christ with the values, knowledge, and skills essential for impacting tomorrow’s world.

In addition, the website notes Liberty students volunteer more than 500,000 hours per year.

The game at UMass will not be the first time a Flames athletic team arrived elsewhere only to find their host turning the game into an LGBT activist event. They played at Northwestern in field hockey on Sept. 9, and the Wildcats had set that day as their Pride Game.

CBN News has contacted Liberty to ask for a comment on the UMass announcement. We’ll publish it here when we hear back.

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