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NASCAR Pride Month tweet draws support from some fans, boycott threats from others

Ryan Pritt, The Daytona Beach News-Journal
·4 min read
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NASCAR drew the ire of some fans and the support of others after releasing a tweet Thursday evening in celebration of Pride Month.

"We celebrate the LGBTQ+ community during #PrideMonth and beyond." the tweet read along with a Happy Pride Month banner to go with a NASCAR logo fronted by a rainbow flag.

But not everyone was celebrating.

Fans flocked to Twitter on Thursday night and into Friday morning, with many going as far as threats of boycotting the sport while others expressed gratitude for NASCAR's stance. It's not the first time this year the organization has faced scrutiny from fans crying, "woke" after the organization announced a more environmentally aware plan in April with a goal of net zero emissions by the year 2035.

However, NASCAR's support of the LGBTQ+ community is not a new initiative. Last year, the organization took several measures to further encourage inclusion in the sport, flying the rainbow flag during June and introducing a line of Pride-themed merchandise. Those efforts also included a tweet in June of 2022 very similar to the one that landed Thursday and driver Alex Bowman sported a special Pride paint scheme.

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For the second straight year, NASCAR tweeted in support of Pride Month but this time around, fan reactions were much more plentiful and pointed with some calling for a boycott of the sport.
For the second straight year, NASCAR tweeted in support of Pride Month but this time around, fan reactions were much more plentiful and pointed with some calling for a boycott of the sport.

That too came with criticism from some fans with NASCAR president Steve Phelps elaborating on that decision as well as its efforts at becoming more welcoming to all with Fox Sports last June.

“Generally, we as a sport haven’t been as welcoming and inclusive to the LGBTQ community, and we want to be,” Phelps said. “The efforts that we’ve made with Hispanics and with African Americans, this is another important group that we want to reach out to. We want our sport to be as welcoming and inclusive as it can be. That’s what race fans, our existing fans primarily, not all of them, but they want to share this sport with others. They do. Whether it’s someone’s sexual orientation or the color of their skin or whatever that might be, it’s immaterial. It’s a love for racing that they want to celebrate with each other. That’s really something we’re working really hard at.”

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But Twitter was an exceptionally volatile place on Thursday night, with several fans citing recent boycotts of Bud Light and Target over LGBTQ+ support as motivation for spurning NASCAR for good. Others responded, backing the organization with the tweet holding around 22,000 likes and 4,062 retweets as of Friday morning. That compared to just 4,632 likes and 778 retweets for NASCAR's Pride Month post last year.

Here are some of those reactions:

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR pride month tweet gets strong reactions from fans