NFL Player Christian Rozeboom Picks Anti-LGBTQ+ Group for Charitable Support

25-year-old Rams linebacker Christian Rozeboom threw his support to the anti-LGBTQ+ Fellowship of Christian Athletes for this year's "My Cause My Cleats" campaign, which allows players to use their status – and specialized cleats – to promote their favorite charitable causes, LGBTQ+ athletics site Outsports reported.

FCA, founded in 1954, "is a network of organizations that supports Christian athletes and coaches," Outsports co-founder Cyd Zeigler noted in a column for the site. "It is also rooted in homophobia and bars LGBT people from leadership positions, forcing everyone to agree to statements of faith that are rooted in anti-gay bigotry."

Rozeboom responded to Outsports with a statement in which he explained, "I chose the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as an organization I will support for My Cause, My Cleats, because it has played an integral role in my life, not only as an athlete, but also as a person."

Rozeboom went on to add that he has been involved with the anti-gay group since high school, and he detailed that his "mentor is a chaplain at my South Dakota chapter, some of my closest friends are members of FCA, and I also met my wife through the organization."

Despite his longstanding affiliation with the group – and its homophobic policies having been covered in the past – Rozeboom pled ignorance about its anti-gay views.

"FCA's stance on the LGBTQ+ community has recently been brought to my attention," the athlete told Outsports, "and I want to be very clear that I am not homophobic and do not endorse that portion of the FCA platform. I have been raised to love all people."

"On a football team, you line up with people from all walks of life, to achieve a goal that is bigger than yourself," Rozebook added. "Unity and inclusion are what I believe and practice, on and off the field."

The team also made a statement about the group, Zeigler reported: "The Rams also told Outsports the club was also 'not aware' of the anti-LGBT policies of FCA," despite a history of NFL players throwing their support to the group each year for the "My Cause My Cleats" campaign.

"Last year Trey Lance, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, supported FCA for MCMC," Zeigler noted. "He is not listed on this year's NFL rundown for the MCMC week."

While noting that the Rams are supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, and opining that "no doubt Rozenboom would be among those people supporting a gay teammate," Zeigler pointed out the lack of ambiguity around FCA's attitude toward gay people and their families and published an excerpt from the group's "sexual purity statement," which its leaders must sign, and which denies the validity of same-sex marital commitment.

"Simply because I'm gay, I'm banned from FCA leadership," Zeigler observed. "The Fellowship of Christian Athletes thinks my husband and I are not worthy of marriage, or expressing our love for one another through sex."

"I've been with my husband for almost 20 years, longer than many of the group's members have been alive," the Outsports founder added. "This one hits home for me."