FIFA's Jill Ellis Calling America 'Anti-Gay' While Defending Qatar Is Completely Delusional

Imagine the mental gymnastics it takes to accuse the United States of being "anti-gay" while bending over backward to defend Qatar.

Yet that's exactly what FIFA executive Jill Ellis did this week when asked about growing criticism of Qatar as a potential host nation for a future Women's Club World Cup.

The Middle Eastern country — which hosted the men's World Cup in 2022 — is now reportedly exploring a bid to host the women's tournament. That immediately raised red flags for obvious reasons: the country's treatment of women, its criminalization of homosexuality and its complete lack of meaningful investment in the women's game.

For reference, Qatar's own women's national team has been inactive for more than a decade.

Fireworks go off around a replica of the World Cup trophy before the start of the Qatar 2022 World Cup quarter-final football match.

(Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)

So when Ellis, the former U.S. Women's National Team coach and now FIFA's chief football officer, was asked whether those realities should factor into FIFA's decision-making, she didn't actually answer the question. 

Instead, she tried to flip it back on the United States.

"I’m going to put my personal hat on. There are over 500 bills in the U.S. with anti-gay legislation on them," Ellis said. "I also come from the U.S., but right now there’s a big light being shown on that. So I’m very, very careful not to throw stones in glass houses, right?"

That might be one of the most disingenuous takes I've heard.

Here's What Life Looks Like For Women In Qatar

Let's be very clear about what critics are talking about when they raise concerns about Qatar.

Women in Qatar are not treated as legal equals to men. That's true both socially and legally.

They are subject to male guardianship laws that govern marriage, divorce, travel and family life. A woman needs approval from a male guardian to marry. A man does not. Men can have multiple spouses. Women cannot.

Under Qatar's personal status law, wives are legally obligated to "obey" their husbands. Women can lose financial support if they refuse sex or work without their husband's permission. Divorce rights are unequal. Inheritance rights are unequal.

In some cases, unmarried Qatari women under 25 must obtain male guardian permission to travel abroad. Male relatives can request travel bans on female family members through the state.

Now an executive for FIFA, Jill Ellis is the winningest coach in USWNT history, leading the team to two consecutive FIFA Women’s World Cup titles in 2015 and 2019.

(Photo by Marcelo Endelli - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Liberal women in the United States can don their performative Handmaid's Tale costumes all they want. But what's happening in Qatar is actual second-class citizenship for women, written directly into law.

It's Illegal To Be Gay In Qatar

Unlike the United States, where same-sex relationships and marriages are legal nationwide, homosexuality is criminalized in Qatar.

Consensual same-sex sexual activity can be punished with prison sentences. LGBTQ expression is censored. Advocacy is restricted. Same-sex couples cannot marry, cannot live openly, and cannot challenge the law without serious personal and legal risk.

We saw this play out during the 2022 Men's World Cup in Qatar, when players were threatened with punishment for wearing "One Love" armbands — a threat FIFA itself enforced, by the way.

Midfielder from Belgium with the ONE LOVE armband during a team photo session ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

(Photo by Vincent Kalut / Photo News via Getty Images)

But sure. The United States, where men parade through the streets in thongs and make out with each other on parade floats during Pride Month, is totally the same.

What Those U.S. ‘Anti-Gay’ Bills Actually Are

Let's contrast Qatar's laws with what Ellis lumped together as "anti-gay legislation" in the United States.

The ACLU did, in fact, track 616 "anti-LGBTQ" bills in the U.S. in 2025. But when you dig into those bills, the narrative really begins to fall apart.

Those hundreds of bills fall into just a handful of categories:

• Limiting girls' and women's sports to biological females
• Preserving single-sex spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms
• Defining "sex" in law as biological sex, not gender identity
• Restricting irreversible medical transition procedures to adults over 18
• Shielding minors — especially in schools — from sexually explicit material

If you want to disagree with any of these policy proposals, be my guest. But calling them "anti-gay" is a gross mischaracterization.

None of those laws criminalize homosexuality. None of them make it illegal to be gay or transgender. None of them impose prison sentences based on whom you choose to love, marry or sleep with.

Ellis herself is married to a woman. Good thing they don't live in Qatar.

There Are No ‘Glass Houses’ Here 

Ellis framed her comments as a warning against hypocrisy — the idea that Americans shouldn't criticize Qatar because the United States supposedly has its own "anti-gay" problem.

With even a little bit of scrutiny, that framing collapses immediately.

She's comparing American legislative debates to a country where women lack basic legal autonomy and homosexuality is a crime. It's completely unserious. And insulting to all of our intelligence.

German players covered their mouths during the team photo before their Qatar 2022 World Cup opener against Japan to protest FIFA’s ban on wearing the "One Love" anti-discrimination armband.

(Photo by Maja Hitij - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

The bills Ellis is referring to are not about criminalizing gay people, jailing adults for consensual relationships or erasing civil rights. They are about defining sex as a biological reality in law and shielding children from sexually explicit material and irreversible medical interventions. 

Not the same thing.

The United States is debating how best to balance competing interests in a pluralistic society. Qatar throws human rights to the wind and enforces hierarchy by law.

These are not glass houses. They aren't even in the same neighborhood.