With just 20 days until the U.S. men’s national team take on Mexico in their World Cup qualifying match, U.S. Soccer is taking a stand against a popular chant that perpetuates homophobia and gay bashing. 

The federation’s board of directors voted Friday on a resolution that will adopt a zero-tolerance policy regarding anti-gay chants at all matches hosted or sanctioned in the U.S., including international matches played here. 

The board also agreed to work on a way to implement FIFA’s own three-step protocol at all matches “promoted or controlled by U.S. Soccer.” 

The ban comes just 20 days before the USMNT takes the field before a packed house at the fabled Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, where fans have a long history of chanting the word “puto.” The slur has many meanings but when it’s shouted at opposing players, it’s roughly translated to mean “male prostitute” in colloquial Spanish. 

This happens so frequently at Esadio Azteca, that FIFA has issued multiple fines against Mexico’s Football Federation. In response, the MFF issued a ban of its own in January. Violators caught chanting that or any other homophobic slur risk being banned from matches for five years, as the Los Angeles Blade reported.

But this problem is hardly limited to Mexico. 

In June, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, (CONCACAF) league’s final match in the Mile-High City was halted after fans disrupted the game play by shouting the vulgar chant at players on the field.

Then in November, the Los Angeles Football Club’s final home match of the 2021 season was marred by fans chanting at least three times. The LAFC announced recently it would work to stop the practice by teaming up with the LGBTQ fan group Pride Republic, as well as The 3252, which is the club’s largest official fan group, in hopes of curbing the use of the slur at Banc of California Stadium.

“While to many, it may seem like crowd chants at soccer matches may just be sophomoric attempts to distract the players on an opposing team, as a queer, Latino soccer fan, these discriminatory chants cut much deeper,” said Christopher Vasquez, NCLR Director of Communications, in a statement posted online. 

“For LGBTQ Latinos, these chants – almost always using a highly-derogatory Spanish slur – create an atmosphere of hostility, recalling long-lasting memories of fear and rejection,” Vasquez added. “We applaud U.S. Soccer for passing a ban on these homophobic chants to ensure that all of their matches are inclusive of their entire fan base. U.S. Soccer today made an unequivocal statement that there is no room for hate and homophobia in football and now it must take action to make this resolution an enforceable policy at its next meeting.”

U.S. Soccer didn’t come to this decision all on its own. Reports by the Blade, Outsports and ESPN kept pressure on the board of directors. NCLR worked with attorney Paul C. Burke of Equality Utah to put even more public pressure on U.S. Soccer, with a social media toolkit that urged the organization to pass the ban on the discriminatory chants with the hashtag campaign #BanTheChant.