When Utah’s Maddie Pogarch isn’t on the pitch, one might just find her playing around on her laptop and creating designs for fun. It started during her days in San Diego.

“I needed to find more hobbies and wanted a creative outlet,” she said.

The designs quickly became t-shirts, hats, stickers and tote bags, and the hobby became a side hustle. Pogarch opened an Etsy shop selling her brightly colored merch, but one corner of the website stands above the rest.

Everything featured on the “Future is Inclusive” page of her Etsy Shop benefits Encircle, a Salt Lake City organization that provides mental health care and support for LGBTQ+ youth and their families. The fundraiser is something she and her fiance, Houston’s Christen Westphal, have done for the last few years during Pride month, using their platform to support organizations dedicated to helping the queer community.

With vibrant shirts and empowering messages like “Love is a terrible thing to hate,” Pogarch and Westphal are doing their part.

“It’s like T-shirts with a purpose,” Pogarch said. “I think what you wear can be how you show up in the world and it can be a big first impression. We were very careful in choosing the quote because we wanted it to be something not only people who identify as LGBTQ+ would be comfortable wearing, but something allies would feel comfortable wearing. To me, it doesn’t feel controversial because we’re talking about love here, and that’s the message that I wanted to push across most.”

This bold declaration of pride is a sign of just how far Westphal, and particularly Pogarch, have come in terms of accepting their sexualities. Both having grown up in small, Midwestern towns, neither saw many examples LGBTQ+ representation.

“For a while, I was like, ‘Okay, I just need to accept it or tolerate it,’” Westphal said. “I think it’s so, so important to see that it’s not just something we can accept or it just is what it is, but it is something that should be equally celebrated. We’re here. We’re happy. We’re proud of who we are, and we want to celebrate ourselves and our relationship.”

Pogarch didn’t realize she was queer until she met Westphal in 2020. She came face to face with herself, who she was, and who she loved. One day in particular jumps out to Pogarch. As they were navigating their feelings, Pogarch sat in her car outside of Westphal’s apartment crying, realizing she needed to accept this part of herself.

“There was so much grief around accepting it because I was denying myself of that for so many years, and Christen gave me the space to be fully me in my sexuality … I love her to the ends of the earth,” Pogarch said. “It boiled down to this: ‘I do not want to lose the opportunity to love this person because I’m scared of what that might make me to other people.”

From dressing up as Bob Ross and a canvas for Halloween (“We have peaked with that costume,” Westphal said) to midseason break vacations, Pogarch and Westphal have been celebrating their love with joy for nearly five years now. Last summer, they made things official when Pogarch got down on a knee and proposed in a picturesque Napa Valley vineyard.

As Pride month comes to a close, Westphal said it was important to celebrate the joy and love because there might be someone like her younger self who needs to see a healthy, queer relationship modeled to know what is possible.

“I think how impactful that could have been for me. Growing up and seeing that normalized and celebrated, seeing it welcomed this much would have had a positive impact on me and my journey,” Westphal said.

These stories of Pride can be found across the NWSL, from both players and fans. Pogarch said the culture of acceptance is one of her favorite things about playing in this league.

“Women’s soccer and women’s sports can be like this in general, but it’s been a key characteristic of NWSL culture, that we’re a safe place for people in a bunch of different facets. It’s also, I think, a responsibility to continue that as the league grows,” she said.

Ten years and a few months after gay marriage was legalized across the United States, Westphal and Pogarch will declare their love in front of family and friends.

Well, until the Houston Dash and Utah Royals face off again on September 14. Then, it’s game on.

Purchases from the “Future is Inclusive” page of Pogarch’s Etsy shop will benefit Encircle, and people can also contribute directly to a GoFundMe page.