Inspired by LGBT group Stonewall's Rainbow Laces campaign, which saw premiere UK football and rugby players wearing rainbow-colored shoelaces in solidarity with the LGBT community, EA sports decided to promote inclusivity in its own way by offering a limited-time option for FIFA 17 players to deck out their teams in rainbow jerseys.

While many applauded the video game developer's inclusive move, a vocal minority railed against the company's attempt to push a "political agenda."

In the approximately three days that the rainbow uniforms were available for players to use, a phenomenon called "rage quitting" surfaced, where homophobic players would video themselves immediately disconnecting from any game that featured the Pride jerseys.

"To see players disconnect from a game when the opposite team are playing in rainbow shirts demonstrates just how important it is to continue to support these ideas and unite all gamers and players until phobias are stamped out," remarked Curtis Free of the London Gaymers.

"We hope it really is just the vocal minority as we believe most gamers and sports fans do welcome and accept LGBTQ players," he continued. "Let's not let those voices drown out the successes elsewhere."

EA has long been supportive of the LGBT community, most recently by removing all "gender barriers" from its latest version of The Sims this past summer.

"We’re really glad to see EA take a firm stance on inclusion and we hope they continue to introduce similar initiatives and gameplay mechanics across their games and that other video game companies aspire to follow in their footsteps," Free concluded.

h/t: Gay Star News