Major League Baseball Backs Down Over Pride Night

Temperature check: just three years ago,

In mid-May [2023], the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team invited an activist LGBTQ+ drag troupe called the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” whose members are known for dressing in drag resembling the black-and-white habits of Catholic nuns, to appear at the team’s annual Pride event next month.

The group’s members, it’s worth noting, use various sexual and blasphemous stage names that really don’t bear repeating. They annually host a “Foxy Mary and Hunky Jesus” contest on Easter Sunday — the holiest day of the year for Christians. According to Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron, who previously served as an auxiliary bishop in L.A., this year’s performance included one performer using the cross in a pole-dancing routine.

. . . A public outcry from leaders of the Catholic Church prompted the Dodgers to rescind their plans to honor the group with a “Community Hero Award,” as initially announced. But the Dodgers caved to progressive voices and changed their mind again, apologizing to the organization and re-inviting members to “take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night.”

This summer, Major League Baseball has been out to tone things down, more or less:

Major League Baseball and commissioner Rob Manfred have allowed individual teams to hold Pride nights, but the league office has told teams that having players wear anything bearing logos for those events is a step too far.

When addressing LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations, Manfred said that the league wants to do its best to “protect players.”

“We have told teams, in terms of actual uniforms, hats, bases that we don’t think putting logos on them is a good idea just because of the desire to protect players,” Manfred told reporters on Thursday, according to the Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes.

“Not putting them in a position of doing something that may make them uncomfortable because of their personal views.”

But not everyone got the message:

As you know, the San Francisco Giants forced players to wear pRiDe rainbow caps. Some players objected to being forced to wear this antibiblical message, so they put little strips of cloth on the caps noting a specific Biblical passage that mentions the rainbow as God's promise to never flood the world again.

It was a small attempt to balance out the compromise of their conscience being forced upon them by the Gay Mafia, Baseball Chapter, and the Gay Mafia could not tolerate that. They threatened to fine or discipline the players daring to safeguard their own consciences, citing fake rules that no player may ever include his own private messages on his uniform.

That's a lie, the league allowed/encouraged BLM messaging on uniforms and cleats.

Major League Baseball was quick to try to put out the fire:

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred told Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that San Francisco Giants players who wrote Bible verse references on their Pride Night hats will not face fines or discipline over the incident, while defending the league’s uniform policy at the center of the controversy.

In a June 19 letter posted to X by Hawley on Monday, Manfred said MLB’s office issued "a routine oral warning" after Giants players added biblical references to caps with the team’s Pride logo. But he said the warning came before the league learned the Giants had not clearly told players they could wear regular caps instead.

"The players were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be," Manfred wrote.

. . . MLB initially said the writing violated league rules against players altering uniforms or equipment. In his letter to Hawley, Manfred said that rule was collectively bargained with the MLB Players Association and prohibits players from writing, attaching, affixing, embroidering or otherwise displaying messages on apparel or playing equipment.

"The policy is enforced without regard to the substance of the messaging," Manfred wrote.

. . . However, Manfred said the Dodgers and Giants were allowed to keep using Pride emblems on uniforms and hats under a grandfathered exception because Los Angeles and San Francisco are home to large LGBTQ communities and both clubs wanted to show support for those fans.

. . . Manfred said the Giants’ communication with players this year was "inadequate and not clear" and added that some players did not understand they had the option to wear their normal uniform and added messages to the Pride caps "as a result."

As of now, the Texas Rangers are the only MLB teram without a pride night, but "pride night" at sports venues has been a key element of the gay agenda:

While she doesn't believe the Rangers risk losing fans over their stance on Pride, [Rangers fan Misty] Lockhart would prefer the Rangers complete the MLB picture on something that is believed to have started with the Chicago Cubs in 2001.

“I think if it were something where MLB said, ‘We’re not participating in this,’ but the MLB does participate in it. And the Rangers have chosen not to,” Lockhart said. “I think that's where I take the bigger issue, is they have actively chosen not to participate in it.”

. . . “I think it's a private organization. And if they don't want to have it, I don't think they should be forced to have it,” [fan Will] Davis said. “In something like this, this is a way for people to go as a state. We don't want the political stuff shoved down our throats one way or the other, left or right. We're coming out here to have a good time with friends or family and let it be.”

It sounds like pride night is getting to be something sports teams woulld just as soon not have to deal with, which is all to the good.