Professional sports franchises have been holding Pride Night festivities for years, but recently it seems like many of them are creating negative headlines with the way they try to manage both sides of the LGBTQ+ story.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the latest pro sports team to step on rakes over the situation. They announced Wednesday that they had disinvited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their upcoming Pride Night on June 16, after the New York-based Catholic League and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dedicated a public campaign to make that happen.
“In the spirit of unity, the Los Angeles Dodgers are proud to host our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th,” read the Dodgers statement. “This event has become a meaningful tradition, highlighting not only the diversity and resilience within our fanbase, but also the impactful work of extraordinary community groups.
This year, as part of a full night of programming, we invited a number of groups to join us. We are now aware that our inclusion of one group in particular – The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – in this year’s pride night has been the source of some controversy.
Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we have seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees.”
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1658908923213262848
The Dodgers originally said they invited the Sisters to receive the Community Hero Award “for their countless hours of community service, ministry, and outreach to those on the edges, in addition to promoting human rights and respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment.”
As Outsports notes, the Sisters “were instrumental in providing assistance” to people affected during the AIDS crisis, at a time when the Catholic Church and Republicans, ignored the community.
It’s unfortunate that the Major League Baseball club is drawing the line at celebrating the Sisters because a Florida senator and Twitter trolls made a big fuss about it.
