MLB Should Go Further Than Pride Nights At The Ballpark To Support The LGBTQ+ Community

Tomorrow is the first day of June. It’s also the first day of LGBTQ+ Pride Month. Twenty-nine of the 30 MLB teams will host a Pride Day or Pride Night at their ballpark in June. The Texas Rangers are the only MLB team to never host a Pride Night. Given the right-wing political culture in parts of Texas, that doesn’t surprise me. Disappoint me, yes. Surprise me, no.

Outsports put together a terrific guide to Pride Day/Night at the other 29 ballparks this season. Special event giveaways include Pride fanny packs, caps, t-shirts and jerseys and flags. The Guardians will put on a Pride fireworks show in Cleveland. Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye and members of the LGBTQ+ community in Chicago will sing “Take Me Out to The Ballgame” at Wrigley Field.

As Outsports notes, Pride Nights are as much a marketing ploy as a social justice initiative, if not more. According to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ comprise more than 4 percent of the population of 22 out of 30 MLB cities. In Pittsburgh, Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Houston, the LGBTQ+ population hovers between 3 and 4 percent. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, reported in 2021 that overall in the U.S., the LGBTQ+ population may be as high as 8 percent.

Attendance at MLB games has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the average game attendance across all MLB ballparks was 28,203, which even then marked the seventh-consecutive season of declining attendance. So far this season, average attendance is 26,788. So it make sense for teams to market themselves to every sliver of the population in their metropolitan areas.

But MLB needs to do more.

Right now, the LGBTQ+ community is under constant attack from right-wing political ecosystem: politicians, Fox News talking heads, and conservative influencers and advocacy groups. Nineteen states have enacted laws that ban doctors from performing transgender affirming medical care; seven more are considering such bills. Eighteen states have banned drag shows or are considering doing do. Led by Governor Ron DeSantis—now a candidate for President—Florida banned the word “gay” and any discussion of sexual orientation in K-12 schools. Efforts to ban books that discuss any aspect of LGBTQ+ life are popping up everywhere.

MLB claims to have a robust diversity, equity and inclusion initiative. The website for MLB’s DEI campaign has the following mission statement at the top.

Yet, the various DEI projects discussed on the website and touted by MLB are noticeably silent on efforts to support the LGBTQ+ community. This is a bit surprising, given MLB’s public announcement in 2014 that then-Commissioner Bud Selig had appointed former MLB player Billy Bean as the first Ambassador for Inclusion. Bean came out as gay in 1999, after his playing days were over.

Bean is now a Senior Vice President for DEI at MLB, according to his LinkedIn page. But I’ve seen no public comment from him, or anyone else at the league office, in the wake of the Dodgers’ decision to rescind its invitation to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at the team’s Pride Night, only to reverse themselves after a public outcry. And there’s been nothing from Bean publicly about Blue Jays’ reliever Anthony Bass’ sharing of an anti-LGBTQ+ social media post over the weekend.

For a league that prides itself on its commitment to social justice—and, indeed has a webpage with a glossary of social justice terms, including the term ”intersectionality"—it is time for MLB to step up and push back against the right-wing efforts to harass and discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community.

I’m calling on Commissioner Rob Manfred and SVP Billy Bean to do more. Publicly state that Anthony Bass’ social media post was wrong and explain why. Explain why honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is appropriate because the Sisters are an organization that ministers to those on the edge of society and satirizes organized religion’s failure to live up to its mission to do so.

I’m not asking MLB to “choose sides” between the LGBTQ+ community and communities of faith, because they need not be in conflict with each. Everyone should be welcome at MLB ballparks and in the larger MLB family. But MLB should not condone—by its silence or otherwise—the dehumanization of the LGBTQ+ community, while at the same time marketing ticket sales to them.

Let me say a few words about my experience with the Sisters. For many years, the Russian River chapter of the Sisters has organized a free Christmas banquet for those in need in Guerneville, California. There is abundant food, toys for kids, and holiday cheer for everyone. We have a cabin near Guerneville and twice, my family volunteered at the event. The Sisters create a caring and non-judgmental environment where everyone is welcome. A true testament to the Christmas spirit.