Why the Dodgers are removing one group from its Pride Night
LGBTQ+ Pride Night at Dodger Stadium is a rainbow-hued expression of inclusion loved by many fans. However, the Dodgers 10th Annual Tournament will not have a specific group Pride night on June 16 for a game against the San Francisco Giants.
The Sisters of Eternal Pleasurea charity, protest and street performance organization that uses humor, drag and religious imagery to raise awareness of sexual intolerance will no longer be honored with the Community Hero Award in a pre-game ceremony.
“Given the strong feelings of people who were offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to detract from the great benefits we have seen of Pride Night over the years, we choose to exclude them from.” to exclude this evening’s annual group of prizewinners”. The Dodgers said so in a statement on Wednesday.
A handful of Catholic leaders vigorously opposed the Dodgers’ plan to give them an award Sisters of Eternal Pleasure.
Brian Burch, President of the Catholic Interest Group Catholic voteexpressed his outrage just before the Dodgers made their announcement on Wednesday.
“No other religion would be treated like this – and if the Dodgers are genuinely concerned about fighting bigotry and promoting inclusion, they will withdraw their invitation to this vile, offensive and dangerous hate group,” Burch said in a statement.
Fans attend LGBTQ+ Pride Night at Dodger Stadium in June 2021.
(Jerritt Clark / Getty Images)
It’s not the first time the team — and Major League Baseball — has responded to public opinion. After years of cheering on the LGBTQ+ community, in 2022, during Pride Night celebrations, the Dodgers recognized the late Glenn Burke – a former Dodger and the first major league player to come out as gay.
MLB withdrew Atlanta’s 2021 All-Star Game in protest of a new Republican-backed election law in Georgia.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) issued an opinion Protest against the Dodgers’ admission of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence:
“Baseball has always been associated with our nation’s values, of which belief in God is at the core. It would be a scandal and a tragedy if MLB, in its pursuit of modern, secular, and indeed anti-religious “values,” rebuked that belief and the millions of faithful fans who love the sport.”
RM Vierling, a Catholic priest with a large following on social media, posted on Twitter that he wrote to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred about “this outrageous insult to Catholics” and listed Manfred’s email address online.
“Our huge list of email subscribers has arrived and we are grateful for their contribution,” Vierling tweeted on Wednesday. “We also want to thank Commissioner Manfred and the Dodgers for doing the right thing…” In the end, justice was served. There is no place for anti-Catholic bigotry in gay or trans celebrations.”
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence began in 1979 as three men dressed as nuns in San Francisco’s Castro District. Her first fundraiser raised $1,500 for the Metropolitan Community Church’s Cuban refugee program in San Francisco.
The group grew into a not-for-profit organization, described in its mission statement as a “leading order of queer nuns dedicated to community service, pastoral care and outreach to the marginalized, as well as the promotion of human rights, respect for diversity and the… Spirituality” dedicates enlightenment…. We believe all human beings have the right to express their unique joy and beauty, and we use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that bind the human spirit.”
Suddenly, the Dodgers found themselves at the center of a political and cultural maelstrom, trying to reconcile what has become an extraordinary annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community with the sentiments of another major constituency: Catholics.
“[Pride Night] has become a meaningful tradition and underscores not only the diversity and resilience of our fan base, but also the impactful work of exceptional community groups,” the team said in a statement. “We are now aware that the inclusion of a particular group – the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – in this year’s Pride Night has caused some controversy.”
