This week, the Los Angeles Dodgers host their 10th annual Pride Night to celebrate LGBTQ people and allies. As they have done every year, the Dodgers will recognize the contributions of local LGBTQ community partners at world-famous Dodger Stadium.
Pride Nights show all in the stands and watching on TV that their LGBTQ neighbors are sports fans and everyday people, just like anyone. This isn’t controversial. Baseball fans, and all LGBTQ people, represent different backgrounds, abilities, races, ethnicities and countries of origin, religions and faiths, sexual orientations and gender identities.
We want to be perfectly clear: The groups that the Dodgers will honor at their Pride Night, including the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, belong in the Dodgers’ stadium and are deserving of recognition. The Sisters have served their community for decades, bringing “flamboyant hilarity to serious causes” including supporting people with HIV, fighting for justice and equality, feeding the hungry, finding shelter for the unhoused, and raising more than a million dollars for charity, with grace, humor and uncommon compassion. They have the support of Catholic leaders, real-life sisters, elected officials, sports fans and everyday Angelenos. Their costumes, make-up and wit might be irreverent to some, but “can never trump the works of mercy,” wrote one ordained sister.
Sports are for everyone, and sports bring us together. The Dodgers recognized this more than 76 years ago when the team hired Jackie Robinson and broke down baseball’s color wall. This history should always be something to celebrate, and inspires us today to strive for equality and inclusion. We are all human, and all on the same team.
We thank the Dodgers for moving forward to honor LGBTQ community members and celebrate the diversity and unity that create a safer, stronger, more joyous, more loving and compassionate world.
Signed,
GLAAD
Athlete Ally
Human Rights Campaign
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Women’s Law Center
Equality California
Los Angeles LGBT Center
DignityUSA
New Ways Ministry
Family Equality
REAP: The Religious Exemption Accountability Project
TransAthlete.com
Movement Advancement Project
Metanoia Church
Yass, Jesus! Podcast
CenterLink: The Community of LGBTQ Centers