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A member of the Tampa Bay Rays said he and several teammates made a “faith-based decision” not to wear rainbow-colored logos on their uniforms during a home game “Pride Night “Saturday recognized the LGBTQ community.
Most Rays players, according to game accounts, wore special uniform designs that had a rainbow pattern on the “TB” of their hats and a sunbeam logo on their right sleeve. . The team, which has hosted Pride Night for several seasons but had not previously included uniform changes, reportedly gave players the option to display logos or go with the usual look.
Among the Rays who declined the rainbow logos, according to the Tampa Bay Times, were pitchers Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Thompson. While Raley and Beeks appeared in the game, a 3-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox, Adam had a chance to explain why he and others chose not to.
“Much of it comes down to faith, to liking a decision based on faith,” said Adam, a 30-year-old in his fifth major league season. “So it’s a difficult decision. Because in the end we all said that what we want is for them to know that everyone here is welcome and loved. But when we put it in our body, I think a lot of guys decided it was just a lifestyle. that maybe — not that they despise anyone or think differently — is that we may not want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus, who has encouraged us to live a lifestyle that refrains from such behavior. [Jesus] he encourages me as a heterosexual man to abstain from sex outside the confines of marriage. It’s no different.
“She is OK. “Don’t look down,” Adam continued. But again, we love these men and women, we care about them, and we want them to feel safe and welcome here. “
The event at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg was scheduled to take place near the start of Pride Month. In a statement last week, President Biden said a “dangerous anti-LGBTQI + attack on states across the country” had been introduced and passed.
The Rays’ home state reached the headlines earlier this year when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation that some refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” Act. Parents “should be protected from schools that use classroom instruction to sexualize their children up to the age of 5,” DeSantis said in a statement.
Critics have said that the bill on parental rights in education, which bans the discussion of LGBTQ issues in classrooms from kindergarten through third grade and includes restrictions for older students, has an intentionally vague language designed to marginalize, stigmatize, and silence LGBTQ people.
Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, who is said to be wearing a rainbow-accented uniform on Saturday, said after that game that the Pride Night event “shows that we want everyone to feel welcome and included when they come to Tropicana Field. “
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“My parents taught me to love everyone the way they are,” said Kiermaier, 32 (via mlb.com). “Go live your life. Whatever your preferences are, it’s you.”
Rays coach Kevin Cash said Saturday that he “surely” hoped the internal division had not emerged from a discussion about LGBTQ issues that had taken place among his players. The coach, in his eighth season with Tampa Bay, claimed that his players had come to respect different perspectives.
“First of all, I think the organization has done a very good thing for Pride Nights to support our gay community to go out and have a good night in the countryside,” Cash said (via the Associated Press). “We are impressed that our players have had these conversations and we want to support our players who decide whether or not to take it to the best of our ability.”
In an online exchange with media personality Keith Olbermann, who challenged Adam’s characterization of Jesus’ teachings, the pitcher tweeted: “I promise you that my intention was never to embarrass anyone. My best wish great is to love and live like Jesus every day ”.
In addition to the special uniforms, the Rays marked Pride Night by donating miniature pride flags and making donations to a local inclusive health and wellness organization.
The previous gestures of the franchise have included becoming, in 2015, one of the first sports teams to sign a writ of friendship with the Supreme Court that supported same-sex marriage and paid tribute to the victims of the shooting in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando during Pride Night in 2016.
“It’s an important night for our organization and an opportunity for us to emphasize inclusion in general,” said team president Matt Silverman. “We lived as a community during the Pulse night shoot and we understand the importance of nights like this to show our fans and our community the open invitation to come and enjoy baseball, and I know our overall message is inclusion “.
The team also spoke recently on the issue of armed violence. Following the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, the Rays issued a statement last month saying “we can’t fall asleep” in the face of these episodes and pledging to make a donation to a national drug prevention organization. armed violence.
Several days later, DeSantis vetoed $ 35 million in a state spending plan that would have been earmarked for a youth sports complex that was touted as a possible future spring training site for the Rays. The governor, a supporter of gun rights, later said he “does not allow donating money to taxpayers at professional sports stadiums” and that “it is also inappropriate to subsidize the political activism of a private corporation.”