Five members of the Tampa Bay Rays refused to wear a Gay Pride logo on their jerseys and caps last weekend.
Jason Adam said that for "faith-based" reasons, the five pichers -- himself, along with Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs, and Ryan Thompson -- could not wear the logos. The pitchers were not judging gay people, oh, of course not, why would you even think such an awful thing, they simply did not want to "encourage" that "lifestyle" and "behaviour".
Adam mantained, despite basically saying the exact opposite: "We love these men and women, we care about them, and we want them to feel safe and welcome here."
But when we put it on our bodies, I think a lot of guys decided that it's just a lifestyle that maybe -- not that they look down on anybody or think differently -- it's just that maybe we don't want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus, who's encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior, just like [Jesus] encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage. . . . It's not judgmental. It's not looking down.
Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty called the players' excuse an "absolute joke".
(Also on Twitter, I read some moron: "So it follows you would have no problem with a bunch of players choosing not to wear the camo-shit they had everyone in a week ago? If a bunch of Venezuelan players decided not to because they oppose the US military industrial complex, everyone would be cool with that, right?" I replied: "Hell yes. I would LOVE that!!!!" With four exclamation marks, you know I really mean it.)
Flaherty's scoffing was far more of an appropriate comment than Rays president Matt Silverman and manager Kevin Cash bothered to offer. Both of them were quite tolerant of the players' intolerance. Cash had Raley and Beeks pitch in the game that day. Beeks blew the save and took the loss.
Cash said he "heard a lot of conversation" inside the clubhouse "appreciating the community that we're trying to support here". Silverman's comments were similar. The issue had sparked dialogue and he was "proud of the fact . . . so many of our players chose to wear the logo. I'm also proud of the conversations we had during the run-up to this night and in the aftermath."
The Rays' promotion came the day after the Los Angeles Dodgers honored the memory of Glenn Burke, who was treated like a piece of garbage by the team when it was rumoured he was gay. Andrew Maraniss , author of "Singled Out", a biography of Burke:
When people use their interpretation of religion to justify discrimination against people for the way they were born, it's really an indictment of them and their faith. Acknowledging that people are people and all fans are welcome, that’s not something you should be able to opt out of.
The Rays and Yankees used their social media accounts one day last month (after the slaughter of 19 young children in Texas) to highlight facts about rampant gun violence in the United States. In response, Florida governor, Ron DeSantis (now there's a true piece of garbage), vetoed $35 million in state funds to help the Rays build a new training center. A spokesman for DeSantis: "Corporations do not have the right to get corporate welfare, turn around and 'donate' taxpayer dollars to communist progressive causes." (Reminder to Self: Not wanting the bodies of nine-year-old girls and boys ripped into bloody shreds by dozens of high-powered bullets = communism.)
Meanwhile, Adam pitched on Sunday despite the fact that the Christian God he claims to worship clearly forbids any work to be done on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10). Not that I needed that factoid to know Adam's brand is religion is "buffet style", where he picks and chooses which beliefs (both real and imagined (Jesus actually said nothing one way or the other about homosexuality) he wants to follow.
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