MLB and Pride: 2023
The Dodgers had a flip-flopping bad time over the past couple of weeks. A bad time entirely of their own making.
A few weeks ago, the Dodgers announced that they were going to honour The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a charitable organization that uses Catholic iconography in a camp way to call attention to and raise money for issues facing LGBTQ+, notably safer sex and harm reduction, as well as mental health supports. Essentially, dudes and trans people dress up in drag as nuns and cause a ruckus for charity. It's agitprop and they are a Los Angeles institution.
The Catholic League has long had issues with this group, which has been around since 1979, and when this was announced, various evangelical and other right-wing groups, whose current cause is how drag queens are satanic, made a stink. The Dodgers demonstrated their lack of spine and rescinded the invite.
There was even more of a stink when that happened, the outrage after the rescinding was even louder, and the Dodgers were derided for caving. The Dodgers re-invited and LA Pride, which had pulled out of their event with the Dodgers, were satisfied.
It felt dumb, but at least it was settled.
And then this happened, and I thought, “Well, that’s not at all subtle.”
And, sure enough, it was decidedly not subtle.
“I think we were always going to do Christian Faith Day this year, but I think the timing of our announcement was sped up,” Kershaw told the Los Angeles Times this week. “Picking a date and doing those different things was part of it, as well. Yes, it was in response to the highlighting of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” by the Dodgers.
As if to cleanse Dodger Stadium of sin.
Look at all the sin.
Are they smiling at a baseball game? Alert the elders!
Other players from around the MLB weighed in. Trevor Williams from the Washington Nationals told NBC News,
"As a devout Catholic, I am deeply troubled by the Dodgers' decision to re-invite and honor the group 'The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence' at their Pride Night this year," Williams said in a statement Tuesday. "To invite and honor a group that makes a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion, and the religion of over 4 million people in Los Angeles county alone, undermines the values of respect and inclusivity that should be upheld by any organization."
You are right, Trevor. This religious organization has done nothing to earn anyone’s mockery.
A person has every right to practice their religion, but one can’t argue that this organization hasn’t been cruising for mockery. It's not as if comedy or satire has ever been used in response to trauma. By the way, throwing around “inclusivity” is a nice touch.
The distressing thing about this is that giving in to the outcry isn’t going to stop these people. These are people who live to be outraged and so filled with rage that they want to punish the rest of us.
I was half-finished with these thoughts about the Dodgers when I heard about the Anthony Bass ballyhoo.
I am beginning to suspect that Bass might be an actual idiot. What first led me to suspect Bass’ idiocy was his social media posts earlier in the season about the flight attendant who asked his pregnant wife to clean up around their seats because their small child made a mess. The very last thing people want to hear is the rich complaining about workers in the service industry. That is a no-win, Anthony.
Bass sharing an anti-Target/Budweiser video demonstrated his bigotry and illustrated that Bass is one of those people who gets their news filtered down through the Culture War, a war that exists to mask that a certain faction of the political system has no ideas or plans other than to hold on to power as a means to line their own pockets.
It was also idiotic.
It is particularly idiotic for Bass to post anything about Budweiser as Budweiser is a massive sponsor for the Rogers Centre/Rogers Sportsnet/ Blue Jays. The in-game cutaway spots that Jamie Campbell hosts are sponsored by Budweiser. Campbell sells Budweiser before he talks about a score or a play highlight.
Some comments on Instagram have some fans saying things like, “Can’t he have a difference of opinion?” A person’s right to exist and live in the world is not an opinion.
As James Baldwin put it, "We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist."
The response of the Blue Jays was notable in its passivity. And remarkably similar to what has been said before. This is what I wrote at the time:
http://www.humandchuck.com/2017/5/18/kevin-pillars-word