Tampa Bay Rays players ditch their Pride night jerseys, lest they be mistaken for tolerant people
According to five pitchers for the Tampa Bay Rays, there’s no rainbows in baseball!Pride night at Tropicana Field was apparently just too much for five of the pitchers on the Rays’ roster, who all felt the need to abandon the team’s special one-night-only rainbow logo jerseys for their regular outfits.Players Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Thompson all refused to wear the uniforms required by their jobs for the night.Today, we wear our #Pride on our sleeves pic.twitter.com/bcOLJNhx6Y— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) June 4, 2022Despite treating this innocuous rainbow badge like the Mark of the Beast, the players wanted to make it clear that they “welcome and love” the queer community.Jason Adam stated, “We love these men and women, we care about them, and we want them to feel safe and welcome here.”Adam went on to say, “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 to abstain from that behavior.”He is, of course, referring to [heretofore undiscovered scripture quoting Jesus as specifically condemning queerness].This situation has social media delving once again into the conversation of using religion to justify blatant homophobia, and many are just plain tired of it.5 Tampa Bay Rays players removed the rainbow patch placed on their uniforms for Pride Month because of their religious beliefs.
It can’t be because they are Christian because Jesus loved everybody. So essentially they are telling their LGBTQ fans that they don’t count.— Henry M.
Rosenberg (@DoctorHenryCT) June 7, 2022If your religious beliefs keep you from wearing a symbol of accepting everyone, then you don’t actually accept everyone.— The Barrelman’s Burner.
