Why the Dodgers are removing one group from taking part in its Pride Night

LGBTQ+ Pride Night at Dodger Stadium has been a rainbow-colored expression of inclusion popular with many fans. That won’t include one particular group, however, at the Dodgers’ 10th annual Pride Night on June 16 for a game against the San Francisco Giants.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a charity, protest, and street performance organization that uses humor, drag and religious imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance, no longer will be honored with the Community Hero Award in a pregame ceremony.

“Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the Sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we have seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees,” the Dodgers said Wednesday in a statement.

A handful of Catholic leaders vigorously pushed back against the Dodgers’ plan to bestow an award on the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

Brian Burch, president of the Catholic advocacy organization CatholicVote, expressed outrage shortly before the Dodgers made their announcement Wednesday.

“No other religion would be treated this way — and if the Dodgers truly care about fighting bigotry and promoting inclusivity, they will retract their invite to this disgusting, offensive and dangerous hate group,” Burch said in a statement.

Fans attend LGBTQ+ Pride Night at Dodger Stadium in June 2021.

(Jerritt Clark / Getty Images)

It’s not the first time the team — and Major League Baseball — has responded to public opinion. After years of prodding from the LGBTQ+ community, the Dodgers in 2022 recognized the late Glenn Burke — a former Dodger and the first major leaguer to come out as gay — during Pride Night festivities.

MLB in 2021 pulled the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of a new voting law in Georgia favored by Republicans.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) issued a statement protesting the Dodgers’ inclusion of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence:

“Baseball has always been tied to our nation’s values, at the heart of which is faith in God. It would be an outrage and a tragedy if the MLB, in pursuit of modern, secular, and indeed anti-religious ‘values,’ rebuked that faith and the millions of believing fans who cherish the sport.”

R.M. Vierling, a Catholic priest with a large social media following, posted on Twitter that he had written to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred about “this outrageous insult to Catholics” and listed Manfred’s email address online.

“Our huge list of email subscribers came through, and we are grateful for their input,” Vierling tweeted Wednesday. “We also want to thank Commissioner Manfred, and the Dodgers, for doing the right thing…. Justice was done in the end. There is no room for anti-Catholic bigotry in any gay or trans celebratory event.”

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence began as three men dressed as nuns in habits in 1979 in San Francisco’s Castro District. Their first fundraiser earned $1,500 for San Francisco’s Metropolitan Community Church Cuban Refugee Program.

The group grew into a non-profit described in its mission statement as the “leading-edge Order of queer nuns” devoted “to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment…. We believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty and we use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.”

Finding themselves suddenly in the center of a political and cultural maelstrom, the Dodgers tried to balance what has become an extraordinary annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community with the sentiments of another large constituency: Catholics.

“[Pride Night] has become a meaningful tradition, highlighting not only the diversity and resilience within our fan base, but also the impactful work of extraordinary community groups.,” the team’s statement said. “We are now aware that our inclusion of one group in particular — The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — in this year’s pride night has been the source of some controversy.”