Dave Kelsey | Appeared first on the Comeback

June is Pride Month in the United States, allowing for a time to celebrate LGBTQIA+ culture and advocate for equal rights. As a result, teams throughout Major League Baseball typically celebrate and recognize the LGBTQIA+ community at their ballparks this month during the month. One team, however, typically refuses to hold such an event.

The Texas Rangers have a history of declining to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month. This year, the team once again has no plans to host a Pride Night or any other sort of promotional game supporting Pride throughout June. Instead, however, the team is hosting a “Faith & Family Night” promotion.

Faith and Family Day

While all 29 other teams throughout the league are hosting some sort of Pride celebration at their ballparks throughout June, the Rangers are once again refusing. Isntead, however, the team has decided to host a “Faith and Family Night” game.

The game, which is actually scheduled to be a day game at June 18 at 1:35 PM against the Minnesota Twins, will feature “personal testimoties” from players on the roster, according to the team website.

“Join us for a special afternoon of community, connection, and celebration. Tickets purchased through this offer include an exclusive experience featuring personal testimonies from Rangers players Wyatt Langford, Josh Jung, Cody Bradford, Jacob Latz, Jalen Beeks, and others, sharing how faith impacts their lives both on and off the field,” the Rangers team website reads.

The Rangers have not celebrated Pride Month in any capacity in over two decades. The team did invite several LGBTQIA+ groups to the ballpark back in 2003, but it was not officially marketed as any specific promotion and was met with protests. The team has not hosted a similar event since.

‘Malicious and Not Subtle’

While there is nothing wrong with hosting a “Faith and Family” celebration at the ballpark in a vacuum, the fact that it is clearly being done in place of a Pride Month event has drawn criticism.

San Antonio Spurs reporter Ty Jäger called the decision to host the event in lieu of a Pride Night “malicious” and “not subtle.”

“The Rangers have repeatedly done this year after year. Not only do they not acknowledge the existence of Pride or their LGBTQ+ fans, they also purposely invite religious, anti-LGBTQ groups to attend their games during the month. It’s malicious & not subtle,” he wrote in a post on X.

As others have pointed out, other teams throughout the league host similar events while also still hosting Pride Month events.

The Houston Astros, for example, have hosted a “Faith and Family Night” for years in addition to their annual Pride Night celebrations. The Faith and Family promotions include “player testimonies followed by a Christian-themed Friday Night Fireworks Show.”

The Rangers are unique in that they host their “Faith and Family” event during Pride Month while continually refusing to host a Pride Month celebration at the ballpark, which has led to the criticism.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praises Texas Rangers for not hosting Pride Night

Gwen Howerton |

The Texas Rangers have long held the distinction as the only Major League Baseball team not to host an LGBTQ+ Pride Night during June. As Republicans rage about another team that does have a Pride Night, the Rangers are getting held up as a shining example of “living out their faith.”

Last Friday, when the San Francisco Giants held a Pride Night during their home game against the Chicago Cubs, four pitchers protested the annual promotional night that welcomes LGBTQ+ baseball fans. Three pitchers scrawled Bible verses on the team’s caps that featured a rainbow logo, including starter Landon Roup, who wrote “Gen 9:12-16” on his. That verse has been used by some Christian conservatives who believe LGBTQ+ people have appropriated the symbol of the rainbow. A fourth pitcher, Sam Hentges, came out of the bullpen not wearing the rainbow hat at all.

After MLB warned the pitchers that writing on their caps violates the league’s collective bargaining agreement, they’ve been praised by figures on the right, including Vice President JD Vance. Florida Attorney General James said MLB would be “hearing from my office” over what he alleged was religious discrimination. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said MLB owes Christians “some answers.” And on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott weighed in.

“The Texas Rangers are the only The Texas Rangers are the only team in Major League Baseball that doesn’t host a Pride Night,” Abbott wrote on X. “This week, they’re hosting Faith and Family Night instead.”

“Meanwhile, MLB just warned Giants pitchers for writing Bible verses on their own caps,” Abbott’s post continued. “In Texas, we don’t punish people for living out their faith. We protect that right.”

The Rangers have long refused to host a Pride Night since every team around the league began adopting them in the mid-2020s. Last June, Dallas-based LGBTQ+ advocate Rafael McDonnell told Chron that he had worked to get the Rangers to have a Pride Night, but that resistance came from high up in the organization. The Rangers’ in-state rival, the Houston Astros, have had a Pride Night and a Faith and Family Night without controversy since 2021.

While fans and advocates have been frustrated that the Rangers are the lone holdout on Pride Night, the team has been mum on it. The Rangers have pointed out that they have done other work for the North Texas LGBTQ+ community including sponsoring the 2022 Gay Softball World Series, and the team has never made any comments about why they refuse to host a Pride Night. But the Rangers’ defiance made them a cause célèbre on the right.

Go through any thread on social media about the Rangers’ decision not to have a Pride Night, and you’ll find commenters saying that they’re Rangers fans because they don’t have one (whether or not these are real people is another matter). After the Rangers won the World Series in 2023, right-wing comedy publication the Babylon Bee published an article joking that God had “rewarded” the team with its victory because it had no Pride Night.

Besides Abbott, figures in the online right commentariat have railed against MLB’s warning to the Giants’ pitchers, despite the MLB not handing down fines or other disciplinary actions. Actor and outspoken conservative Rob Schnieder said he would “pay the fines for any MLB Christian player who wears a Bible verse on their uniform,” comments that moved former Texas Rep. Chip Roy to call Schnieder a “patriot.” Again, despite the outrage, MLB has stressed that the players will not be disciplined or fined in any way.

For their parts, the Giants pitchers that protested, who combined to allow two walks, 6 hits and 5 earned runs in their Pride Night loss to the Cubs, said they meant no disrespect to the queer community. Hentges was the most honest of the group about his intentions, saying the rainbow hat was “something that I feel like I was forced to support when I don’t morally support it.”

“There wasn’t hatred behind it. That’s kind of something that’s misinterpreted. I don’t hate the LGBTQ+ community,” Hentges said.

Roup, the starter, said that, “it’s just about God’s covenant and a promise that he makes to us.”

“It’s just something I believe in and I stand firm in that,” Roup said. “Thankfully, we live in a country where we have the freedom to believe what we want.”