Before we discuss the remarkably cowardly move by the Los Angeles Dodgers, where they crumbled under pressure and disinvited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their Pride Night on June 16, we need to look at who these Sisters are, and why what the Dodgers did was so disgraceful.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are civil rights activists. They’ve been in existence in California since the late 1970s and have since expanded to other areas of the country. When much of America either ignored, or discriminated against, people with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s, the Sisters brought awareness to the suffering of the gay community while many political leaders, including President Ronald Reagan, did absolutely nothing.
They are brave, they are kind, they are heroes.
This is the organization’s stated mission: “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a leading-edge order of queer and trans nuns. We believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty. Since our first appearance in San Francisco on Easter Sunday, 1979, the Sisters have devoted ourselves to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment. We use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.”
That sounds like a noble cause, right? It does, because it is. They are more decent, and have done more good, than you, me and likely many of the people who don’t like them.
This brings us to the Dodgers and how they bent the knee to hate.
Dodgers cancel plans to honor controversial LGBTQ+ group on Pride Night
The Sisters make their point with biting humor, and part of how they do that is by wearing heavy makeup and nuns’ habits. This has upset some people including some Catholics. As a former Catholic, it’s incredible that this would bother any Catholic, because Catholicism is supposed to be about helping the downtrodden, and that’s exactly what the Sisters do. Maybe this is why I’m an ex-Catholic. Or maybe this is why.
The Dodgers faced immense pressure from two main people. One is Sen. Marco Rubio, a total hack and phony, and the other is Bill Donohue, who has for years stated some of the ugliest homophobic and anti-trans tropes in existence. Donohue is an anti-LGBTQ goon.
After Rubio, and Donohue’s group, the Catholic League, stirred up large amounts of fake outrage, the Dodgers caved, and disinvited the Sisters.
“In the spirit of unity, the Los Angeles Dodgers are proud to host our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th,” the team said in a statement. “This event has become a meaningful tradition, highlighting not only the diversity and resilience within our fanbase, but also the impactful work of extraordinary community groups.
“This year, as part of a full night of programming, we invited a number of groups to join us. 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.
“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 were obliterated on social media for caving to extremists. The LA Pride, a huge nonprofit that’s been in existence since 1970, pulled out of the Dodgers event in solidarity with the Sisters. So did the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the ACLU of Southern California. In a statement on their Instagram account, the Sisters wrote: “Today, we are sad to learn the Los Angeles Dodgers have chosen to rescind their award, succumbing to pressure from persons outside the state of California and outside of our community.”
The group added: “We are disappointed they have chosen to un-ally themselves with us in our ongoing service to the public, many of whom enjoy the Dodger’s heroic efforts in sports.”
The Dodgers will celebrate their 10th Pride Night this year and to be certain, the organization has done remarkable work in this space.
But this? This is an example of how fear can grip not just individuals but entire franchises, and also how fear is irrational. If you don’t like the group, ignore them. If you don’t like what the Dodgers are doing, don’t go to Pride Night. I don’t like clowns. I don’t go to clown shows. Problem solved.
(And if you don’t like Pride Night, go to a therapist and figure out why that is.)
Also, how does a senator from Florida get to dictate what a team in California does?
Perhaps one of the largest points is that the Sisters are needed for the same reason they were during the AIDS crisis decades ago: they save lives. In the same way suffering people then needed love and attention, the trans community needs the same now. There are hundreds of anti-trans bills around the country including four passed this week alone in Af-Florida-stan.
The Sisters perhaps encapsulated perfectly why what they are doing is so needed, and why their opponents are so small, when they said this in response to the actions of the Dodgers: “We are both silly and serious. We use our flamboyance in service to our charity work and our message, which is, ‘There is room in our world for each person to be who they are, as they are, free from shame or guilt, and alive in joy and love for their own self,'” the group writes. “While we may no longer appear on Dodgers Pride Night we will be out on the streets of Los Angeles continuing to serve and uplift our community.”
They will always be better than the cowards who attack them. Or the baseball franchise that shunned them.
