It may seem like hate wins a lot. And yes, it often does. That’s because hate is among the easiest of feelings to generate, to manipulate. Hate is easy and lazy. It’s the dirty bomb of emotions. It’s painful to say this, scary to say this, but it does work. Far too often.
Yes, hate does win, but what the unbelievable situation with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence shows, is that hate can be beat. It can be beat with steadiness, righteousness, and allyship. Hate can be beaten back when good people care.
This is the biggest lesson from all of this and it should be extrapolated to other parts of our lives. When it seems like the bad guys will win, and the villain is giving his speech detailing how he’s going to use his laser blaster to destroy you, there is always room to fight. Just when it seemed that the Dodgers were going to continue to cower, they didn’t. Not because they suddenly saw the light, but because they were forced to see it.
The Dodgers aren’t the heroes here, the Sisters are. So are the people who backed the group with skill and loudness. That’s another lesson to learn. The bigots will bring their bullhorn. You should bring yours, too.
If you haven’t followed this rapidly moving story, it’s essentially gone like this. The Dodgers bent to pressure to disinvite the Sisters, a civil rights organization that fights for the LGBTQ community, and while doing so wear heavy makeup and nuns’ habits, and make their point with biting humor.
This has upset some Catholics, including Sen. Marco Rubio, a lightweight, and Bill Donohue, who is blatantly homophobic. Following Rubio, and Donohue’s group protesting the invite to the Sisters, the Dodgers disinvited them.
The anger over the Dodgers’ move was swift and powerful. In one of the most heartening visions in a time with few, a coalition of LGBTQ groups protested the Dodgers’ move. Many in the media also blasted the Dodgers’ move.
That led to the Dodgers re-inviting the Sisters.
After widespread criticism, Dodgers reinvite Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Pride Night
“The Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families,” the Dodgers said in a statement. “We have asked the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Sisters accepted the team’s apology and will accept the original reason they were invited, which was to accept the team’s Community Hero Award.
“We’re happy to receive it,” said Sister Unity, a founding member of the Los Angeles order. “Our community is concerned with performative allyship, but we believe this is very sincere. The Dodgers invited us to have a continuing relationship with them.”
If you look around the country, and world, you see examples of hate everywhere. It’s frightening at times, even suffocating. You don’t know when the next hate crime or anti-trans bill will emerge. You want to fight, and you do in your own way, but then something equally disturbing happens. You wonder how much longer your fight can go on.
Then you see a group like the Sisters, who fight every day, for such a noble cause, and fight, and fight, and fight. The Sisters’ allies fight alongside them and no one gives up.
That’s what happened in this situation and they are something we need:
An antidote to the hate.
