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CHICAGO (AP) — When it comes to baseball and LGBTQ+ inclusion, Billy Bean He often reminisces about his playing days.
Ending his career without telling his parents about his life as a gay baseball player. Hide his secret from his teammates like Brad Ausmus And Tori Lovolo. He regrets not sharing “all of himself,” as he puts it.
It’s a message Bean told behind the scenes and resonates with today’s players who are so focused on staying in the majors and being a good teammate. It’s also the lens through which Bean sees ongoing LGBTQ+ issues in baseball.
“There are some parts of my job where, some days, I feel like I’m just recovering,” said Bean, Major League Baseball’s senior vice president for diversity, equality, and inclusion. “And then there are other days where I see some backtracking, I remember we have 8,000 people who are connected to sports as athletes in one way or another, and you’re not always going to have 100% of those people agreeing on the same thing.”
That friction has been on display in recent seasons as MLB teams have been courting the LGBTQ+ community during LGBTQ+ Pride Month, simultaneously showing how much has changed and how much remains the same within the National Pastime, a sport with strong ties to segments of the United States and Latin America, where Many see homosexuality as a sin.
After nearly 80 years Jackie Robinson Breaking down the major league color barrier At a landmark moment for America’s civil rights movement, conflicting expressions of LGBTQ+ support and emerging opposition have brought to mind the question of when MLB might welcome its first openly active gay player: a barrier that has already been cleared by the NBA and NFL.
“If someone here called a meeting and came out as gay, I think everyone would accept that, get behind it, move on and focus on winning games, which is really important and what’s important,” the Los Angeles player said. . Milwaukee Brewers and 2018 National League MVP Christian Yelich. “It doesn’t matter what someone’s sexuality is.”
Seattle Mariners player Julio Rodriguez, Chicago Cubs player Marcus Stroman, and Toronto Blue Jays player Kevin Gusman are among a group of players who have publicly celebrated LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
“Love wins,” Rodriguez told the Associated Press. “You can definitely see that it’s not just me, but there are definitely more people around the league who are supportive of this. I feel like you can see the change in that, the support in that.”
However, signs of opposition remain. The Los Angeles Dodgers have faced criticism for including the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in their 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night team on Friday. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw disagreed with the decision, but said his objection was based on the Sisters’ satirical portrayal of religious figures and had nothing to do with LGBTQ+ support. Washington Nationals quarterback Trevor Williams said he was deeply concerned about the team’s move and denounced what he felt was the group’s mockery of his Catholic faith.
The objection to the group The Sisters, made up primarily of men dressed as nuns, comes a year after some Tampa Bay Rays players stated their Christian faith by refusing to wear LGBTQ+ Pride shirts. Several hockey players also chose not to wear rainbow jerseys on LGBTQ+ Pride nights during the recent NHL season.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfredsaid Thursday that MLB has advised teams not to add rainbow accents or patches to uniforms to avoid putting players “in a position to do something that makes them feel uncomfortable because of their personal opinions.”
Last month, the veteran exempted Anthony Bass He expressed support on social media for LGBTQ+ boycotts against Target and Bud Light, and later apologized for sharing the post on his Instagram Stories.
When asked if efforts to include MLB with the LGBTQ+ community have stopped, Bass noted “many different beliefs” and “many different lifestyles”.
“I wouldn’t say he built a barrier,” Bass said before the Blue Jays’ release last week. “Everyone should be able to express their feelings and opinions, so I think that’s what we’re seeing and I don’t think it causes a barrier to acceptance in the LGBTQ+ community.”
Bass was loudly booed by Toronto fans after his social media post, and others seem wary of how far their favorite teams are willing to go in terms of LGBTQ+ support. The Texas Rangers are the only major league baseball team not to host LGBTQ+ Pride Night this month.
to Mason Dunn, who grew up in a hard-line Dodgers family in Southern California, it’s been an emotional fortnight. Dan wrote a distraught post on Facebook after the Dodgers rescinded his invitation to the Sisters, and later expressed relief when the team changed his mind.
“I really hope the Dodgers use this experience to learn more about the alliance,” said Dunn, who identifies as non-binary and works for the LGBTQ+ Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. “It’s not just about rainbow logos. It’s about showing up when things are tough and scary.”
When asked about not holding LGBTQ+ Pride Night, Rangers said they are committed to making everyone feel welcome and included.
“That means at home, in every game and in everything we do for both our fans and our staff,” the team said in a statement.
To the General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Ben SherringtonReaching the best potential employees—in the field, in the front office, throughout the organization—is one of the main reasons why LGBTQ+ inclusion is important.
“We think that winning at the level we want to win at, at the major league level, means we can’t discriminate,” said Cherington. “If you’re surrounded by really good teams, world championship teams, teams in other sports that are doing as high as they possibly can, you’ll notice that the only way to build a team like that is with zero bias when it comes to where people come from, what they look like, what their beliefs are, how they choose to spend their lives.” their time off the field.
Dale Scott became Major League Baseball’s first out-of-cabinet umpire in 2014, and there have been few out-of-cabinet players in the minor leagues. Anderson Comas, a minor league player in the Chicago White Sox organization, came out as gay in an Instagram post in February. Philadelphia Phillies player Taejuan Walker, New York Mets player Mark Kanha and Kansas City Royals first baseman Vinnie Pascuantino responded with messages of support on Twitter.
Speaking to reporters on June 2, Koumas, 23, cited the help he received from the organization as a key component in his decision to come out. He was denied an interview request made this week by the Associated Press.
Bean came out of the closet after his football career. sexual orientation Glenn Burke She was well known in baseball, but the former major league player didn’t come out in public until 1982.
Burke, who died in 1995 at the age of 42, felt that the sport left him out. “A gay man in baseball? No, no way,” he told the Associated Press.
Bean, 59, said he doesn’t think the absence of an openly gay player is the right way to measure inclusion in the major leagues, just as he doesn’t think sports should be measured by commentary that may not be supportive. .
When it comes to the moment of the first openly active gay competitor in the majors, Bean said he understands why a player would want to focus on their career rather than deal with the challenges that come with breaking that barrier.
“It’s really hard to be in the big leagues and not be in the big leagues in 2023 unless you’re a baseball first,” Bean told the AP. “And that’s how you define an athlete.”
“Baseball is a really tough sport,” he continued. “And I think it’s more of a business decision than a cultural one right now. And I respect his personal choice out there.”
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