The Los Angeles Dodgers have been caught up in a PR nightmare in recent weeks.
The team first invited, then disinvited, then re-invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to attend its 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16.
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The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a human rights group dedicated to achieving equality for the LQBTQ+ community. They’ve been credited for helping raise both awareness and finances to help with causes such as AIDS awareness and gender equality.
However, their means of action have been described as anti-Christian by right-wing ideologues due to the group’s parody act of dressing as nuns. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a republican, was the biggest voice against the group and his letter to the MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred is believed to be the trigger for the Dodgers’ decision to (briefly) disinvite them.
“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 have decided to remove them from this year’s group of honorees,” the Dodgers’ statement read at the time.
However, all was forgiven shortly after, as the team offered a full-throated apology to the group and re-invited them to the event.
Now, just days after that, star Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw has announced that the organization would resume its “Christian Faith and Family Day,” event on July 30. While the event hadn’t been on the team’s promotions calendar this year, it has been held in the past, prior to the covid pandemic. Kershaw’s tweet was retweeted by the Dodgers' social media account.
Kershaw is by all appearances very serious about his religious beliefs, having traveled to Zambia on missions in the past and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to establish an orphanage in Lusaka.
In 2014 he was one of several team members slated to “share their personal testimonies on faith,” according to an MLB News release at the time.
