Leather-Clad Lawmaker: ‘Players Defaced Their Pride Caps With a Biblical Passage’
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California State Sen. Scott Wiener issued a scathing statement condemning Christian athletes in Major League Baseball who wrote Bible verses on their team’s Pride uniforms. Read more of our coverage here.
Wiener, who won the Democrat nomination to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), accused several San Francisco Giants players of “defacing their Pride caps with a biblical passage that has been hijacked by homophobes to ‘take back’ the rainbow from LGBTQ people.”
“The Giants should publicly commit to enforcing rules around uniform defacement and should not effectively create a homophobia exemption to those rules,” said Wiener, who is known to parade around San Francisco wearing leather outfits.
At a recent baseball game, multiple pitchers for the San Francisco Giants wrote Bible verse references on their caps at a game where players were issued rainbow-patterned hats for “Pride Night.” These verses quote from Genesis 9, which describes God’s design of the rainbow as a sign of His covenant with creation following the flood.
In response, Major League Baseball told OutSports, a publication that covers LGBT athletics, that the Bible verses violated the league’s uniform defacement ban. A MLB spokesman told the publication that players had been warned not to deface their uniforms.
But Wiener said that was not good enough and was enraged that the players were not punished for what he called homophobic behavior.
“People have a right to whatever religious beliefs they want — even if those beliefs dehumanize other people — but they don’t have a right to hijack their employer to promote those hateful beliefs at a job-related event,” the Democrat lawmaker said.
Major League Baseball went on to say they have a content-neutral policy and that the league respects right to expression.
However, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote in a letter to Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred that MLB has in the past promoted political viewpoints like Black Lives Matter.
In 2020, MLB itself turned its uniforms and its fields into a billboard for political and social messages. It created jersey patches reading “Black Lives Matter” and “United for Change.” It authorized “BLM” to be stenciled onto pitching mounds. And it suspended its own equipment rules so that players could display progressive political slogans on their cleats. The league went beyond tolerating speech—it designed speech, promoted speech, and shoehorned social and political messages into the game broadcast to millions of Americans. Yet when three players added a handful of characters citing the Book of Genesis to their caps, the league reached for its rulebook.”
For this, your organization has reportedly issued warnings to these players. MLB has said this is a content-neutral policy and that MLB “respect[s] players’ right to free expression.” But this is dubious, given that MLB is openly promoting a political viewpoint and possibly compelling adherence to that viewpoint.”
Hawley told the commissioner he had a grave concern about anti-Christian bigotry. in Major League Baseball.
“I write with grave concern over your reported decision to issue a formal warning to three Major League Baseball (MLB) players for publicly expressing their Christian faith,” Hawley wrote. “This follows a high-profile undercover investigation that revealed at least one MLB team discriminated against a player based on his Catholic faith. You must answer for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination within MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith.”
Wiener blasted the Missouri senator.
“Once again, MAGA shows its true colors: Bigotry against LGBTQ people,” he said. “This isn’t an issue of religious freedom. People have a right to whatever religious beliefs they want — even if those beliefs dehumanize other people — but they don’t have a right to hijack their employer to promote those hateful beliefs at a job-related event.”
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