Pride Night has become an annual tradition for the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. This year, OutKick’s Jon Root reported that fans who arrived early were treated to a pregame ceremony in which the team led ten same-sex couples onto the field to renew their wedding vows as a “gigantic drag queen” looked on.
Before the game, players were asked to wear special-edition hats honoring the LGBTQ+ community — a tradition that not all players are comfortable with — including the team’s pitcher, Landon Roupp.
Roupp wore the cap but personalized it by writing the Bible verse “Gen. 9:12-16” next to the rainbow version of the team’s logo before taking the mound.
The passage reads:
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Asked by a reporter afterward why he did that, Roupp replied, “It’s just about God’s covenant and a promise that he makes to us.”
“It’s just something I believe in and I stand firm in that. Thankfully we live in a country where we have the freedom to believe what we want,” he added.
A second player, reliever JT Brubaker, wrote Genesis 9:13 on his hat.
Root reported that pitcher Sam Hentges refused to wear the hat entirely — just as Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Blake Treinen had for his team’s Pride night.
In an op-ed published by Fox News, Root noted:
As the old saying goes, courage is contagious. That is the exact term that should be used when a professional athlete defies the calls for complete and utter loyalty to the LGBTQ agenda during Pride Nights.We’ve seen it from Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen this season, and from a small few around professional sports that have refused to wear rainbow Pride jerseys, hats and more. On Friday night in San Francisco, Giants pitcher Landen Roupp made a powerful statement of faith in God by his protest against his team celebrating Pride Night.
While some users on X responded to the players’ “acts of defiance” with venom, many more applauded them for standing up for their convictions.
Roupp’s message was neither loud nor confrontational. He didn’t refuse to take the field, criticize his teammates, or make a public spectacle of himself. Instead, he used the limited space available to him to express a deeply held religious belief. Judging by the actions of Brubaker, Hentges, Treinen, and others around Major League Baseball, he is far from the only player who feels uncomfortable being asked to set aside those convictions for the sake of a Pride Night celebration.
You may recall in March when the Chicago Bulls waived guard Jaden Ivey after he criticized the team’s promotion of Pride Month.
Of course we should treat every human being with respect, but no one should be expected to celebrate the LGBTQ community. The reality is that gays and transgenders are no more special than anyone else and I find it ludicrous that so many otherwise sane people treat them as though they are. And why must we spend an entire month lauding them?
The Left’s demand for adherence to an ideology that many Americans do not share has crossed the line from persuasion into coercion.
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