Saturday was Pride Night at Tropicana Field, but several Tampa Bay Rays players weren’t OK with everything the organization had planned for the game.
According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, at least five Rays players declined to wear hats with a rainbow version of the team’s logo and instead wore their regular hats. Most of the team’s players wore the hat, as well as a rainbow uniform sleeve, to support the LGBTQ community.
The players who chose to not wear the Pride hat were pitchers Jason Adam, Ryan Thompson, Jeffrey Springs, Brooks Raley and Jalen Beeks. The club wanted full participation from its players, but the organization chose to make wearing the hat an “opt-in” exercise, according to Topkin’s report.
Just people showing their #Pride pic.twitter.com/jtdgHJSLOO
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) June 4, 2022
Adam told the Tampa Bay Times that he declined to wear the rainbow-colored hat because of his “faith.”
“It’s a hard decision. Because ultimately we all said what we want is them to know that all are welcome and loved here,” Adam said. “But when we put it on our bodies, I think a lot of guys decided that it’s just a lifestyle that maybe — not that they look down on anybody or think differently — it’s just that maybe we don’t want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus, who’s encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior, just like [Jesus] encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage. It’s no different.”
“It’s not judgmental. It’s not looking down,” Adam added. “It’s just what we believe the lifestyle he’s encouraged us to live, for our good, not to withhold. But again, we love these men and women, we care about them, and we want them to feel safe and welcome here.”
The team held several meetings and conversations in the weeks leading up to Pride Night, team officials told the Tampa Bay Times.
“I think what it has created is, like, what you’ve heard — a lot of conversation and valuing the different perspectives inside the clubhouse but really appreciating the community that we’re trying to support here,” Rays manager Kevin Cash told the Tampa Bay Times.
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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