New York Times on 5/22/23:
The Dodgers, who integrated Major League Baseball in 1947 by calling up Jackie Robinson, have long viewed themselves as champions of inclusion and the annual Pride Night has been a high-priority event for the team. The decision to disinvite the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which came after complaints from politicians and religious groups, resulted in a swift backlash. LA Pride, the organization that runs the LA Pride Parade & Festival, pulled out of the Dodgers’ event in protest, as did groups like the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
The LGBT Center had gone as far as to insist that the Dodgers cancel the event [on 6/16/23 at Dodger Stadium] if the Sisters were not allowed to attend.
All of this came less than a year after the team took a large step in acknowledging the failures of its past by inviting the family of Glenn Burke, the first major leaguer to come out as gay, to last year’s Pride Night. Burke, who made little attempt to hide his sexuality, was traded to the Oakland Athletics after refusing the team’s offer of $75,000 toward his honeymoon provided he married a woman. Once a promising prospect, his career faded quickly and he died of AIDS complications in 1995.
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