Dodgers apologize and invite Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Pride Night

Less than a week after removing the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their lineup, the Dodgers on Monday re-invited the organization to Pride Night amid backlash from LGBTQ+ and civil rights groups as well as local politicians and even Dodgers employees.

“After much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities, honest conversations within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and generous discussions with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families,” the Dodgers said in a statement. “We have asked the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night. We are pleased to share that they are agreed to share the gratitude of our collective communities for the lifesaving work they have done tirelessly for decades.”

The Dodgers’ 10th annual Pride Night is scheduled for June 16 at Dodger Stadium during a game against the San Francisco Giants. The L.A. chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a satirical performance and activist organization with a decades-long history of raising awareness — and money — for LGBTQ+ causes while providing comfort and resources to AIDs patients and unhoused queer and trans youth, were set to receive the team’s Community Hero Award in a pregame ceremony.

Conservative organizations the Catholic League and CatholicVote protested, saying the Sisters’ long history of lampooning church traditions amounted to bigotry.

R.M. Vierling, a Catholic priest with a large social media following, posted on Twitter that he had written to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred about “this outrageous insult to Catholics” and listed Manfred’s email address online.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also sent a letter to Manfred expressing dismay that the Dodgers would honor the Sisters. Producer Burt Sugarman and his wife, former Entertainment Tonight host Mary Hart, are longtime Dodgers season-ticket holders who have supported Rubio at least since hosting a fundraiser for him in L.A. in 2015. The couple’s son, AJ Sugarman, worked for Rubio during his 2016 presidential campaign.

The Dodgers and the commissioner’s office in New York were inundated with calls and emails that two Dodgers employees familiar with the team’s thinking said were a factor in the decision not to give the Sisters the Community Hero Award.

“They caught people off guard, we had to handle the phones and get yelled at on the front lines,” said one of the employees, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the topic. “It sends everyone in a tizzy.”

However, the outrage triggered by that decision threatened to derail Pride Night entirely, an outcome unacceptable to the Dodgers, whose senior vice president for marketing, communications and broadcasting Erik Braverman is gay and a respected voice in championing LGBTQ+ acceptance throughout baseball. He spearheaded the implementation of Dodgers Pride Night in 2013.

“As it stands now, we’d lose our Pride Night,” one of the employees who requested anonymity said Thursday, the day the Dodgers cut ties with the Sisters. “I don’t know how we’d come back from that.”

Dodgers staffers across all sexual orientations were vocal in their dismay at the decision. “We knew the Sisters would react, but we didn’t have a feel for how swift and strong the response was going to be and how it would pull in others,” the employee said. “And a lot of employees are upset.”

The L.A LGBT Center demanded the Dodgers reverse course or cancel Pride Night altogether. The ACLU posted on Twitter, “In unity with @SFSisters, we will not participate in Pride Night,” and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath tweeted, “If they’re not invited, I’m not going. Celebrating Pride is about inclusion. Do better.”

L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes Dodger Stadium, posted on Twitter: “Los Angeles must be a place where everyone feels empowered to express themselves, and this move undermines that.”

Support for the Sisters continued. On Friday, the L.A. County Delegation (LACD), a group of 39 members of the California State Senate and State Assembly, express support, saying in a statement that the Community Hero Award would celebrate the Sisters’ “countless hours of community service, ministry, and outreach to those on the edges, in addition to promoting human rights and respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment. These are values that should be celebrated, not suppressed.”

On Saturday, Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken tweeted that she was inviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to join her for Angels Pride Night at Anaheim Stadium on June 7.

Now it’s possible the Sisters will be guests at two Pride Nights in nine days.

“In the weeks ahead we will continue to work with our LGBTQ+ partners to better educate ourselves, find ways to strengthen the ties that bind, and use our platform to support all of our fans who make up the diversity of the Dodger family,” the Dodgers statement said.