Los Angeles Dodgers Disinvite Drag Performers from Planned Pride Night Celebration

The Los Angeles Dodgers rescinded their Pride Night invitation Wednesday to an LGBTQ nonprofit that performs in drag after receiving complaints that the organization is anti-Catholic.

The Dodgers had invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to the team’s Pride celebration on June 16 against the San Francisco Giants, but said in a statement posted to Twitter that the group’s inclusion would not reflect the celebration’s “spirit of unity.”

“Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we have seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees,” the Dodgers said in a statement.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, based in San Francisco, were founded in 1979 and use satirized religious imagery and drag to highlight intolerance of different sexualities and sexual orientations. The group has raised more than $1 million in San Francisco alone for causes such as ending breast cancer and AIDS.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, was among those that criticized the Dodgers and Major League Baseball for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s planned inclusion in Pride Night festivities, arguing in a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred that the group “mocks Christians through diabolical parodies of our faith.”

“Baseball has always been tied to our nation’s values, at the heart of which is faith in God,” Rubio wrote in the letter. “It would be an outrage and a tragedy if the MLB, in pursuit of modern, secular, and indeed anti-religious ‘values,’ rebuked that faith and the millions of believing fans who cherish the sport.”

The Dodgers recently gave the group a Community Hero Award, the group said in a statement, and had planned to honor the sisters at the Pride Night game. The sisters also argued that the Dodgers elected to “un-ally themselves” by uninviting the group.

“Today, we are sad to learn the Los Angeles Dodgers have chosen to rescind their award, succumbing to pressure from persons outside of the State of California and outside of our community,” the group said in its statement Wednesday. "We are disappointed they have chosen to un-ally themselves with us in our ongoing service to the public, many of whom enjoy the Dodgers’ heroic efforts in sports.”

On Thursday, Los Angeles Pride said that it would pull out of the Dodgers' Pride Night celebration in solidarity with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

"Pride is a fight for equality and inclusion for the entire LGBTQ+ community and we're not going to stop now," LA Pride said in a statement posted to the organization's Twitter account. "Let's make this year's Pride celebration louder than ever."