L.A. Dodgers Apologize and Re-Invite Charity Drag Group to Pride Night

The baseball team had disinvited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from a Pride event after pressure from Marco Rubio and other conservatives

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will, after all, be participating at Los Angeles Dodgers’ Pride Night next month after the baseball team received severe backlash from queer organizations for disinviting the charity group.

On Monday evening, the baseball team shared a statement on Twitter in which it apologized to the drag nun charity for removing them from the event after Sen. Marco Rubio and other conservatives expressed their dislike for the organization.

“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 team wrote in a statement adorned by the club’s logo in the colors of the Pride flag.

“We have asked the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th,” the statement continued. “We are pleased to share that they have agreed to receive the gratitude of our collective communities for the lifesaving work that they have done tirelessly for decades.”

The Dodgers continued by saying they would work with LGBTQ organizations 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 Dodgers family.”

The new statement rom the team comes just days after L.A. Pride, the leading LGBTQ organization in the city, removed itself from the Dodgers event, citing their disappointment. “Pride is a fight for equality and inclusion for the entire LGBTQ+ community and we’re not going to stop now,” L.A. Pride said in a statement at the time.

The Los Angeles LGBT Center had also removed itself from the event, saying they were “deeply disappointed” with the Dodgers, calling for the event to be canceled if the Sisters were not invited back. Following the Dodgers’ apology, the Center agreed to attend the event.

“Today’s decision by the Dodgers to publicly apologize to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and roll back their exclusion from next month’s Pride Night is a step in the right direction, and we support the Sisters’ vote to accept their much-deserved Community Hero Award,” the Center told Rolling Stone in a statement Monday. “Last week’s debacle underscores the dangerous impact of political tactics by those who seek to stoke the flames of anti-LGBTQ bias at a time when our rights are under attack.”

The center added, “We must continue to stand together as a community in defense of the rights and recognition of LGBTQ+ people in Los Angeles and beyond.”

Rolling Stone has reached out to L.A. Pride for comment.

The Dodgers first announced last Wednesday that they would be pulling the charity drag group from Pride Night “in an effort not to distract from the great benefits” of the event after conservatives were outraged they would be performing. (Rubio sent a whiney letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred after the Dodgers shared that the group would receive a Community Hero Award. Rolling Stone has also reached out to Rubio.)

The organization, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, is an order of “queer and trans nuns” devoted to “community service, ministry, and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity, and spiritual enlightenment,” according to their self-description. The group has reclaimed religious garb to advocate for LGBTQ equality and expose the church, which demonized gay people during the AIDS epidemic.

The San Francisco chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence expressed their “deep offense and outrage” in a statement that condemned some of the rhetoric shared about the group in the days after the Dodgers’ decision.

“The Sisters are not anti-Catholic, but an organization based on love, acceptance, and celebrating human diversity,” the group wrote. “To be condemned by representatives of the Catholic Church is particularly ironic, given that organization’s long history of condoning and concealing the sexual abuse of children.”