Major sports leagues dump pride, as Biden fights to fill the void
While pro sports scales back its usual Pride celebrations, Joe Biden is swinging for the rainbow fences. Despite the subdued approach to June everywhere else, this White House seems intent on bombarding Americans with LGBT messaging from every federal platform. It’s quite a contrast to the rest of the cultural landscape, where not just major brands but major leagues are making the conscious decision to sit this month out, desperate to protect their profits from the consumer outrage that’s burned down brands like Bud Light and Target. But then, this president doesn’t have to worry about the financial impact of his extremism — because it’s not his money he’s using, it’s yours.
The president’s over-the-top approach to Pride comes as America’s five major sports leagues pushed the LGBT holiday to the sidelines. Unlike past years, the rainbows that used to color the logos of the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLS for the month are gone. Only Major League Baseball dipped its toes into the 2024 Pride waters — a brief experiment that they abandoned when fans went berserk. After its “Baseball is everyone’s game” post on the morning of June 1, users exploded in the comments — a flood of opposition so great that Yahoo! Sports did an entire write-up of the PR disaster.
“People lost their minds,” reporters wrote. Negative replies ranked in the tens of thousands — with everything from “Get back to baseball, clowns” to “Just play ball!” and “No thank you.” One post, which said simply, “Demonic” had 30,000 likes overnight. And while the article was quick to point out that there was some positive feedback, the metrics they used to count the outrage were conspicuously absent.
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In the NFL, 11 teams were completely mum on Pride when June 1 rolled around, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, and Atlanta Falcons. That’s a third of the league, an impressive level of resistance that most Americans couldn’t have imagined even two years ago.
Of course, the NHL understands better than anyone what a bloodbath Pride can be after their league-wide rebellion over rainbow jerseys hit the fan in early 2023. Since then, Commissioner Gary Bettman has taken a surprisingly conciliatory position on free speech, scrapping the policy that forced players to don the colors of sexual radicalism. Hockey’s revolution, sparked by dozens of courageous skaters who refused to go along with the league’s activism, even spilled over into baseball, where last summer, the tradition of Pride jerseys was also banned — shaking the sports establishment to its very core.
And that seismic shift hasn’t just affected sports’ Big Four but America’s other competitive pastimes. This year, the social media logos of NASCAR, the PGA Tour, WWE, MMA Fighting, Surfing, USA Pickleball, Lacrosse, and Swimming are all untouched by LGBT colors. Only the USTA and WNBA stand out as exceptions to this no-Pride tide.
Family Research Council’s Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview Joseph Backholm cheered the overdue sea change. “Professional sports teams seem to be deciding it is in their best interest not to take sides in the culture wars, which is obviously the right decision. It’s entirely inappropriate and possibly illegal to suggest employees must hold a certain set of beliefs — and bad business to suggest fans should. While the sexual revolutionaries have become incredibly pushy and evangelistic, a growing number of people are pushing back, and it's clear professional sports teams are starting to get the message.”
For fans, who’ve had to endure the sight of their favorite players and teams draped in the colors of child mutilation and sexual extremism, the leagues’ reversal is more proof of the cultural earthquake shaking America’s woke foundation. This is a victory for moral courage. It’s a victory for free speech and real tolerance. But also, it’s a victory for corporate awareness. As an industry, more sports are listening to someone other than the bullies.
Meanwhile, the country’s biggest cheerleader for sexual and gender confusion, Joe Biden, continues to beat the June drum, draping America’s government offices in the colors of his LGBT obsession. From the White House to the Departments of State, Energy, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Education, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor, Interior, and Transportation as well as the USDA, FAA, U.S. Postal Service, and FBI, Americans will have to endure this month-long onslaught at the expense of very real issues that demand our nation’s attention.
Instead of the crises of inflation, the open border, rampant crime, fentanyl, military recruitment, China, global terrorism, the Israeli war, and so many other problems facing America, this president’s team will be hitting up 200 Pride parades, desperate to show their support for the only agenda they’ve ever cared about. Apparently, it’s not enough that the administration has appointed over 200 LGBT-identifying government leaders, forced taxpayers to cover gender mutilation surgeries, erased girls’ sports, dismantled parents’ rights, established same-sex marriage in federal law, opened the military to transgender troops, ordered girls to share bathrooms, locker rooms, dorms, and showers with biological boys, and elbowed Christians out of foster care and adoption, they also want to spend the last six months of his term partying with half-naked perverts.
If that’s their idea of a reelection campaign, good luck. As Family Research Council’s Meg Kilgannon pointed out, “The Biden administration has done the bidding of the LGBTQ activists since day one of this administration. Just last year, we had the naked romp under Pride flags on the White House lawn. Two hundred Pride events this year is a ‘whole of government’ priority that I hope Christian voters will consider if they are wondering if they should vote in 2024,” she told The Washington Stand. “This push should prove that Christians need to vote in every election for candidates and leaders who will end progressivism and identity politics in government. Corporate America seems to have taken the lesson Bud Light learned to heart, but the Biden administration is doubling down.”
Look, Backholm explained, “The Biden administration is all in on Pride Month because they don’t know any other way. They are the priests and priestesses of this religion. Many of them got involved in government specifically to advance the cause of the sexual revolution. They are so convinced of the moral superiority of their cause,” he went on, “that any resistance they perceive from Main Street is evidence of how important it is for them to push harder and preach louder.”
At the end of the day, he warns, “If they are not removed from power, they will force everyone to submit to their rainbow gods. Their behavior during Pride Month makes clear they have no intention of compromising or creating a world where differences of opinion are tolerated.”
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer for The Washington Stand. In her role, she drafts commentary on topics such as life, consumer activism, media and entertainment, sexuality, education, religious freedom, and other issues that affect the institutions of marriage and family. Over the past 20 years at FRC, her op-eds have been featured in publications ranging from the Washington Times to The Christian Post. Suzanne is a graduate of Taylor University in Upland, Ind., with majors in both English Writing and Political Science.
