[145/365] Perpetual

[cosmolinguist]

I first heard that the Los Angeles Dodgers (famous baseball team) had rescinded the invitation they'd extended to ;the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (decades-established queer activists) from their upcoming Pride Night thanks to the LA LGBT Center's statement where it describes the Sisters as having

reclaimed religious imagery, garb, and symbolism to advocate for LGBTQ+ equality; through their protests, they have exposed the hypocrisy of the churches that demonized gay people during the AIDS Crisis; challenged faith institutions to stand with queer and trans people; and raised valuable resources for our community as we were turned away from services elsewhere"

The statement basically says if they're not welcome, we're not giving you our endorsement either. Good for the LA LGBT Center.

Pride Night is a strange phenomenon that has sprung up in Major League Baseball. Received wisdom from the queer baseball fans I know is that it's just an excuse to put rainbows on merch. But sometimes the merch is okay. Jaded and cynical millenials and Gen Z are not impressed with this. But I have said for years that a lot of these things which can go by the name pinkwashing make an interesting barometer of how LGBT+ rights and people are perceived. If corporate capitalism has determined that they'll gain more dollars or goodwill than they lose by slapping rainbows on stuff, that tells us something which I think is encouraging....and which is why I found it so discouraging to hear that Target had recently indicated it was no longer worth it to them.

Just like Target, Pride Night assumed new relevance this year.

So yeah the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were dis-invited from Pride Night. But the reaction to this was so strong that not only did the Dodgers apologize and renew their invitation, but the Streisand Effect of this got so much attention that, for example, the mayor of Anaheim where the other LA baseball team plays invited the Sisters to their Pride Night as well, something that a local acquaintance of mine says is a big deal because Anaheim/Orange County is much more conservative than LA County. They hadn't done anything like invite the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in the first place!

But now the Sisters are going to be doing two Pride Night baseball games within a week. And they're still getting the Community Hero Award from the Dodgers that they were initially intended to receive.

I don't love how much of the rhetoric here is around objections from "out of state" and "the Midwest," as if there is no queerphobia in the state of California. But I do think it's worth acknowledging at every possible opportunity how eleven people are behind almost all the queer book ban attempts in the U.S. and threaten everyone's rights and safety and autonomy.

It matters, a lot, that a small number of people (be they these eleven, or a handful of Supreme Court justices, or a dozen governors, or one Elon Musk) have so much power over so many.

But it also matters that there aren't really that many of them. It matters how many people reject it, at all levels.

Comments

[otter]

Those 11 people (I didn't see who because the WaPo doesn't get my email address today) ought to be the ones banned from society. I know it isn't right to wish bad things on people, so I will wish total silence on them.

[kshandra]

Gift link to article here: https://wapo.st/43k4MwA

[otter]

Thank you

[silveradept]

It's different to see the blacklash in favor of the Sisters instead of against them. I'm far more used to seeing it against them or someone else. It makes me think there's still possibility for us all yet, now that the chips are starting to fall and the governments are starting to leverage themselves.

The attitudes about "out of state" is someone pretending they don't have the problem in their own backyard, which they absolutely do. After all, Reagan was governor of California before he was President. If they can see that the work is in their own place as well as elsewhere, they'll do more for making things better than if they continue to think that it's from "somewhere else."