CatholicVote is stepping up its pressure on the Los Angeles Dodgers over its invitation to a radical anti-Catholic transgender drag queen group that the team invited to participate in its Pride Night game on June 16.
The Dodgers also plan to give the anti-Catholic group known as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence a “Community Heroes Award.”
Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, has sent a letter to Dodgers principal owner Mark Walter and CEO Stan Kasten to express his group’s concern over the invitation the team offered to the hate group, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Fox News reported.
The @Dodgers have instantly become the @budlight of baseball.
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) May 23, 2023
“I represent the nation’s largest lay Catholic advocacy organization,” Burch says in the letter. “We are supported by millions of devoted Catholics across America who believe that the time-honored values of life, family, and freedom — which the Dodgers used to celebrate — are demonstrably good for America, and worthy of respect, not ridicule.”
“We wrote to you last week with a reasonable ask: Please do not honor this anti-Catholic hate group,” Burch continued. “There is no place for anti-Catholic bigotry, mocking of religious sisters, or celebrating a perverse activist group whose identity is marked by blasphemy and mockery of Catholics.”
Burch also said that he doubts the claim made by the team that they were “listening to everyone” over the issue.
The organization leader said that CatholicVote is preparing a one-million-dollar ad campaign to urge a boycott of the team over its decision to support the hate group.
“Prior to the launch of this campaign, we are requesting yet another opportunity to speak by telephone or to meet in person with an appropriate representative so that you can better understand the extraordinary harm and hurt your decision has engendered,” Burch added.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also blasted the team for partnering with the Sisters.
“Do you believe that the Los Angeles Dodgers are being ‘inclusive and welcoming to everyone’ by giving an award to a group of gay and transgender drag performers that intentionally mocks and degrades Christians—and not only Christians but nuns, who devote their lives to serving others?” Rubio wrote in a letter to the team.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue also denounced the Dodgers’ decision to give the Community Hero Award to the “obscene anti-Catholic group.”
Let’s be clear. @dodgers aren’t just welcoming the “queer nuns” as part of their Pride Night. They are giving them a “community heroes” award.https://t.co/g5JQGbdllC
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) May 23, 2023
The Dodgers have sullied their civil rights record by “promoting bigotry, not fighting it,” Dr. Donohue exclaimed. “By rewarding anti-Catholicism, the Dodgers have broken bread with the most despicable elements in American society today.”
Donohue added that the team’s event is not about “diversity and inclusion,” but rather about “rewarding hate speech.”
Catholic Bishop Robert Barron also called for a boycott of the L.A. Dodgers for its outrageous support of a transgender drag queen group.
Barron said Catholics have no choice but to boycott because the team is “clearly not responding to a decent appeal to reason” for the team’s obstinate support of the trans group.
The situation arose after the team took heat for plans to give the radical hate group a “Hero” award at its June 16 Pride Night game. But initially, complaints from Catholics and Christians caused the Dodgers to disinvite the Sisters from its Gay Pride Night.
But then the radical gay lobby jumped into action, spurring the team to make another reversal.
On May 22, Dodgers President Stan Kasten proudly announced that it was reinviting this hate group to their game.
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