Clayton Kershaw, Dave Roberts letting Dodgers fans down on key social issues

On Friday night, the Dodgers hosted their 12th LGBTQ+ Pride Night at Dodger Stadium. They were the first of any major North American sports franchise to do so all the way back in 2000, but they've come with no shortage of controversy, both in the team's execution and in public response.

Back in 2023, the Dodgers faced backlash after inviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a self-described "leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns," to be honored at Pride Night. The Dodgers uninvited the Sisters after both internal and public resistance, faced more backlash, and then re-invited them with an team-issued apology.

Clayton Kershaw and Blake Treinen were the two most vocal players to oppose the Sisters' appearance initial appearance. Kershaw insisted, "This has nothing to do with the LGBTQ community or pride or anything like that," but added, "This is simply a group that was making fun of a religion, that I don’t agree with."

The Sisters' stated mission is to "devote ourselves to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment." There is no mention of parody or satire.

Kershaw continued to emphasize his faith — a totally permissible thing to do — but he did it while potentially isolating LGBTQ+ fans during Pride Night this year. He did don the team's special cap for the night, the LA logo containing the colors of the rainbow flag, but he added the words "Gen 9:12-16," referring to a Bible verse, emphasizing that the rainbow belongs to God. The verses have frequently been used to undermine LGBTQ+ pride.

Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw, Dave Roberts totally miss the mark with responses to LGBTQ+ Pride Night, LA riots

After protesting the Sisters' appearance in 2023, Kershaw exerted internal pressure for the team to bring back Christian Faith and Family Night at Dodger Stadium, which they hosted in both 2023 and 2024.

What Kershaw doesn't seem to understand is that LGBTQ+ pride and the existence of queer people do not infringe upon his right to practice his religion or even to be outspoken about it. They do not render his faith less meaningful. However, he appears to take any show of support for a marginalized group that still faces not only hostility but real, physical danger as a direct infringement upon those rights. Redirecting attention from uplifting queer people on the one night they are allotted during a 162-game season, even with a quiet protest like the one he put on, is not harmless and is not meaningless. It endorses exclusion in a game that already doesn't and may never fully embrace queer people.

Dave Roberts also dropped the ball with a response to the ongoing downtown LA protests, demonstrating against the current administration's recent wave of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and subsequent deportations, which has largely affected Hispanic and Latino communities in the LA area.

Roberts basically declined to answer a question asking if he had any thoughts on the matter, saying, "I don't know enough to be quite honest with you. I know that you're having to bring people in and deport people. And just kind of all the unrest is certainly unsettling for everyone. But I haven't done enough and can't speak intelligently on it."

That's just not a good enough answer for the leader of a team with such a broad base of Latino American fans, and a rather sketchy history with those very same Angelenos. The argument to "keep politics out of baseball" isn't good enough either, when Commissioner Rob Manfred himself admitted that pressure from President Donald Trump affected his decision to reinstate Pete Rose to Hall of Fame eligibility.

These aren't great looks for the Dodgers on either front. These are among the biggest social and political issues of the present day, and two of the biggest figureheads in LA are either silently protesting or don't have the wherewithal to issue an eloquent response.