The San Francisco Giants “missed the point” of “Pride Night,” says The Athletic’s Grant Brisbee.
Giants players were given hats featuring a Giants logo striped in the colors of the “progress“ pride flag (the one that includes the black and brown stripes for black and brown gays, respectively).
Several players wrote bible verses on their caps. Landen Roupp wrote “Gen 9:12-16,” JT Brubaker wrote “Gen 9:13-15” and Sam Hentges declined to wear the hat altogether.
Brisbee refers to such dissent as a “tone-deaf response to what should have been a moment for community unity.” Brisbee alleges players like Roupp and Brubaker “made the night about ‘us versus them.’”
Brisbee is unable or unwilling to conceive of a reasonable theory of mind for these players. These players obviously do not see the “pride” hat as a symbol of unity. I would argue the hat is not intended to be a symbol of “unity” for Giants fans. It is intended to broadcast to the public that the Giants, as a team, are on the “right side of history.”
Being asked to wear the “pride” hat is akin to being asked to fly the flag of a conquering nation. Or, at least, I imagine that’s what some Giants players may have felt.
Brisbee then launches into a tirade about the significance of “Pride Night.”
He writes: “Without the support of their community at large, LGBTQIA+ individuals are much more likely to be told that they are without value. They are likelier to be abused, to self-harm, to get kicked out of their homes, to be bullied, to be assaulted. They are at risk because of a society that still doesn’t always accept them, even after decades of progress. Some of that progress was made when events like Pride Night became commonplace, reminding the world of a community’s existence, strength and humanity. Events like Pride Night reduce suffering in a very real way. To suggest they don’t is to ignore the humanity of the individuals involved.”
Brisbee takes the same tack as trans activists who suggest that if a mentally ill man kills himself because you refused to call him “Lilith,” then you are to blame. It’s a form of moral blackmail which should be rejected in its entirety.
Even if we accept that “Pride Night reduce[s] suffering in a very real way,” so what? Is ‘reducing suffering’ the ultimate good? If so, we might as well hook everyone up to a drip feed of morphine and pop music and candy, turning them on their sides every few hours to avoid bedsores.