Tampa Bay Rays Players Refuse To Wear Rainbow 'Pride Night' Logos Because They 'Believe In Jesus'

It's June, and that means it's time for everyone's favorite yearly June tradition—no, not Pride Month, but rather Christians getting mad about Pride Month and sharing Jesus Christ's love by condemning LGBTQ+ people for having the temerity to exist.

The latest chapter in this yearly saga comes from the Tampa Bay Rays major league baseball team, some players of which elected not to participate in the team's Pride Night this past weekend because they "believe in Jesus."

In celebration of Pride Month the team was asked to wear a rainbow logo on their uniforms.

But one group of players led by pitcher Jason Adams refused on the basis of a "faith-based decision."

Speaking to the Tampa Bay Times, Adams explained his and the other players' decision to honor Jesus Christ by refusing to wear a logo on their uniforms for one game.

"...[I]t comes down to faith, to like a faith-based decision."

"So it’s a hard decision. Because ultimately we all said what we want is them to know that all are welcome and loved here."

No offense to Adams, but if making LGBTQ+ people feel "welcome and loved" is the goal, refusing to participate in a Pride event because Jesus supposedly hates LGBTQ+ people is not the way to do it.

Adams went on to word-salad about how he thinks LGBTQ+ people are great, but should not be encouraged because his version of Jesus is homophobic.

"...[W]hen we put [the logo] on our bodies, I think a lot of guys decided that it’s just a lifestyle that maybe — not that they look down on anybody or think differently — it’s just that maybe we don’t want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus..."

Taking a stand against a community is pretty much exactly what it means to "look down on" or "think differently" about a group of people.

"...[Jesus] encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior, just like [Jesus] encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage."

"It’s no different."

It's actually extremely different for myriad reasons not least of which is that unlike "sex outside the confines of marriage," Jesus never even once mentioned a single word about homosexuality or LGBTQ+ people in any record of his words, in or out of the Bible.

As you might gather, outside of the usual right-wing bigots and religious zealots, Adams' decision was very unpopular on social media.

In the end, Saturday night's Pride-themed game was better attended than the average Rays game on a regular day, which will hopefully remind Adams and his fellow homophobes for Christ they are in the minority.