Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw signaled his support for the San Francisco Giants players who wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night caps earlier this summer.
Several weeks ago, three Giants players wrote “Genesis 9:12-16” on their Pride Night caps, which drew major criticism from fans and various media outlets. Kershaw did the same thing the year before but did not receive as much backlash.
“It wasn’t meant to discriminate or marginalize anybody,” Kershaw told Fox News Digital of what the verse means to him. “The rainbow means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and so for me, what the rainbow represents is God’s covenant with His people, and so that’s what I wanted to represent as a man of faith, as a man that believes in Jesus.”
“That’s what the rainbow represents to me, and I thought that was the best way to do that in a somewhat of a difficult situation,” he continued. “And once again, it wasn’t meant to discriminate or put anybody in a bad spot. It was just what I believed in, and like you said, it wasn’t an easy decision. But I still stand by it. I think it was the right thing to do.”
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Giants pitcher Landen Roupp, who wrote the same verse on his Pride hat this June, shared similar sentiments.
“It’s just about God’s covenant and a promise that He makes to us that, you know, His faithfulness and His mercy,” the athlete said. “That’s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that, and I’m thankful we live in a country where, you know, we have the freedom to believe what we want…and express what we want.”
Relief pitcher Sam Hentges went even further and decided not to wear the Pride cap at all.
“It’s just something that I feel like I was forced to support when I don’t morally support it,” he said, per The San Francisco Standard. “There wasn’t hatred behind it. I think that’s kind of something that’s misinterpreted. I don’t hate the LGBTQ community. It’s just something I believed and talked with teammates and family, and they supported it.”
The controversy highlights an ongoing tension within professional sports between organizational initiatives like Pride Night and the personal religious convictions of individual players. While the Giants, like many MLB teams, have embraced Pride Night as a way to signal inclusivity toward LGBTQ fans, players like Kershaw, Roupp and Hentges have framed their actions as expressions of religious belief rather than statements against any community.
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