Monday on ESPN 2’s broadcast of “Around the Horn,” radio host and network contributor Sarah Spain ripped the group of Tampa Bay Rays players that refused to wear rainbow-colored logos on their uniforms as part of the team’s annual “Pride Night.”
The players cited “faith-based” reasons for not supporting the LGBTQ community.
Spain took issue with the reasoning, calling it “BS” and saying the players were “trying to be bigoted.”
“Pride is about inclusion, so you don’t love them, and you don’t welcome them if you’re not willing to wear the patch,” Spain argued.
“[This] is what tends to happen when frivolous class isn’t affected by things,” she continued. “This is not just about baseball. That religious exemption BS is used in sports and otherwise also allows for people to be denied health care, jobs, apartments, children, prescriptions, all sorts of rights. And so, we have to stop tiptoeing around it because we’re trying to protect people who are trying to be bigoted from asking for them to be exempt from it when the very people that they are bigoted against are suffering the consequences.”
Host Tony Reali asked Spain about her “trying to be bigoted” remark.
“They’re trying to use religious exemptions to affect the opportunities, services, available resources for people who are LGBTQ+,” Spain explained, adding that the players were “double-talking” by saying they loved and welcomed those under the LGBTQ+ umbrella while also refusing to wear a supportive patch.
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