This week, Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic published an article in which she spoke to more than a dozen people close to the Texas Rangers organization about the team’s refusal to host an LGBTQ Pride Night promotional game. And much of that criticism was directed at Texas Rangers team owner Ray Davis.
One current Texas Rangers employee, who identifies as gay, told The Athletic that he blames Ray Davis for the team’s refusal to host a Pride celebration at a Texas Rangers game.
“When you have someone so opposed at the top, it creates this spillover effect that, even though most of the organization I think wants it to happen, or at least isn’t vehemently opposed to it, it’s just this dark cloud that’s signifying it’s OK to treat this group of people like [crap],” the employee told The Athletic.
Alex Plinck writes about the Rangers for Dallas Sports Fanatic and came out as gay three years ago. While he wouldn’t explicitly call Davis or the team ownership homophobic, he also pointed out that there is really no other reason to explain the team’s refusal to host an LGBTQ Pride celebration.
“If someone asked me if ownership is homophobic, I would say they haven’t blatantly said anything, but their actions say otherwise,” Plinck told The Athletic. “There’s no other reason why you wouldn’t (have a Pride Night). It’s murky, right? I can’t say they are (homophobic) but what other reason would you have not to? Some of the other theme nights they have also make people upset. They have 18 home games this month. And you can’t find one of 18 games to fit one in?”
It’s safe to say Davis is getting a lot of heat for this decision.
