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The Atlanta Braves took a bold stance in support of the LGBTQ community this week by supporting GLAAD Spirit Day.  The Braves organization also hosts an annual gay night, and produces anti-bullying videos as ways to make amens for their pitching coach's, Roger McDowell, anti-gay slurs.  On October 17th the Braves tweeted the following:For the most part it seems like Braves fans are happy that their team supports ALL of their fan base but it seems the team also lost a few fans along the way:

Let's address the notion that the Atlanta Braves should "stick to baseball", as if baseball exists in a vacuum separated from the rest of the world.  Let me ask what does Viagra have to do with professional sports? What does NAPA Auto Parts have to do with baseball? Nothing really, but such corporate advertisements have become acceptable as part of one's sporting experience.  And no, advertisements in every single stadium sight line are not part of sports history.  Social causes have also entered the tangled web of professional sports entertainment as the tweet from Bryant Rogers states "Try supporting something like breast cancer awareness like the NFL", which, by the way, the Braves already have a breast cancer awareness day, a prostate cancer awareness day, and a military outreach day among their various events.  Thus, social causes, although not part of the game of baseball, have become acceptable so long as they are causes that the fans deem socially acceptable.  It is Ronald Reagan's legacy (a President that most of these Tweeters, I assume, would have supported) that citizens and corporations alike support the social causes that the government no longer feels are its responsibility.  Therefore, to rail against the relationship that is 'corporate social responsibility' is to speak out against the conservative manifesto that has created the very system that enables baseball to be a multi-billion dollar business.  
The last tweet, "Why bring gayness into it" is about as naive as they get. Gayness wasn't brought into baseball like one brings a bean salad to a dinner party.  Where there have been people, there have been gays. Whether you acknowledge their existence or not is a completely separate issue.  And what does it mean when one does "not hate gays, just hate their lifestyle"? If I said, I don't hate black people, I just hate their lifestyle I'm pretty sure I would still be hating black people (which, I don't - FYI).  Is not your lifestyle part of your identity? Isn't your identity who you are? Also, in response to Jason Bonner's tweet, I'm glad you do not force your religious beliefs on anyone but supporting the LGBTQ community is not accepting immorality, rather it is an acknowledgement of human rights. Those little rights that enable you to go to church and wear a cross without persecution are the same rights that enable gays to be recognized as equal members of society.  
I'm not a baseball fan but now I'm an Atlanta Braves fan (now let's see what we can do about that tomahawk).  The Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League will be hosting a similar event on Saturday October 19th called You Can Play Equality Night.  It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction the Panthers receive in the equally red state of Florida.

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