Los Angeles Dodgers Host LGBT Night Out
Good news for the liberal-minded dodgers: Los Angeles Dodger Stadium will host its first lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender night on Sept. 27. According to the Associated Press, the LGBT Night Out taking place during the game against the Colorado Rockies will feature a celebrity first pitch, a special guest from the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles performing the national anthem, and a fireworks display.
The L.A. Dodgers never actually explained that LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. But they've come a long way from 2000, when they kicked out a lesbian couple for kissing at a Dodger Stadium game.
It shows sports are reaching out the olive branch to the LGBT community and breaking the conservative and muscular image of sports. LGBT people are no longer considered as strange outsiders, but people who enjoy the same rights of marriage, benefits, and rights to sports games.
It has been a pretty successful year for the LGBT community, starting from June when the Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples were entitled to federal benefits and ruled against supporters of Proposition 8, a California ballot proposition and state constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage.
This month, the City Council in San Antonio passed a non-discrimination ordinance that adds gender identity, sexual orientation, and veteran status to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, and disability as characteristics that businesses cannot use to discriminate against patrons or employees. The ordinance hits the sports section in August as the WNBA San Antonio Silver Stars forward, Sophia Young, said that she doesn't support same-sex marriage or adding gay people to San Antonio's nondiscrimination code.
Obtaining the access to sports is just a start for LGBT athletes; there are still many roadblocks ahead. "Football's Robbie Rogers, basketball's Jason Collins and boxer Orlando Cruz have been unable to have much on-field impact upon the global sporting landscape after they came out as gay," said the Huffington Post.
With the NBA pre-season training camps starting in less than two weeks, Collins is still seeking a game to sign him after he admitted his homosexuality last April after the NBA season. Cruz, a two-time winner, will finally have the first world title bout since he came out last October.
"Rogers, who made a historic debut with the Los Angeles Galaxy in May, has played only nine times for the Major League Soccer club after a hamstring injury last month."
