Dodgers apologize, reinvite group to Pride Night

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Monday that an LGBTQIA+ group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will again be welcome at the team’s annual Pride Night, nearly a week after the team rescinded its original invitation.

“We have asked the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th,” a team statement said. “We are pleased to share that they have agreed to receive the gratitude of our collective communities for the lifesaving work that they have done tirelessly for decades.”

The group will receive the Community Hero Award in a ceremony before the Dodgers’ home game against the San Francisco Giants.

After “much thoughtful feedback,” the team also apologized to the group and the LGBTQIA+ community, friends and families.

The Sisters, a group of mainly men who dress as nuns, is a charity, protest and performance group founded in 1979 in San Francisco. Its Los Angeles chapter was to have received the award.

Last Wednesday, however, the Dodgers announced that they had removed the Sisters from the group of Pride Night honorees, citing “the strong feelings of people who have been offended” by them.

That followed a backlash from some conservative Roman Catholics and politicians, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who accused the group of mocking nuns and the Christian faith.

The group denied it was anti-Catholic. On its website, the group said it uses “humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.”

However, the Dodgers’ decision to disinvite the group sparked its own backlash from LGBTQIA+ groups around the country, with some deciding to pull out of Pride Night.

On Saturday, Anaheim mayor Ashleigh Aitken tweeted an invitation for the Sisters to join her for the Los Angeles Angels‘ Pride Night on June 7.

In their new statement, the Dodgers said they will continue working with “LGBTQ+ partners to better educate ourselves, find ways to strengthen the ties that bind and use our platform to support all of our fans who make up the diversity of the Dodgers family.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.