Texas Rangers logo

Another Pride Month, another snub from the Texas Rangers.

The team remains the only one in MLB without an evening dedicated to celebrating its LGBTQ+ fans, and this year, there’s an added diss. When the calendar turned to June, the Rangers curiously changed the banner on their website.

For the first two months of the season, the banner read “Run It Back,” in reference to their 2023 World Series win. But on June 1, the banner offered a different slogan: “Straight Up Texas.”

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The Rangers responded to the controversy a few days ago, with an exec saying the situation is just a coincidence. “It certainly wasn’t done intentionally or to make some sort of statement. That’s ridiculous,” the person explained.

In fairness to the Rangers, “#StraightUpTX” was the team’s hashtag last year, when they won their first World Series. The club official said the Rangers have four slogans planned for the season, including “Big Bright Stars,” which will make an appearance on the team’s website soon.

Still, it’s hard to ignore the timing. The Rangers’ lack of public support for the LGBTQ+ community stands in stark contrast to organizations across MLB.

The Los Angeles Dodgers threw the first-ever Pride celebration in pro sports nearly 25 years ago, as a makeup call for ejecting two women from the stadium for the crime of kissing on the Jumbotron. The team issued a public apology and donated 5,000 tickets to three LGBTQ+ groups in the area. 

Shortly thereafter, the Chicago Cubs hosted their first ever Out at Wrigley event, a community-run LGBTQ+ day at the park hosted by a longtime fan. The Houston Astros, the other Pride Night holdout, hosted their first event in 2021. (Team officials say the promotion is now a driver of “both ticket sales and sponsor revenue.”)

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Last June, The Athletic spoke to roughly a dozen current or recent Rangers employees about the organization’s longstanding Pride Night abstinence. They weren’t shy about voicing their displeasure.

“I grew up here, I’m a diehard Rangers fan,” said one current staffer. “When I started working here, it was a dream job. But it’s pretty sh*tty that it’s an organization over the last few years that has done or said things, or not done or said things, that not only do I not agree with or not reflect who I want to be as a person, but it’s bordering on being disgusting.”

The blame appears to fall with ownership. The Rangers majority stakeholder is billionaire oil tycoon Ray Davis. “Almost everyone interviewed for this story believes the roadblock for celebrating the LGBTQ+ community is high up in the organization, high enough that even anonymously, people are nervous talking about it,” wrote The Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli.

But that’s hardly an excuse, given the Rangers are far from the only MLB team owned by a conservative billionaire. The Cubs, for example, are owned by the Ricketts family, who happen to be major Trump donors (co-owner Laura Ricketts is an out LGBTQ+ person, for what it’s worth).

The Rangers’ lack of Pride celebrations also separates them from other pro teams in Dallas. The Dallas Stars of the NHL and FC Dallas of the MLS now hold Pride Nights, and even the Dallas Cowboys sell LGBTQ+ merchandise. The Cowboys, who have a long gay and bi history, also signed Michael Sam, the first out gay draft pick in NFL history.

As coincidence would have it, the Rangers are playing two of the most gay-friendly teams in baseball this month, the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. They lost two of three games to the Giants last weekend, and are starting a 3-game set with the Dodgers Tuesday.

May they feel the rainbow karma.

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