At last Friday’s “Pride Night at the Ballpark,” the Pawtucket Red Sox brought in Sean Spicer, former press secretary of the Trump administration, to throw the first pitch and offered up free chicken sandwiches from Chick-fil-A—the fast-food joint whose outspokenly homophobic CEO has donated millions of dollars through his fast-food company’s profits to anti-LGBT groups.
As sports columnist Britni de la Cretaz tweeted that evening, The Boston Globe reported, “The PawSox are having Sean Spicer throw out the first pitch on Pride Night. What an insult to all their queer fans.”
According to the Globe, Spicer “was representing the Independence Fund, a nonprofit serving wounded veterans. He is a member of the organization’s board of directors. The charity teamed up with the Paw Sox to present an all-terrain wheelchair to Marine veteran Carlos Lopes, a Rhode Islander wounded in Iraq in 2005, according to a press release on its website.”
Reports the Advocate:
The minor league Pawtucket Red Sox delivered a double header in bad taste Friday night, giving out free Chick-fil-A and having a former Trump administration official throw out the first pitch on Pride Night.
Sean Spicer, President Trump’s first press secretary, tossed the first pitch, according to The Boston Globe. Spicer appeared as a representative of the Independence Fund, a nonprofit that serves wounded veterans.
The former press secretary made no reference to Friday also being Pride Night at the stadium, but critics noticed.
“The PawSox are having Sean Spicer throw out the first pitch on Pride Night. What an insult to all their queer fans,” wrote Longreads sports columnist Britni de la Cretaz on Twitter.
Spicer, who handled messaging for the White House and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, previously revealed his role in crafting supposedly pro-LGBTQ messaging for Trump simply as a way of “silencing critics.”
In Spicer’s book, The Briefing: Politics, The Press, and The President, he wrote that the only reason Trump mentioned LGBTQ rights at his Republican National Convention acceptance speech was to win over a delegate who previously signed a petition opposing his nomination.
But having the former mouthpiece of a virulently anti-LGBTQ administration was just one bad aspect of Pride Night.
The ball club also has a promotion running on some nights with Chick-fil-A. The fast food company notoriously has donated millions to antigay groups that support conversion therapy and oppose marriage equality. And Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy infamously warned in 2012 that allowing gays to marry one another was twisted and depraved.
On Friday night, the Paw Sox held a promotion that if a spectator caught a foul ball, everyone in the stadium would get a coupon for a free chicken sandwich from the homophobic company. PawSox officials confirmed a ball was caught.
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