Veteran MLB pitcher and outspoken Christian Clayton Kershaw hasn’t been a fan of his team’s previous Pride Night activities. This year, the Los Angeles Dodgers ace switched up his approach to the annual LGBTQ+ celebration.
As the National League West powerhouse hosted the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, the broadcast showed Kershaw in the dugout wearing the team’s rainbow-themed hat. But in the corner of the cap was “Gen 9:12-16,” the post-Flood Bible passage in which God explains the rainbow’s covenant meaning.
Kershaw, 37, didn’t pitch in Friday night’s loss or comment publicly on his hat. But after pitching on Father’s Day (June 15), the athlete revealed that he and his wife, Ellen, are expecting their fifth child.
Dodgers Pitcher Clayton Kershaw Points to Rainbow’s Meaning
During previous Pride Month observances, Kershaw emphasized he has nothing against the LGBTQ+ community. Instead, the pitcher said he opposes activities that appear to mock religion.
In 2023, the Dodgers sparked controversy by inviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of drag performers, to its annual Pride event. In lots of back and forth, the team disinvited then reinvited the “queer and trans nuns” to perform.
Amid the uproar, Kershaw said he wouldn’t boycott Pride Night but also announced the return of the Dodgers’ Christian Faith and Family Day. Because of the pandemic, that event had been on a three-year hiatus.
Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young award winner and a likely first-ballot Hall of Famer, said at the time, “I think we were always going to do Christian Faith Day this year. But I think the timing of our announcement was sped up…in response to the highlighting of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence [by the Dodgers].”
About that uproar, the pitcher said, “I don’t agree with making fun of other people’s religions.” The best response, in his opinion, was “to show what we do support, [which is] Jesus.”
Clayton Kershaw’s Rainbow Hat Goes Viral
Images of Kershaw’s Genesis rainbow hat went viral over the weekend, receiving praise as well as criticism. “Major respect to Clayton Kershaw for this,” author Owen Strachan posted on X.
Jon Root gave the pitcher a social media “shoutout” for using “his Pride hat to remind everyone that the rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant.” In the comments, people debated whether Kershaw would have provided a more powerful Christian witness by ditching the hat altogether.
“I say he did something far better: showed what the rainbow really means,” someone concluded.
