{"id":747270,"date":"2026-06-19T19:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747270\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T19:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:01:10","slug":"justice-department-says-it-will-investigate-mlb-amid-pride-hats-controversy-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747270\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice department says it will investigate MLB amid Pride hats controversy | MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US justice department has launched a civil rights investigation into Major League Baseball after the league criticized three San Francisco Giants<\/a> players who wrote Bible verses on their hats during the team\u2019s Pride Night.<\/p>\n

Most of MLB\u2019s 30 teams celebrate Pride month with a themed game to acknowledge the LGBTQ community and its baseball fans. During a 12 June game against the Chicago Cubs, pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker wrote Bible verses on their hats<\/a>, which featured the Giants\u2019 logo in rainbow colors, while pitcher Sam Hentges chose not to wear the themed cap at all.<\/p>\n

MLB said in a statement on Monday that writing on hats \u201cviolates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, assistant US attorney general Harmeet Dhillon wrote a letter<\/a> to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred saying the justice department had referred the league to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate whether the discipline amounts to religious discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Civil Rights Act prohibits MLB and its franchises from unreasonably burdening the rights of players with religious objections to serving as the League\u2019s vehicle for pro-Pride messages,\u201d Dhillon said in the letter. \u201cFederal law is clear: employers must modify their uniform requirements to reasonably accommodate their employees\u2019 exercise of religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dhillon called MLB\u2019s decision to allow players<\/a> to wear Black Lives Matter uniform patches in 2020 a \u201cdouble standard\u201d. Andrea Lucas, the EEOC chair, reposted Dhillon\u2019s letter saying the agency could not confirm the existence of a charge or investigation without a court filing or public resolution, but added<\/a>: \u201cRest assured, however, that EEOC is committed to protecting the religious liberty of all workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roupp said after the Giants\u2019 game last week that the decision to write on his cap was not malicious and that there was \u201cno hate at all\u201d. Hentges said he did not appreciate being told to wear the cap for a cause he did not \u201cmorally support\u201d.<\/p>\n

After MLB\u2019s warning to the Giants players, vice-president JD Vance weighed in<\/a> on X, saying: \u201cTrump won we don\u2019t have to do this anymore\u201d, referencing Pride hats. Republican senator Josh Hawley wrote a letter to Manfred<\/a> voicing his concerns over what he termed a \u201cpattern of discrimination\u201d against Christian players.<\/p>\n

The league has said that its warning about writing on caps has nothing to do with the content of the message, and that it has sent the same warning for Mother\u2019s Day messages and names of family members.<\/p>\n

The controversy over Pride nights is not new in baseball. In 2022, several members of the Tampa Bay Rays refused to wear the team\u2019s rainbow-themed logos<\/a> in \u201cfaith-based decisions\u201d. This week, it extended beyond the majors, as the independent league York Revolution forfeited a game<\/a> after some of its players refused to don the Pride Night jerseys.<\/p>\n

The Giants released a statement after their Pride Night saying they are \u201cproud to support Pride Night and the LGBTQ community\u201d while also respecting that \u201cindividuals may make personal choices about participating in team activations\u201d and apologizing for the \u201cpain and anger [of] many in the LGBTQ+ community\u201d.<\/p>\n

San Francisco has a large LGBTQ population and holds an important place in the history of American LGBTQ rights<\/a>. The director of the city\u2019s Pride efforts told<\/a> NBC Bay Area that the moment was painful for many Giants fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate that it\u2019s dividing us, this time of year I hope that we\u2019re unifying people,\u201d said Suzanne Ford.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so ludicrous that this story is being spun that Christians are being discriminated against,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US justice department has launched a civil rights investigation into Major League Baseball after the league criticized…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-747270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}