{"id":367579,"date":"2026-06-19T20:40:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/367579\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T20:40:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:40:04","slug":"harmeet-dhillon-slams-giants-launches-doj-pride-hate-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/367579\/","title":{"rendered":"Harmeet Dhillon slams Giants, launches DOJ Pride hate probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department\u2019s civil rights chief, offered a scorching critique of Major League Baseball and the San Francisco Giants for what she called a \u201cdouble standard\u201d toward religious expression \u2014\u00a0as federal officials investigate<\/a> whether Christian players were pressured to wear Pride-themed hats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t really matter how gay San Francisco is \u2014 these workers have rights,\u201d Dhillon told The Post in an exclusive interview Friday. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Harmeet Dhillon, the head for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, announced the investigation Thursday. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a right to not be forced into a situation like this. They have a right to seek a religious accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation follows the Giants\u2019 June 12 Pride Night at Oracle Park, when four pitchers protested the team\u2019s rainbow-themed hats. Relievers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker wrote Bible verses on their ballcaps<\/a>, while pitcher Sam Hentges chose not to wear the hat at all.<\/p>\n

San Francisco Giants pitcher Landen Roupp\u00a0wrote a Bible passage on his hat in a June 12 game. AP Photo\/Scott Marshall<\/p>\n

\u00a0San Francisco Giants pitcher Ryan Walker was one of three players to write Bible passage on his hat last week. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Days later, MLB spokesman Pat Courtney confirmed the players had received a warning<\/a>, saying the writing on the caps violated league uniform rules and that players had been cautioned against future violations.<\/p>\n

Dhillon said the Justice Department referred the matter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has primary authority over private-sector workplace discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do not mind when players are putting messages that the woke left approves of onto their uniforms,\u201d Dhillon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t mind when players are taking a knee and exhibiting all kinds of stuff on the job, but when people are pushing back on being forced to promote a sexual practice that is against their religion, they\u2019re threatening them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league later clarified that the warning was \u201cnot disciplinary\u201d and \u201chad absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message,\u201d noting that MLB\u2019s uniform regulations prohibit players from writing any messages on apparel or equipment and that similar warnings have been issued for personal messages such as \u201cDad\u201d or \u201cHappy Mother\u2019s Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam Hentges chose to not wear the Pride hat at the June 12 game. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pride hats have created a controversy this summer after Giants players made a silent protest. AP<\/p>\n

The controversy has sparked fierce debate in San Francisco, where the Giants\u2019 annual Pride Night is a marquee event. State Sen. Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, accused the team of tolerating behavior that caused \u201cpain and anger\u201d within the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Giants should publicly commit to enforcing rules around uniform defacement and should not effectively create a homophobia exemption to those rules,\u201d Wiener said in a statement.<\/p>\n

San Francisco Mayor Dnaiel Lurie said he was \u201creally upset and disappointed\u201d<\/a> by the players\u2019 decision, while Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow, whose son is gay, said players have the right to their beliefs but should recognize the city they represent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes San Francisco so great is the acceptance of others \u2014 ethnicities, opinions, cultures \u2014 and that extends to the gay community,\u201d Krukow told the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dhillon, who lived in San Francisco for nearly 25 years before joining the Trump administration, said the city\u2019s prominent LGBTQ+ culture does not change employers\u2019 legal obligations.<\/p>\n

Dhillon said the controversy shows a double standard after other protests in sports have gone unpunished. Ron Sachs\/CNP for NY Post \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can celebrate gay rights \u2014 that\u2019s fine,\u201d she said. \u201cBut what they\u2019re doing is forcing their workers to, on the job, wear messages that are anathema to most faiths.\u201d<\/p>\n

A longtime attorney who represented religious liberty plaintiffs before taking over the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division, Dhillon said she moved quickly after hearing concerns from lawmakers, attorneys and members of the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was getting calls and inquiries from United States senators, members of Congress, people in the public and lawyers in private practice,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to send the message very quickly, because I don\u2019t want to see these players punished or suspended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dhillon warned that any punishment of the Giants players would likely lead to a lawsuit. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Dhillon said she believes the players\u2019 actions \u2014 writing Bible verses inside their caps or declining to wear the Pride-themed hat altogether \u2014 amounted to a \u201ctasteful and discreet\u201d expression of their faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is their quiet way of saying, \u2018I don\u2019t adopt this message,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She compared the situation to being required to endorse beliefs she personally opposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Sikh. If my employer told me I had to wear a hat that celebrates the caste system or says women are inferior to men, I wouldn\u2019t do it,\u201d Dhillon said. \u201cThese players don\u2019t have that many options. They\u2019re bound by contract and there are all kinds of other issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dhillon said she was encouraged that multiple Giants players were willing to publicly object despite playing in one of the country\u2019s most liberal cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually pleasantly surprised, frankly, that the San Francisco Giants have this many Christians willing to stand up for themselves,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s actually very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

While MLB has said the warning issued to the players was routine and unrelated to the content of the messages, Dhillon warned the league could face legal action if it takes further steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI rather suspect that Major League Baseball is going to do nothing to these players, because it\u2019s illegal,\u201d she said. \u201cIf they persist, they will get sued.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department\u2019s civil rights chief, offered a scorching critique of Major League Baseball and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,3007,54166,10103,13,3145,101,4820,103,102,104,106,105,3586],"class_list":["post-367579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-california","tag-civil-rights","tag-gay-rights","tag-lgbtqia","tag-politics","tag-pride","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}