For one night this month, Major League Baseball teams host a Pride Night to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. 

Except for the Texas Rangers. Instead, the team from Arlington hosts a Faith and Family Night in June.

They’re not alone. Plenty of other teams, including the Astros, schedule a day each season for fans at ballparks to celebrate their faiths. 

This year, however, the two events, which usually go unnoticed, collided in a politically charged atmosphere and sparked an ongoing controversy about whether baseball players should be required to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community and if that infringed upon their religious freedom.

Pride Night, first celebrated in 1998 by the Florida Marlins, drew attention this summer when multiple San Francisco Giants players wrote bible verses on their official Pride Night hats or chose to wear the team’s standard hats. The episode spawned numerous social media posts from both sides of the political spectrum.

Shortly after, the MLB issued a statement.

“The writing on the cap violates our rules and consistent with normal practice we have warned the players about future violations,” an MLB spokesperson told media outlets.

Some fans accused the Giants of tolerating homophobia from players. Others said the MLB’s warning should be considered religious discrimination.

Those upset with the warning included Gov. Greg Abbott, who, on X condemned MLB’s warning to Giants players.

“In Texas, we don’t punish people for living out their faith. We protect that right,” he wrote.

The Rangers’ Faith and Family Night is described as a night where players share “how faith impacts their lives on and off the field,” according to the MLB website. Posts in “Texas Rangers (Official) Fans,” a Facebook group with approximately 42,500 members voiced support for the Rangers’ Faith and Family Night, as opposed to a Pride Night.

The Texas Rangers did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice opened an inquiry into claims of religious discrimination following the Giants protests. In a letter to MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote that MLB previously allowed players to wear “Black Lives Matter” patches on their uniforms. He wrote this was evidence of a “double standard,” in the letter, which he posted on X.