Sam Hentges, the Giants reliever now caught up in the scandal regarding his refusal to wear a Pride hat at a game, insists that fallout from his (and his teammates’) stupid act “has gained more attention than everybody thought.”
Well, duh. What did he expect? San Francisco isn’t some dumb-ass Bible Belt backwater where homophobia can be expressed openly and without fear of blowback. It’s San Francisco, for crissake, the birthplace of gay pride. For the public to be appalled by a blatant act of hatred and discrimination was only to be expected, and yet Hentges and his fellow “Christians” profess to be shocked, shocked that so many people were upset by what he and the others did.
It’s too late to undo what you did, Sam. But what you can learn in the future is to keep your mouth shut. You don’t like homosexuals, fine. But don’t advertise it with a clumsy note on your hat. Face it: Gays have won the pathetic little war you launched on us. The public has decided it rather likes gay men and women. The public has decided to allow gay men and women to have equal rights when it comes to things like marriage and adoption. The public has decided that you, Sam, and your “Christian” friends are being unreasonable about this. They don’t like your attitude. Even other Christians think you’ve taken this stuff too far. Back off, Sam. Keep it in your church. When you don the Giants uniform, you’re an official agent of the San Francisco Giants, and you can, and will, be held to their standards, one of which is respect for gay people. Whether or not you feel such respect is irrelevant; you will behave as though you do, and if you can’t bring yourself to do that, there are plenty of other baseball teams you can play for. Or none at all.
Honestly, it’s so tiresome seeing these increasingly common homophobic reactions occurring in America. Do these “Christians” really believe they’re going to overturn Obergefell, the SCOTUS decision legalizing gay marriage? Do they really think they’re going to reinstitute “don’t ask, don’t tell”? Do they still want to prevent gay men and women from teaching in the public schools? I mean, get real, Sam. This is America in the year 2026. We fought for our civil liberties, Sam, and we’re not going to roll over and let bullies like you take them away from us.
Of course, none of this would have happened had it not been for the takeover of our government by rightwing “Christian” reactionaries. I have to congratulate them for the work they’ve done over the last fifty years. They’ve infiltrated every level of government, from school boards to City Councils and Planning Commissions. Some of us have tried very hard to warn our fellow Americans that the outer defenses have been breached and America is under attack by religious maniacs. I’ve been issuing that warning for going on a half-century. But now, the warning is needed more than ever: America has birthed its own brand of the Taliban. They’ve had a taste of victory and do not intend to slow down until they control everything. You know that total Christian dictatorship is precisely what JD Vance, Mike Johnson and their ilk are seeking. They will design a new Stars and Stripes flag featuring a cross to which is nailed a suffering Jesus. They will make Biblical inerrancy national policy, teaching it in every public school, instructing little girls and boys that Cain and Abel played with dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden, that God created the universe 5,786 years ago, that the theory of evolution is a Jewish lie, and that all of us non-Christians are going straight to hell for all eternity.
Well, sorry Sam, but you’re living in the wrong century. Maybe if you’d been born in the Dark Ages your mentality would work, but you’re really out of place in today’s modern America. It’s nothing personal, Sam, but you have got to face up to the fact that The Gay Has Won. You and your fellow haters tried your best to destroy us but it didn’t work, and it won’t work now. So stop being a child, Sam (and Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker), and you too, Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s Assistant Attorney General, who’s in charge of this witch hunt. Bunch of resentful crybabies, just like your boss. No matter how conservative Trump pushes U.S. institutions in the months he has left to govern, you nasty Christians are helpless against the normalization of LGBTQ culture that has now overtaken the U.S. The thing you feared the most—that we’d have power—has come to pass.
Steve Heimoff