On Tuesday night, TeamDC, Washington’s LGBT sports team organization and scholarship fund, held their annual Nationals Night Out, annually the largest LGBT night in American sports. More than 3,300 group tickets were sold to fans eager to see two of the National League’s top teams and cap off a week of Pride celebrations throughout the District.
As in years past, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington was set to sing the National Anthem. Actor Leslie Jordan, best known for his role as Beverley Leslie on Will and Grace, would throw the first pitch and Bishop Gene Robinson would deliver the lineup card. A D.J. would spin dance tracks by the scoreboard walk bar before the game.
But everything changed on Sunday. Forty-nine innocent people were massacred in the Orlando gay club Pulse. It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, and we, the LGBT community, were the target. So this year’s Night Out took on a much deeper meaning.
In the hours following the news of the Pulse attacks, TeamDC representatives were in frequent contact with Washington Nationals staff, seeking to amend the planned program to include a fitting tribute to the lives lost in Orlando. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington added their rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” to the program, while a huge rainbow flag was unfurled on the field, held by 15 members of D.C.’s LGBT sports community. The Nationals flew a second rainbow flag beneath the D.C. flag on the left field concourse, and all flags were flown at half mast. The jumbotron, out-of-town scoreboard, and the screens around the stadium read “LOVE NOT HATE” on a rainbow background before the game began.
It felt like the team’s leadership understood and respected the LGBT community’s pain, and were doing what they could to provide support.
I am a gay man, as well as a Washington Nationals season ticket holder. I went to my first Nats Night Out in 2008, when LGBT programming was minimal and more implied than announced. In the past, the team would turn just a few sections of the stadium into a safe space for LGBT attendees.
Tuesday was different. As the rainbow flag was unfurled over the pitcher’s mound, the stands were silent. The chorus’ rendition of “True Colors” was met with a standing ovation. A sell-out crowd of nearly 42,000 sang along as openly gay country music star Ty Herndon led the stadium in “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh inning stretch. Same-sex couples walked around the stadium holding hands and mingled with other Nats fans.
I love my team, @Nationals. I love my team, @TeamDCSports 💜 https://t.co/ly0JrqGPW5
— Suzanne (@suzieshortkake) June 15, 2016
The world of sports has, for many LGBT and gender-nonconforming people, long been a hostile one, from locker-room bullying in gym class to the dearth of openly gay male athletes in any of the “big four” sports in the U.S. Sports are so often a tool used to reinforce traditional gender roles at a young age, and schoolyard taunts of “sissy” and worse are also heard at professional games, from fans and players alike. This makes creating safe spaces in sports both more difficult and more necessary than ever.
As the events of June 12 show us, LGBT safe spaces, and the people who need them, are under attack.
On Tuesday, the Nationals created a safe space for LGBT people, a space that in other years only occupied sections 238–242 but this year encompassed the entire stadium. It should be a model for how other sports franchises embrace their LGBT nights. The public is ready: A 2015 Center for American Progress report showed broad support for sports teams supporting LGBT inclusion and causes.
I live a short walk from Nationals Park, and the convenience of walking home from games weighed very strongly on my apartment choice. On Tuesday night, as I walked out of the stadium, and the safe space that had been created therein, I was so thrilled with how the evening turned out — from the silent reverence to the cheers and shouts. I was still so thrilled a few blocks later that I wasn’t paying especially close attention when a car drove past, threw their Nats-branded fountain soda at my feet, and shouted “FAGGOT!” out the window. As they drove away, I stood shocked, the illusion broken.
The LGBT community’s illusion of “safe space” was broken on June 12. We are still reeling from loss and coping with how to feel safe again. The community has shed many tears in the days since the attack. We’ve lost sleep. Many of us have shared on social media how we’ve self-censored our LGBT-ness in public, neglecting to hold hands with significant others as we walk down the street, changing our mannerisms, our clothing, our voice at school, in the workplace, or around family.
Straight people should be thankful they never have to experience fear like this pic.twitter.com/IbAOi49JcV
— Common Gay Boy (@CGBPosts) June 13, 2016
By creating the atmosphere that the Nationals did on Night Out, they provided the LGBT community in attendance with much-needed respite — both from the trauma of Orlando and the bigotry we so often contend with everywhere else. By making safe a traditionally straight space, the Nationals showed us great respect. By not censoring our gay-ness and trans-ness in the face of those who are not LGBT, the attendees showed resolve.
Other sports teams should take note: Though they lost 4–3 to the Cubs on Night Out, the Nationals won so much more, both from and for the LGBT community.
Billy Flanagan is the Director of Special Events at the Center for American Progress.