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Padres Baseball Team Holds Gay Pride and Free Hats for Kids Events on Same Day

By John Jalsevac

SAN DIEGO, July 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Yesterday the San Diego Padre's baseball team went ahead with a controversial game night that saw the pro-homosexual "Pride Night at PETCO Park" coincide with the advertised handing out of free hats to children under 14 years of age.

On the San Diego Padres' website the Padres advertised the "San Diego Pride event (sponsored by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community)," at which "San Diego Pride supporters and volunteers will be recognized for organizing the group event with a scoreboard welcome and the Gay Men's Chorus of San Diego will sing the National Anthem.'"

On that same evening, however, the Padres also advertised a family day giveaway. Floppy hats with the "Swingin' Friar" embossed were given away to all children 14 and younger.

The decision to host a homosexual event at the same time as an event meant to attract children, especially on a Sunday, which typically sees high family attendance at baseball games, angered pro-family groups, including Set Free Ministries, a Christian ministry who picketed the game.

Approximately 75 protestors wearing red shirts saying "Save Our Kids" showed up at the game, reported the Union-Tribune.

"We're concerned about Christian parents and other parents who do not want to have to answer at a ballgame why 'Adam and Steve' are doing what they are doing," said Pastor J.D. Loveland, according to the Union-Tribune.

"Maybe it's just coincidence. Maybe it's just bad planning," Loveland said about the two events being held on the same day. "But our bottom line is that Christian folk believe in the sanctity of marriage as stated in the Bible, one man and one woman. Homosexuality is a sin, and promoting it with a Pride Night when thousands of kids are also going to be (at the ballpark) is wrong. So we took a moral stand."

A number of counter-protestors also showed up to the game. "They're ignorant people. They're just plain ignorant," said Monica Morales, a pro-homosexual protestor, about the demonstrators from Set Free Ministries "People need to stop the hate totally, and they just need to learn to love one another."

Meanwhile, Ron deHart, the executive director of San Diego Pride who attended the event, claimed the fact that the two events coincided was an accident. "There are almost 100 groups at this game, more than 11,000 people. The Gay Men's Chorus sang the anthem because they applied, sent in a tape and we thought they were good. Beyond that, there's nothing else going on. People are making this bigger than it really is," he said, according to the Union-Tribune.

Another group that protested the Padres decision to host the two events on the same night was the Thomas More Law Center, a Christian public interest law firm, which sent out a press release prior to the event urging families not to attend the Sunday game. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center charged the fact that the two events were held on the same night was not a coincidence.

"In my opinion, this confluence of events is not a mistake," said Thompson. "The Padres are playing the part of the Pied Pieper leading unsuspecting children into accepting the homosexual lifestyle as normal. Children should not be subjected to the 'in-your-face' antics of these radical groups. The Thomas More Law Center wants unsuspecting parents that hope to get their children a free hat and maybe allow their children to run the bases at PETCO to know that they are also walking into a modern day scene of Sodom and Gomorrah."

Brian Rooney, Director of Communications at the Law Center stated, "These so-called 'gay pride' events are often debauched affairs of gross and inappropriate displays of public affection. San Diego's gay pride event, from all documented accounts, is no different. Families would most assuredly not want to subject their children to this 'alternate lifestyle'-especially at a baseball game."

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