A “prayerful procession” was held outside LA Dodgers stadium at the team’s 10th annual Pride Night in protest of the Dodgers honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag group that aims to use “humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.” The group’s invitation had been initially rescinded by the Dodgers after facing backlash from religious groups who called the organization “anti-Christian.” However, the group was invited back for Pride Night after backlash from LGBTQ+ groups. Friday’s protest was organized by Catholics for Catholics and was supported by various conservatives and members of religious organizations. 

Rabbi Michael Barclay was one of the speakers at the protest and wrote an op-ed about his experience. “The event itself was magnificent—and misreported by the majority of the large media outlets. There were not hundreds, but close to 5,000 people in attendance. It was a peaceful and beautiful demonstration of people standing up for their faith, and the speakers were filled with the presence of God. It gave me hope that the challenges we face as a culture can be defeated and was a powerful reminder of the statement from the Talmud that ‘everything is in the hands of God except being in awe of God’ (Berakhot 33b)” wrote Barclay. He went on to add, “While these Catholics had every right to be angry that the Dodgers and MLB supported a group of men who mocked and degraded their nuns, I saw no anger in the crowd. Instead, a strength that came from a simple belief that their religion should stand up against the hate of anti-religious bigots pervaded the crowd. A strength and belief that needs to spread around the nation until all sports teams reject every form of anti-religious bigotry.” He stated that “As a Jew, seeing people of faith acting upon their spiritual values was glorious.”

 For their part, the Sisters told KTLA that they supported the right to protest and that they were not against faith. “We have lots of religious people who are Sisters, from Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and they also take it very seriously to be a nun. It is not a mockery. We see being a nun as a calling, as a lifelong service to the LGBTQ community. We take all kinds of pride in our work, so it is definitely not a mockery of religion in any way. We take it very seriously,” said one member. 

 There have been debates on how impacted the stadium was by the protests. A video circulated amongst conservatives showed the stadium to be mostly empty as the nuns were honored. Dodgers Stadium, however, recorded an attendance of 49,074, less than last year’s Pride Night attendance of 52,505 but higher than its average of 47,800. Reporting on the event on Real America’s Voice, Jack Posobiec presented the rally as a win for Christians. Posobiec had also attended the rally and noted that the rally was against “abject demonism, abject blasphemy, abject sacrilege being put on display in that stadium there.” He stated that Christians are “sick and tired of being demeaned,” adding that one day, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will have to face their Creator. “Are you going to be ready to pay that price?” he asked. “We went out there and exorcised the demons,” said Posobiec, noting the ceremony for the nuns had been sparsely attended and that the Dodgers had been losing every game up to the time of his reporting. “This is how we win,” he said.