The York Revolution forfeited its scheduled Pride Night game on June 18 after a majority of players refused to wear Pride-themed uniforms.
The minor league baseball team had been scheduled to host the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs as part of its 11th annual Pride Night celebration, during which players were expected to wear jerseys with rainbow sleeves.
But York Revolution President and General Manager Ben Shipley told NBC News that fewer than nine players on the 28-man roster — the minimum needed to field a team — were willing to wear the rainbow uniforms. The refusal led to a team meeting, during which Shipley was unable to persuade the objecting players to wear the rainbow-adorned jerseys.
“I’m disappointed that we’re at this point, and I recognize the players’ plight and their unwillingness to cross their line,” Shipley said. “I also think tolerance is not acceptance. I was just asking for tolerance from the team, and they were unwilling to navigate that with me.”
As a result, the team decided to forfeit the game.
The Revolution later released a statement saying the decision “was not reached lightly,” but arguing that the spirit of Pride Night would have been compromised had players been forced to wear the rainbow-colored uniforms.
“Unfortunately, several of our players have refused to wear the scheduled Pride Night jersey and the club decided that hosting the event is more important than forcing players to wear jerseys they are not comfortable with and playing the game,” the team said.
“As a result, and out of respect for the Pride Community and the York community as a whole, the York Revolution has decided that the game on Thursday, June 18, will be forfeited and that Pride Night will continue on as the feature element of the evening at WellSpan Park.”
Both the Revolution and Blue Crabs are members of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, whose teams are not affiliated with Major League Baseball clubs. In the major leagues, 29 of 30 teams — all but the Texas Rangers — have held Pride Night celebrations.
The controversy marks a shift from last year, when only seven players refused to wear the Pride Night uniforms and the game proceeded without incident, Shipley told NBC News.
“We still played the game,” Shipley said. “We didn’t make a big fuss of it.”
Because WellSpan Park had already advertised Pride Night festivities and the team wanted to honor its commitments to event sponsors, other Pride Night activities — including music, fan batting practice, stadium tours, and tables hosted by local vendors and community organizations — went on as scheduled. The ballpark remained open from 5:30 to 9 p.m., with limited concessions available.
The team also said that fans who purchased tickets to attend the game, but did not wish to participate in the Pride festivities, could exchange them for tickets to any remaining 2026 regular-season home game.
Following the last-minute forfeit, the team announced a $10,000 donation to the Rainbow Rose Center, a local LGBTQ community center, to support its efforts to make the greater York area more inclusive.
The team criticized its players for refusing to participate.
“To be clear, this action by the players is completely inconsistent with our vision as the Most Welcoming Place in York,” the team said.
The forfeiture comes amid broader debates over Pride-themed uniforms in professional baseball. Earlier this month, three San Francisco Giants players drew criticism after altering their Pride Night caps with references to Bible verses associated with the rainbow’s significance in Christianity.
Republicans are demanding investigations after Major League Baseball chastised Giants players for defacing Pride Night caps with a Bible verse reference.
Republicans and conservative critics are blasting Major League Baseball for warning three San Francisco Giants players who wrote a Bible verse reference on Pride Night caps worn during the team's June 12 game against the Chicago Cubs.
The Giants have the longest-running Pride celebration in Major League Baseball. According to MLB, the team hosted professional sports' first HIV/AIDS awareness game in 1994, launched its first official Pride Night in 2000, and became the first MLB team to incorporate the rainbow flag into on-field apparel in 2021.
A Maine ballot initiative that would have barred transgender youth from competing on public school sports teams or using bathrooms that do not align with their sex assigned at birth will not appear on November's ballot.
The referendum was knocked off the ballot on May 26 after Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democratic candidate for governor, ruled that the group behind the measure, "Protect Girls Sports in Maine," had failed to collect enough valid petition signatures to place the question before voters.
A 26-year-old Bronx man will finally stand trial for an alleged anti-gay assault committed more than two years ago, according to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.
Tavaughn Thompson was indicted on May 21 on two counts of third-degree assault as a hate crime and one count of second-degree aggravated harassment. He was previously arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court in February, days after his January 31 arrest.
Thompson was initially detained in connection with an unrelated incident, but police identified him as the suspect in the 2023 assault case.
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