The San Francisco Giants, as plenty of people have already said, have more to worry about this season than whether or not a few homophobic pitchers feel put-upon for having to wear rainbow-themed caps on the annual Pride Night. But here we are.

"Trump won, we don't have to do this anymore."

That's what our vice president, JD Vance, had to say on Xitter about the Giants' Pride Night hat controversy, exemplifying the emboldened, bigoted attitude that gave Giants starter Landen Roupp the fuel to ignite a debate over whether a Bay Area baseball team should be showing inclusivity for their many LGBTQ fans.

After Roupp and several other pitchers either defaced their annually issued Pride Night Giants caps with a Bible verse or refused to wear the caps altogether last Friday, a dustup began over whether these self-described Christian players should be made to participate in the team's annual Pride Night celebration.

Roupp defended his act of protest not as an act of hate but one of "moral" resistance, and he went on to encourage LGBTQ people to read the Bible, implying that they might be able to convert back to his more righteous way of living — stay tuned for the digging into Roupp's morally unsullied past.

Now Republican Senator Josh Hawley, eager to weigh in on a culture-war battle against the homos, has jumped in the fray, scolding Major League Baseball for their perfunctory warning to Roupp and the other players about violating the rule against putting personal messages on uniforms.

"What does MLB think it’s doing penalizing players for their Christian faith?" Hawley writes on Xitter, posting a letter he sent to MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred in which he expresses his "grave concern" about the formal warning to the players, saying the MLB "must answer for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination" against Christians.

The MLB issued a clarifying statement saying, "To be clear, this routine verbal warning not to wear the hat in future games is not disciplinary and had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message... We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad,’ ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom’ and names of family members."

Candidate for Congress and state Senator Scott Wiener has seized on the moment to clap back at Vance and Hawley, saying to Vance's comment about "we don't need to this anymore," "Yes we do since in San Francisco, unlike in the White House, we treat LGBTQ people as full human beings & we think bigotry is bad. Perhaps go back into your cave for a minute to chill out."

To Hawley, Wiener responds in more legal terms, saying, "People have a right to whatever religious beliefs they want — even if those beliefs dehumanize other people — but they don’t have a right to hijack their employer to promote those hateful beliefs at a job-related event. MLB didn’t penalize them for their faith. It penalized them for violating the rules of their employment."

The Giants organization has said, "We understand the choice by individual players has caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that." And, the team says they "are proud to support Pride Night and the LGBTQ+ community. Baseball should be a place where everyone feels welcome, respected, and valued."

But this is another in a series of culture-war moments where the shift in cultural mandates around inclusion and non-discrimination that was commanded by Trump the moment he stepped back into office, which only some Republicans even support, has been weaponized to make an example of a baseball team, and of baseball itself, in an effort to turn the clock back on LGBTQ acceptance by three or four decades.

It's likely a futile effort, and over the smallest and dumbest of gestures, but it's a scary one nonetheless for all LGBTQ+ people who can feel the larger effort to try to erase them, and to pretend that the last three decades of momentum toward broader acceptance didn't happen.

On Tuesday, OutSports published an open letter from gay Giants fan and SF firefighter (and Hoodline reporter) Steven Bracco, saying he organized a group to attend Pride Night on Friday and was "unbelievably disappointed" by the message sent by Roupp and the other pitchers. Bracco also refers to the Giants' response as "milquetoast" and writes, "You’re making an excuse for the players’ homophobia. It’s unacceptable... Would you allow similar statements to be spoken, written or posted for your upcoming Jewish Heritage, Black Heritage or Mexican Heritage Nights?"

Wiener echoed this, writing in a statement, "MLB must hold firm in enforcing its rules. And the Giants must do better. There cannot be a homophobia exemption to the MLB uniform defacement ban."

Bracco also says that manger Tony Vitello — who, as the Chronicle noted in a Tuesday piece, seemed genuinely or willfully ignorant of this whole controversy and didn't seem to know about the MLB's warning to the players — ought to face consequences along with the players, because he surely knew that they were taking the field with those messages on their caps.

On Monday, McCovey Chronicles noted that president of baseball operations Buster Posey has, himself, been attending Sunday services with other Christian players, sitting "shoulder to shoulder" with them in prayer, and this was something Roupp himself called "pretty awesome." So, perhaps the implied approval of the players' religious stance has been baked in this season.

Be prepared for this all not to blow over just yet.

Previously: Self-Described 'Christian' Homophobes In Giants' Bullpen Deface Pride Night Hats

Top image:  JT Brubaker #34 of the San Francisco Giants pitches at Oracle Park on June 12, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images)