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Ruby cofounded Proud To Be In Baseball in 2021 alongside Michael Holland and Sam Culwell - two former baseball players who, respectively, came out as gay and bisexual while playing and who reached out to Ruby after he came out. "I didn't feel any shame anymore about who I was, and I was proud of who I was." "Every day at work I'd lace up my cleats and put my ball cap on and be completely in the closet, and finally I just got tired of it," he added. Ruby said he was fearful of losing his job when he first came out, though he added that he had begun to proudly don rainbow laces in his cleats. MLB has never had an out gay active player in its 146-year history. "I was a different person at home than I was on the field." "I was leading a double life," he told Insider.
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He had already been out to his friends and family for five years, but he said it took him so long to come out in baseball because he was never able to actively point to someone in Major League Baseball and see someone like him. Ruby, a 26-year-old who has been playing ball since he was 6, publicly came out as gay during his 2021 stint on the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, an independent team that was once an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.
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42 on Jackie Robinson Day, I have no doubt they would be fined," he said, adding that none of the Rays players had faced discipline for stripping their uniforms of rainbow logos.Ī rainbow starburst logo was placed on the Tampa Bay Rays' uniforms for the team's Pride Night. "If a player flat-out refused to wear No. Ruby wondered why the stadium's compliance officer, whose job is to ensure players are wearing their uniforms correctly, didn't take action. Petersburg, Florida, on Saturday.Īll players were provided Pride Night uniforms with rainbow-colored logos, including caps with a rainbow "TB" and a rainbow sunburst on their right jersey sleeves, the Tampa Bay Times reported.īut some players, including pitchers Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs, and Ryan Thompson, opted against wearing the Pride Night attire, donning their regular hats and peeling off the sunburst logo from their sleeves, the Times reported.Īdam told reporters the players' decision came down to religious beliefs and not wanting to encourage the "behavior" of LGBTQ people, the Times reported. The Rays held their 16th annual Pride Night at Tropicana Field in St. Ray's manager Kevin Cash mentioned that they had a conversation with the players and they were adamant about their beliefs and would not support such a campaign."We get one night at the ballpark to be ourselves all year, and it just was an indication that a lot of people still believe that we just don't belong there and that we are not welcome and, even on Pride Night, we're still second-class citizens," he said. It's no different." The conversation was heated He also mentioned that"But when we put it on our bodies, I think a lot of guys decided that it's just a lifestyle that maybe - not that they look down on anybody or think differently - it's just that maybe we don't want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus, who's encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior, just like (Jesus) encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage. Because ultimately we all said what we want is them to know that all are welcome and loved here."Īpparently, Jesus encourages them not to support gays Jason Adams expressed that their decision was a faith-based situation "So it's a hard decision. They were supposed to wear special jerseys and hats that had the classic rainbow coloring letters, however, they wore their regular uniforms. The five pitchers are Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs, and Ryan Thompson. Some of the Tampa Bay Rays players were adamant and objected to wearing the Gay Pride logo on their uniform this past weekend arguing that they had religious beliefs that prevented them to show support for the LGBTQ+ community.