For the last decade, Beth Jaeger and her child Z Skigen have spent a week watching the San Francisco Giants’ spring training session in Arizona. They go to about 10 or 15 games more during the regular season at Oracle Park, too.
“We are diehard fans. We support you even when you suck,” Jaeger said. “I will cheer for you.”
Two weeks ago, fans celebrated Pride Night at Oracle Park. But three Giants pitchers wrote a Bible verse on the rainbow Giants Pride caps the team was told to wear— one often used by right-wingers to claim the image of the rainbow for God, not gays. A fourth pitcher declined to wear the Pride cap at all.
The event sparked a national uproar, and local gay fans were further irritated by a “both sides” response from team leadership. Buster Posey, the president of baseball operations and former Giants catcher, declined to answer any questions about Pride Night in a Tuesday press conference. The same day, fans protested outside Oracle Park.
The Gay San Francisco Giants Fans Facebook group, a space that would normally be focused on praising hot players or posting anti-Dodgers messages, has become a space to discuss what happened on Pride Night 2026.
Longtime gay Giants fans
Richard Dupler was flipping channels in the 1990s with his now-husband because nothing good was on. They landed on a Padres/Giants game, and admired a handsome Padres player named Ken Caminiti.
Dupler turned to his partner: “I think we’ll stay here a bit,” Dupler announced. He knew nothing about baseball at the time.
In the ensuing decades, Dupler learned to appreciate the strategy, skills and even the slow-paced nature of baseball — all very unlike football, which he grew up with. Though he’s moved to Oakland now, Dupler said he will always be a Giants fan. But Dupler doesn’t take the events of Pride Night 2026 personally.
“Someone once told me, ‘you’re never gonna change their minds until you change their hearts,’” Dupler said.
Emmanuel Romero, whose sister introduced him to baseball when he was about 6, says he likes the supportive environment he finds in the gay fans’ Facebook page, where he shares memories of the team.
A big one for Romero: Giants pitcher Matt Cain participating in the 2012 It Gets Better project in 2012 to support LGBTQ+ youth.
Romero says he met his late friend Ed in 2009 through Dignity SF, an LGBTQ+ Catholic group. Ed, a gay man with an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and the Giants, would take Romero to Giants Pride games. “Christians who are against LGBTQ people, they do not get to have a monopoly on representing Christians,” Romero said. “Not all Christians are against queer rights or acknowledging and celebrating queer people.”
Romero will be sporting Ed’s 2016 Pride Night giveaway hat at this Sunday’s Pride March.
Russell Kaltschmidt, a Gay Softball League player, attended the controversial Pride Night with his team. He said he was disappointed in the pitchers’ action, but will keep going to the games. “We shouldn’t let this become a fixation for us,” he said.
Sharon Melatti, who grew up watching the Giants with her dad, isn’t going to stop going to Giants games either. After the drama over the Bible verses, Melatti still went to the game on Tuesday, since she already had tickets, but opted not to spend any money in the stadium. Instead, she wore her own all-rainbow outfit and participated in the protest outside.
Jaeger and Skigen also attended a game after Pride Night, decked out in Pride merch and carrying a protest sign that said: “Queer fans support you— support us, too.” They said they were welcomed with only positive responses— and did not spend any money in the stadium.
Nate Bourg, another member of the Facebook group, says he’s been a Giants fan since birth. He doesn’t go to games to drink beer: He cares about the actual game, with lore passed on from his family, and remembers the version of the Giants that embraced its LGBTQ+ allies, supported AIDS causes, and raised money for gay youth.
But that doesn’t reflect what he sees now, he says. “You can’t exist on your resume of tolerance and acceptance alone,” Bourg said. “What you’re doing in this moment matters even more than what you’ve done in the past.”
