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Atlanta Braves, Major League Baseball Joining Spirit Day Causes Controversy, Slurs

Major League Baseball got the thumbs up from GLAAD when it joined in Spirit Day last Friday, when millions of individuals, corporations and government offices went purple to show support for at-risk LGBT youth. All MLB social media outlets turned lavender and stadiums issued PSAs about bullying.

But baseball fans weren't so tickled about the inclusive act.

On the Atlanta Braves Facebook page, where an announcement about MLB's involvement with the campaign was posted, commenters railed against the gays and threatened a boycott:

The Braves have hosted Gay Days, welcomed ally activist Ben Cohen and taped anti-bullying videos. But apparently some of their ardent boosters cry foul when it comes to the queers.

Fans of the Baltimore Orioles got nasty on Facebook, too:  “I won’t wear purple to stick up for LGBT youth I think less of your organization for promoting the lifestyle," said one commenter. "“Just win baseball games OK.” opined another.

Roger Boothe, a Orioles fan who wrote on the thread told Patch:

“I guess the Orioles’ Facebook page should really be for news about the team,” Boothe, 45, from Frederick said. “In fact, there were a lot of posters who said ‘hey let’s talk about the team and what we need to do to improve.’ Plus there was a lot of animosity coming out on both sides. For the people who were anti-gay there was name calling, and for the people who were pro-gay they were calling the others ‘dummies’ and things like that.”

Orioles’ spokesman Greg Bader said, “Comments on Facebook and other social media platforms always run the spectrum from positive to negative. There are occasionally inappropriate and, ironically in this case, sometimes bullying posts which we work with MLB to remove, but our policy is to allow our fans to freely express their positive and negative feelings in a respectful and non-threatening manner.”

Bader  says MLB, and the Os in particular, are proud to be part of Spirit Day: "We believe that by taking a stand against the bullying of all children, including LGBT children, the Orioles and the other 29 MLB teams send an important message that this type of abhorrent behavior should not be tolerated.”

If we can't keep it off Facebook threads how can we stop it in the schools?

h/t: Deadspin

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